Contact: Dorothea Krimitsas, ICRC Geneva, +41 22 730 25 90, +41 79 251 93 18; Anne-Sophie Bonefeld, ICRC Jerusalem, +972 2 582 88 45, +972 52 601 91 50

GENEVA, Jan. 5 /Standard Newswire/ -- The Gaza conflict has intensified with the start of ground combat, causing increasing suffering to a civilian population already bearing the brunt of air strikes.

The firing of rockets from Gaza at towns in southern Israel is also causing suffering among the civilian population there. Both parties to this conflict must fully meet their obligations under international humanitarian law (IHL), in order to minimize the number of civilians killed or injured.

Most importantly, IHL prohibits direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks. The parties to the conflict must at all times distinguish between civilians and fighters, and between civilian objects and military objectives.

"Every person not directly participating in hostilities is protected under IHL and must not be harmed," said the ICRC's Director of Operations, Pierre Krähenbühl. "In a conflict situation, the only legitimate distinction is between civilians, who are protected by the law, and fighters, who can be attacked."

Furthermore, the choice of means and methods of warfare is not unlimited in the conduct of military operations. The parties must take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimize loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects. Military objectives must not be located in or near densely populated areas.

"Full compliance with these rules is of the utmost importance, particularly in the densely populated Gaza Strip," said Mr Krähenbühl. "We are worried about the increasing number of civilian casualties and the increasing number of civilian buildings, including hospitals, damaged in the fighting. Key civilian facilities in Gaza, such as hospitals, water systems and sewerage installations were already in a precarious state because of the closures and import restrictions imposed by Israel over the past 18 months."

IHL also requires parties to a conflict to pay particular attention to the types of weapons and munitions used and their possible effects on civilians and civilian infrastructure. IHL prohibits the use of indiscriminate weapons which by their nature cannot distinguish between military objectives and civilians. Weapons such as rockets that cannot be directed at military objectives without endangering the civilian population are equally prohibited. The use of cluster munitions in densely populated areas would probably result in violations of IHL, as they cannot be used in such a way as to adequately distinguish between military objectives on the one hand and protected civilians and civilian property on the other.

Each party to the conflict must without delay do everything possible to search for, collect and evacuate the wounded and sick. Medical personnel, hospitals and other medical units must be respected and protected, as must medical vehicles, such as ambulances, exclusively assigned to helping the wounded and sick. Attacks on medical personnel are prohibited, as are attacks on facilities performing exclusively medical tasks.