Proportionality

A precise legal test, not a body count. Under international law, proportionality forbids an attack whose expected civilian harm would be excessive in relation to the concrete military advantage anticipated. It is a forward-looking judgement a commander makes before striking, weighed against the military goal, not a rule that the two sides must suffer equal losses. A war in which one side loses more people is not, for that reason, “disproportionate,” and a defender that keeps its own civilians alive with shelters and Iron Dome is not committing a crime by doing so.