Editing Law of war (section)

==Applicability to states and individuals==

The law of war is binding not only upon states as such but also upon individuals and, in particular, the members of their [[armed forces]]. Parties are bound by the laws of war to the extent that such compliance does not interfere with achieving legitimate military goals. For example, they are obliged to make every effort to avoid damaging people and property not involved in [[combat]] or the [[war effort]], but they are not guilty of a war crime if a bomb mistakenly or incidentally hits a residential area.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

By the same token, combatants that ''intentionally'' use protected people or property as [[human shields]] or [[camouflage]] are guilty of violations of the laws of war and are responsible for damage to those that should be protected.<ref name="auto"/>