The recent renewal of attacks in Gaza by the Israeli armed forces has brought the number of women, men and children killed to over 50,000. It has also further diminished the precarious access of citizens in Gaza to shelter, medical care and food. This new wave of violence coincided with the Feast of St Oscar Romero. In his final sermon in March 1980, the day before he was murdered, Romero addressed the military and police agents of the government who were involved in the extrajudicial killing and torture of citizens working for a more just society. His final, impassioned exhortation was: ‘In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: Stop the repression.’
While celebrating Mass the following day, Romero was shot on the order of a death squad and future political leader. The repression accelerated, and led to a civil war whose effects are still felt in El Salvador today.
Many of us feel the same distress and anger as we read each day of the number of civilians, especially children, killed in Gaza, of the destruction of hospitals and homes, the withdrawal of NGO medical staff, and the deprivation of food, electricity and gas. We open our hearts to the suffering of these people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly every day. And we pray and call for an end to the killing.
In doing so, we refuse to be bullied by those who demand that we take sides in this conflict, and who accuse us of antisemitism if we deplore and criticise the strategy of the Israeli government and its conduct of the war. We deplore antisemitism and its expression in Australia. We also deplore and criticise the behaviour of Hamas and the expressions of Islamophobia in Australia. And we insist that both the people of Israel and the occupied territories have a right to security and to live peaceably in their own lands. This right follows from their shared dignity as human beings, not from their religion, ethnicity, nationality, wealth, or relative power and weakness.
Romero was a religious leader. He called for an end to the kidnapping and killing of those who pressed for a more just society, in the name of the God of Jesus Christ. His appeal, however, was also a human protest against inhumanity, the disrespect for human beings and denial of their dignity on the grounds of wealth, political views, or church association. Ultimately, he cried out for respect for human dignity, on which all decent societies and laws are built. It must be enshrined in legal systems, international relationships, and ethical codes. These include the rules governing the declaration and conduct of war. They are called the rules for a just war, but their purpose is not to endorse war and military action, which are always costly and regrettable. Their purpose is to exclude wars and actions that are unjustifiable. Judged by those standards, the goals and conduct of the Israeli government's war against Hamas are indefensible.
Although just war theory was developed to respond to wars formally declared between nations, its principles apply to all wars. To be considered justifiable, a war and its conduct must meet each of several criteria.
The war must be fought for a just cause. Both Israel and Hamas would claim such a cause: Hamas, to punish the blockade of Gaza, to punish the occupation of territory in the West Bank, and to punish what it sees as Israeli efforts to take over the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem. And Israel, to rescue remaining Israeli hostages and to destroy Hamas as a movement dedicated to Israel’s destruction.
A key requirement of a just war is that it must offer a reasonable chance of success. To go to war when certain of failure, or when the war’s aims are unachievable, renders it unjust. From the beginning, Israel’s war against Hamas was bound to fail in its stated goal of destroying the group. Because Hamas is embedded in the society and institutions of Gaza, destroying it would require the destruction of Gaza itself. The rage and alienation caused by such devastation may well generate resentment toward Hamas but it is more likely to inspire more people to join what remains of it. So the war grinds on. Ultimately, Israel’s goals could only be met by removing the people of Gaza from their land. That would manifestly be unjust.
To be justifiable, war must also be a last resort. Diplomacy and negotiation must have been attempted and failed. In this case, they were tried only for the release of hostages and then abandoned.
To be justifiable, war must also be fought justly. The first requirement is that both strategy and tactics must discriminate between combatants and non-combatants. This applies to large-scale plans as well as battlefield decisions. The deaths of more than 50,000 people, including so many women and children, the destruction of hospitals, churches, schools and other safe spaces, and the homelessness and near-starvation of civilians, speak to a grave failure to discriminate. The argument that Hamas soldiers hid among civilians does not justify the carnage. It only highlights the moral recklessness of the strategy.
The second requirement for the conduct of war is proportionality: the costs of the war must not exceed its likely benefits. You can’t nuke a city to catch a thief. Proportionality is not a statistical equation. It requires seeing people not as numbers, but as persons, each of equal and unique dignity. The costs and benefits must be seen from inside the persons on each side of the ethical ledger. In this case, it is hard to argue that any future benefit for the people of Gaza or Israel could justify the bombing and shelling of towns, the expulsion of people from their homes, the violent deaths of children, the deprivation of food, medicine and warmth, and the long-term mental and physical trauma endured by both civilians and soldiers.
We understand that we will be told to toughen up, that war is always like this. Perhaps that is true. But it must not lead us to justify the unjustifiable. Instead, we should weep with those who are driven to weep by war, and say with Archbishop Romero: ‘We implore you, we beg you, stop the killing.’
Andrew Hamilton is consulting editor of Eureka Street, and writer at Jesuit Social Services.
Main image: Smoke rises over ruined building in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli bombardment as seen from a position on the Israeli side of the border on April 2, 2025 in Southern Israel. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)