Sheikh Dr. Nizar Rayyan  - one of the most prominent leaders of Hamas in Gaza - was killed in an air strike in the Gaza Strip, the first such attack in its six-day-old offensive. The air strike killed Nizar Rayyan along with nine other people, including his wife and three children, Hamas said. Another 25 people were wounded. Israeli security sources reported that the house was also used as an arms cache, a communications headquarters and concealed a tunnel opening. It was Dr. Rayyan, who cynically initiated to use the Palestinian civil population as a human shield to protect Hamas’ targets and homes against Israeli air strikes, knowing the sensitivity of the Israeli army in avoiding civilian casualties. Hamas used this fact in their terrorist build up of infrastructure during the recent temporary cease fire.

On 11th December 2008, Pakistan government closed 11 offices of Jama’t-ud-Da’wah, the Islamic charity that has been linked to the deadly attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai. Study of the Mumbai attack reveals the critical role played by the JuD as the overt front of Lashkar-e-Taiyyba and its connections to the Da’wah social-welfare infrastructure of clinics, schools, mosques and charities in recruiting and pushing young local Kashmir Muslims to the point of committing acts of terrorism.

It is unsurprising that the role of human rights in the counterterrorism discourse has become an issue of major concern to those broadly associated with human rights. In securing the right to life in their fight against non-State terrorists, States cannot act in a vacuum. International human rights law, involving as it does positive and negative State obligations, requires a delicate juggling act by States when fighting terrorism. 

First published in 37 Israel Yearbook on Human Rights 85 (2007), this article is republished on the ICT website with their kind permission.