The New Yorker:

The ferocity of U.S. and Israeli attacks has raised questions about whether the two countries are even attempting to minimize civilian casualties.

By Isaac Chotiner

Since the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran, on February 28th, President Trump has offered a number of explanations for his decision—from wanting to overthrow the Iranian regime to trying to prevent the country from acquiring nuclear weapons. But the U.S.-Israel bombardment of Iran has led to civilian deaths estimated to be well over a thousand; a strike that hit a girls’ school in Minab killed more than a hundred and seventy-five people alone. (Trump has said that Iran struck the school, but initial evidence suggests that the U.S. was behind this attack.) In recent days, Israel has struck multiple Iranian oil facilities, which has led to an unknown number of civilian deaths and potentially dangerous clouds of smoke across Tehran. The ferocity of the war, along with recent efforts at the Pentagon, led by the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, to undercut safeguards meant to limit civilian casualties, has raised questions about whether the United States and Israel are even attempting to minimize the war’s cost on Iranian civilians.

I recently spoke by phone with Oona Hathaway, a professor at Yale Law School and the director of its Center for Global Legal Challenges. She is also the president-elect of the American Society of International Law. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed what has most concerned her about the ways in which the U.S. and Israel are waging this war, how the Trump Administration has dismantled the architecture meant to protect civilians during war, and whether the international system is headed for a new kind of lawlessness.

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