Targeting in the law of armed conflict

The development of the law of armed conflict based on targeting is directly proportional to the increase in the destructive power of countries. Thanks to the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, which are increasingly being analyzed and examined, the law on targeting has developed and measures to limit the effects of war have gained importance. Targeting rules manifest themselves separately in the targeting of people and objects, and tools have been developed to prevent unlawful targeting that may occur in both distinctions, and these measures have increasingly begun to be seen as customary law. The basis of these measures is to distinguish between civilians, civilian objects and military targets; to minimize civilian casualties and damages; and to measure proportionality between military benefits and collateral damages. Ultimately, the rules of the law of armed conflict regarding targeting require constant care to protect civilians and civilian values. In this context, in our study, the basic principles of targeting in the Law of Armed Conflict, targeted killing, i.e. people who can be targeted, objects that can be targeted and targeting in an operational sense will be examined in detail with examples from history.