International law does not allow for discounts, even when the sky is filled with drones and missiles: every occupying power is legally responsible for the lives of the population under its control. It is a principle that does not fade and does not suspend, even in the event of conflict with a third country. The occupier has a legal obligation to defend the occupied land and its inhabitants as if they were its own borders and citizens.
As the new peak of hostility between Israel and Iran marks the second escalation in less than a year, the obligation of protection enshrined in international law sinks in the face of the reality of the occupied territories, where the Palestinian population remains without any structural defense. In the cities of the West Bank and among the rubble of Gaza, Palestinians look to the horizon without protective screens: there are nosheltersto take refuge in, no alarm sirens sound to announce imminent danger, there is no defense for the Palestinian population.
A protection with variable geometry
The absence of security infrastructure is not a logistical issue, but the result of a specific political and military choice. While in Israeli cities the Iron Dome system and a widespread network of shelters provide cutting-edge protection, the Palestinians of '48 – that is, the Palestinian citizens of Israel – and the residents of the occupied territories find themselves "outside the bubble." Reports from the last conflict with Iran had already revealed disturbing data: numerous Palestinians of '48 reported at the time that they had been locked out of public shelters or had not had access to them during ballistic missile launches.
In the West Bank, the threat becomes physical and immediate. A true "rain of metal" falls from the sky: in June 2025, various Palestinians from the occupied territories were injured both by the direct impact of Iranian missiles and by debris from interceptions that occurred above their heads. Incandescent fragments rain down on populated areas deliberately left without warning systems, turning the airspace into a deadly trap for those below.
Technological apartheid: the violation of the Fourth Convention
This asymmetry is not just a moral injustice; it is a deliberate violation of articles of international humanitarian law. The Fourth Geneva Convention (1949) and the First Additional Protocol establish obligations that the occupying power is systematically ignoring.
First of all, the obligation to alert (Early Warning): the occupying power that holds the monopoly on radar and airspace has a legal duty to extend warning signals to the entire population under its effective control. Denying sirens to Palestinian centers while activating them for settlements just a few kilometers away constitutes systemic discrimination that denies the right to life on an ethnic basis.
And then, the segregation of shelters: Article 58 of the First Protocol requires the adoption of "necessary precautions" to protect civilians from the effects of attacks. Preventing Palestinians from building bunkers (through the systematic blocking of building permits in Area C) or failing to provide public ones arbitrarily exposes millions of people to the danger of death.
The occupier acts here as a "trustee" who has betrayed their mandate. If one chooses to intercept a missile over Ramallah to protect Tel Aviv, but does not provide the population of Ramallah with either warning or shelter, they are using the occupied territory as a sacrificial buffer zone.
The guarantor has failed
Not only that. As always, regional escalation serves as a formidable mass distraction device. While the world's attention is hypnotized by the ballistic duel between Tel Aviv and Tehran, international pressure to break the siege of Gaza has evaporated. Hunger and the health crisis have already become footnotes.
For the Palestinian people, the expansion of the conflict means invisibility. Every new missile between Israel and Iran drains global attention, emptying the requests for humanitarian access to Gaza of their meaning. It is the chronicle of an announced abandonment: while the world looks elsewhere, collective punishment against Palestinian civilians continues, shielded from prying eyes.
This is despite the fact that the occupying power is responsible for every avoidable suffering caused to civilians by its negligence in protecting them, regardless of whether it is at war with third parties or not. The burden that comes from having deprived a people of their sovereignty and means of self-defense.
The core principle remains firm, despite violations: the occupying power cannot sacrifice the occupied population to preserve its own interests or its own citizens. Leaving millions of people 'exposed' under crossfire is not a fatality of war: it is a rescue omission elevated to a system of governance, a structural violation that the international community cannot continue to ignore while the skies of the Middle East blaze.