https://www.icrc.org/sites/default/files/external/doc/en/assets/files/other/irrc_853_pfanner.pdf Military uniforms and the law of war TONI PFANNER ... While there is a practice to wear uniforms in armies, there is not anobligation in international humanitarian law to wear them. 31 The wearingof civilian clothes is only illegal if it involves perfidy. Moreover, none ofthe instruments of international humanitarian law give a definition of amilitary uniform. ,,, Military uniform and humanitarian law in non-international armedconflicts
The element of distinction between combatants and civilians is a validrequirement in non-international armed conflicts as well. While combatantsin international armed conflicts are defined as members of armed forces, persons taking a direct part in an internal armed conflict are often also called“combatants”. Here, this designation is a generic term. Such fighters are thusnot defined by it in terms of lawful participation in hostilities, but of direct participation in hostilities of a non-international character. As in international armed conflicts, civilians lose their protection when and for such time as theytake direct part in hostilities, and may then be the object of an attack.
... ...Under international humanitarian law, however, nothing preventsdissident armed forces or other organized armed groups from wearing such a dis-tinctive sign, although they are not obliged to do so... ... The wording, legal history and the teleological interpretation of theThird Geneva Convention shows, furthermore, that members of regulararmed forces — as opposed to irregular armed forces — are combatantsowing to their affiliation with a party to an international armed conflict anddo not have to fulfil specific constitutive criteria — including a distinctivesign and in particular the wearing of a military uniform — to qualify as prisoners of war in case of capture. At the same time, it is a misinterpretation ofthe Geneva Conventions to deny prisoner-of-war status to all captured combatants belonging to the regular armed forces of a State on the sole basis thatthey failed to wear a uniform. However, individual members of regular armedforces can possibly violate the requirement of distinction from the civilianpopulation when not wearing a uniform — and especially in case of perfidy — and can forfeit their status as prisoners of war. For the sake of the protection of the civilian population, the military uniform can and should playan important part in meeting the requirement of distinction. In short there is no requirement, under international law, for Palestinian fighters to wear a uniform. Further Palestinian not engaged in fighting are to be treated as non-combatants.
This is opposed by the IDF, the most moral army in the world
Israeli hit squad dressed as doctors kill Palestinians in hospital | BBC News
124,884 views 31 Jan 2024 #BBCNewsIsraeli forces have killed three members of Palestinian armed groups in a hospital in the occupied West Bank.CCTV footage showed members of an undercover Israeli hit squad disguised as medics and other civilians making their way through a corridor of the hospital in Jenin with assault rifles raised.The Israeli military said the men they targeted were hiding in the hospital and that one was about to carry out an attack.The Palestinian Authority's ministry of health accused Israel of carrying out a "new massacre inside hospitals".Hamas, an armed Palestinian Islamist group which is fighting a war with Israel in Gaza triggered by its unprecedented attacks on Israel on 7 October, said the Israeli forces had "executed three fighters", including one of its members.Another armed group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said two of those killed were its members and were brothers. It added that one of them had been receiving treatment at the hospital.
