 The first thing to say about siege warfare is that sieges can only be directed against enemy armed forces and never against civilians. In particular, in order for essential infrastructure not to collapse and to ensure that civilians continue to have access to basic needs, international humanitarian law protects such objects that are essential for their survival, such as foodstuffs or water installations from attack or destruction or damage. And even if such infrastructure is used in direct support of military action, international humanitarian law prohibits attacks against it if the civilian would be left so much without food and water as to cause its starvation. Indeed starvation against civilians is prohibited as a method of warfare. This means that deprivation of food and water cannot be purposefully directed against civilians or indiscriminately applied to them. A besieging party cannot cause mass starvation of civilians by claiming that it was merely intending to deprive the enemy armed forces of food and water. And lastly and importantly, international humanitarian law requires that the warring parties always allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded humanitarian relief for civilians in need. They can of course control relief shipments, but such controls may never lead to undue delays or to make humanitarian relief in effect impossible. Civilians must not be trapped in besieged areas and this means that the warring parties have an obligation to allow civilians to leave the area. In areas where fighting is taking place, one obvious precautionary measures that the warring parties can take is to evacuate civilians or at least to allow them to flee. In fact, the Geneva Conventions foresee that the parties should find arrangements to allow for the evacuation of people at particular risk such as children, the wounded and sick, persons with disabilities or pregnant women. Sieges must not be used to forcibly displace civilians. Civilians can only be temporary and may last no longer than the security of civilians or imperative military reasons demand. Civilians who have been displaced have a right to voluntarily and safely return to their homes as soon as the reasons for their displacement have ceased to exist. When people are left in a besieged area, the warring parties remain bound by all the rules protecting them from the effects of hostilities such as the principles of distinction, precaution, proportionality and the mere fact of remaining in a besieged area, whether voluntarily or forcibly or as human shields or indeed the presence of fighters amongst civilians does not deprive civilians from their protections against attacks. The besieged party must abide by all the rules of international humanitarian law. It must take all feasible precautions to protect civilians from the effects of the fighting, in particular allow them to leave the area or remove them from near military objectives. It's prohibited under international humanitarian law to use civilians as human shields to render immune certain areas from military operations.