There are two types of wars in the world today: those that occupy front pages and those that no one talks about.

What the two types have in common is that all wars have not ceased to violate laws specifically crafted to protect civilians in war, most notably the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

Civilians have rarely escaped harm in wars. They have always been an easy target for belligerents: Japan surrendered after the two American nuclear bombs. Germany's surrender was preceded by a massive bombardment by Allied aircraft that razed its cities. The Syrian army and its allies did not spare civilians in their ground and air campaigns with barrel bombs during the civil war in Syria. Russian forces did not spare urban centers in Ukraine. Finally, Israeli forces in Gaza killed about thirty-five thousand, most of them children, women and the elderly, and wounded more than seventy-five thousand. And the casualty count is on the rise.

Civilians are also being targeted by other means, the most important of which are siege, starvation and impoverishment. Isn't this happening today in Gaza? Didn't it happen during the war in Syria when both belligerents besieged entire villages and areas and denied them food, water and medicine to subdue them? Isn't this happening in Lebanon since 2019? Overnight, the Lebanese found that their lifetime savings were looted, and their impoverishment forced them to accept what they had never accepted.

Justification for targeting civilians

In their recent wars, major military powers have developed two theories to justify targeting civilians, especially when an adversary or enemy is classified as a "non-state player," which applies to many armed groups in the region and Lebanon.

The first theory is the "unable or unwilling" theory, which is used whenever a country refrains from striking armed groups and militias accused by a great military power of threatening its security and the security of its citizens and interests. This is what happened in Syria, for example, when the Syrian government refrained from striking armed groups that crossed into Iraq to boost the ISIS armed insurrection against U.S. forces. Finally, the US took it upon itself to conduct its own strikes in Syria, because the Syrian Government was “unwilling.”

The second theory is the "dual-use" theory, which allows striking everything that can be used for civil and non-civil purposes, such as heavy industry, medical centers, places of worship, fuel depots, energy infrastructures, railways and other means of transport ... This expands the range of targets even if civilians are harmed .

Israeli forces have adopted the "dual-use" theory of destroying civilian targets and infrastructure and killing civilians under the pretext that they are a cover for the "terrorist Hamas" in Gaza and for Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa.

Two of today's wars are interrelated: Ukraine and Gaza-southern Lebanon.

The two interconnected wars

Two of today's wars are interrelated: Ukraine and Gaza-southern Lebanon.

Ukrainian officials say Russia's war began with the 2014 invasion of Donbass and Crimea by Russian forces, and the attack on Kiev two years ago was just another round in which Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to accelerate the end of the war by overthrowing the regime.

Since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel's response to it, the Ukraine war regressed from the front pages to tinier spaces in the inner pages of news outlets and most U.S. military aid shipments were diverted to Israel. The United States has focused all its attention on the Israeli military operation in Gaza without any serious attempt to restrain Israel from retaliating a scorched-earth strategy without any regard to the fate of its inhabitants. The US further established a bridgehead to convey military supplies and missile cover. Most of the West sided with Israel, yet exerting pressure to prevent the war from spreading to other countries in the region, especially after direct participation in the conflict, including Hezbollah, which opened the southern Lebanon front to support Gaza without consulting the Lebanese, the Houthis in Yemen who began targeting ships and threatened commercial navigation in the Gulf of Aden, and Iran-affiliated armed factions in Iraq, before Iran's direct intervention.

Anyone who observes the developments of the war in Ukraine can only conclude that Israel's increased ferocity in Gaza has been matched by Russia's ferocity in Ukraine. The Israeli preparations for the invasion of Rafah go hand in hand with Russian moves to chip away more Ukrainian territory before the arrival of fresh US military aid.

Anyone who observes the progress and development of the battlefronts in Ukraine and Gaza is stricken by the systematic destruction of residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, and notes that this destruction is neither fortuitous nor in vain.

What does it mean to empty Gaza of its residents and destroy their homes, buildings, shops and workplaces…?

When will normalcy return to Gaza for its people to return? Who will finance the reconstruction of Gaza and according to which vision? Isn't the policy of emptying Gaza of its inhabitants a prelude to rebuilding it as a large gathering of shopping malls, major corporations, international tourist resorts and the extraction of natural gas from its sea? Isn't it ultimately an extension of the NEOM project and a prelude to digging the Bengurion Canal?

In Lebanon, what does this systematic destruction of border villages abandoned by most of them mean? Who will compensate the people of these villages for their losses? Where will they find shelter after the looting and impoverishment they have been enduring since October 2019? Isn't this destruction a prelude to creating a de facto border strip? Then who will replace the burned and phosphorus-contaminated fields and replant olives, tobacco and other trees and vegetables in those border areas?

In Ukraine, who will stop Russian forces from chipping away more territory before the two sides sit down at the negotiating table?

In Ukraine no one has yet dared to declare victory. Here, Gaza was destroyed, and Hamas "won" only because "Israel did not achieve its goals."

Then wouldn’t it be legitimate to ask: With such victories, which Arab land is going to be destroyed next?