Israel's right to self-defence does not extend to indiscriminate killing of civilians: Shanmugam

Israel has a right to self-defence, but this does not extend to indiscriminate killing of civilians or mass displacement of entire populations, said Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam.

- Natasha Ann Zachariah

Collective punishment is also illegal, he said, in the context of what is now happening in Gaza.

Mr Shanmugam said in a Facebook post on Nov 18: "The scale of the tragedy in Gaza is immense. Thousands being killed.

Devastation (on) this scale is very difficult to accept." The Israel-Hamas war started on Oct 7, when Hamas militants attacked Israel and killed 1,200 people, who were mostly civilians, and took 240 hostages.

The Israeli strikes that followed have hit those living in Gaza hard, with more than 12,000 people killed, of which 5,000 were children.

Mr Shanmugam's comments were in response to a Nov 11 opinion piece by retired senior diplomat Bilahari Kausikan that was published by The Straits Times.

In "Hard truths about Gaza war's cruel and complex dilemmas", Mr Kausikan said that Singaporeans should not dismiss the depth of the trauma inflicted by the barbarism of the Oct 7 attack.

"This cannot be justified by any reason," he said.