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Today, Explained

Wars have rules

Today, Explained

Vox

Daily News, Politics, News

4.49.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The legal architecture that would define and prosecute what’s happening in Gaza is failing. Reporter Suzy Hansen explains how 80 years of international humanitarian law is being tested. And professor Omer Bartov thought calling Israel's offensive in Gaza a genocide immediately after the October 7 attacks was inaccurate. He’s changed his mind. This episode was produced by Victoria Chamberlin, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Andrea Kristinsdottir and Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Noel King. Further reading: Crimes of the Century Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast. Palestinians carrying aid packages in the northern Gaza Strip. Photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

During World War II, something like 60 million people died.

0:06.0

Humanity had never seen anything like this.

0:09.0

So with great post-war optimism, people decided never again.

0:14.0

We built a legal infrastructure, we called it international humanitarian law,

0:18.0

that essentially said this, you can wage a war, but while you are

0:22.0

waging a war, there are certain things you can't do. And we labeled them, war crimes, crimes

0:27.3

against humanity, and genocide. We built courts where you could take people who were accused

0:32.0

of breaking the law. And we believed that while imperfect, the laws backed up by the courts

0:37.1

could prevent and prosecute crimes of war.

0:40.4

Then came Hamas' attack on Israel and Israel's war in Gaza, and that legal infrastructure fell apart.

0:47.4

And it fell apart as Israel was accused of the most serious of the crimes, genocide.

0:53.4

Coming up on today, explained, how this war broke the law.

1:00.6

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1:07.2

busy work for you. So you can fast forward through editing images, designing presentations, generating code, debugging code, summarizing meeting notes, finding files, managing your schedule, responding to Jim's long emails, leaving all the time in the world for the things you actually want to do. No offense, Jim. Get a new Dell AI PC starting at $749.99 at Dell.com slash AI-PC.

1:35.9

This is today explained.

1:43.4

I'm No Noel King.

1:44.8

Susie Hansen is a journalist and writer

1:46.8

who has spent much of her career in the Middle East.

1:49.8

New York Magazine recently published

1:51.3

Susie's piece, Crimes of the Century.

1:53.7

It's in part an examination

1:55.6

of why we created international humanitarian law

...

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