Force and civilian harm

Evidence in this theme

1. Trump ordered U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear sitesOperation Midnight Hammer struck Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan on Trump's orders. The Defense Department's 2026 civilian-casualty report assessed no civilian casualties from the operation, and the IAEA reported no increase in off-site radiation levels after the strikes. Those observations do not resolve the separate dispute over the operation's legal basis.3 sources · reviewed 2026-09-03
2. Trump's Yemen campaign left 153 civilians dead in three Pentagon-confirmed incidentsTrump directed the 2025 large-scale U.S. campaign against Houthi targets in Yemen. The Defense Department later assessed that three April strikes more likely than not killed 153 civilians and injured 243; 15 additional incident reports remained under assessment at the report cutoff. Amnesty International separately concluded the Sa'ada migrant-detention-center strike was indiscriminate and should be investigated as a war crime. That is a formal allegation and investigation demand, not an opened prosecution or adjudicated finding.3 sources · reviewed 2026-09-03
3. Trump proposed U.S. ownership of Gaza, permanent Palestinian removal, and left troops on the tableTrump proposed long-term U.S. ownership and redevelopment of Gaza while resettling Palestinians outside it, and he declined to rule out U.S. troops. United Nations independent experts characterized the proposal as a forced-displacement threat and said implementing it would violate foundational international-law rules. The proposal itself was not an executed displacement operation.2 sources · reviewed 2026-09-03
4. Trump would not rule out military force to take Greenland and the Panama CanalAsked whether he would rule out military or economic coercion to obtain Greenland and the Panama Canal, Trump said he would not. The statement threatened possible force against two territories; it was not a use of force.1 source · reviewed 2026-09-03
5. Trump threatened Iranian cultural sites; his defense secretary publicly drew the legal lineTrump threatened 52 Iranian targets, including sites he described as important to Iranian culture. Defense Secretary Mark Esper then said U.S. forces would follow the law of armed conflict governing cultural sites. This entry records a threat of potentially prohibited conduct, not an attack on a cultural site.2 sources · reviewed 2026-09-03
6. Trump ordered the Baghdad strike that killed Soleimani; a UN expert found the stated legal basis wantingThe Defense Department said the U.S. military killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad at Trump's direction. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings later concluded that, absent evidence of a sufficiently imminent threat, the strike was an arbitrary killing and violated the U.N. Charter's prohibition on force. That conclusion was a mandate-holder's legal analysis, not a court judgment or war-crime conviction.2 sources · reviewed 2026-09-03