Allowing Civilians to Flee

Even once a war has become necessary — because peace, as required by the law of suing for peace first, was refused — Jewish law imposes a striking restraint on how a besieging army may surround an enemy city. Maimonides rules in the Mishneh Torah:

"When one surrounds a city to capture it, one should not surround it from all four sides, but only from three sides, leaving a place for whoever wishes to flee and save his life." (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings and their Wars 6:11)

An Engineered Escape Route

This is not a minor tactical footnote — it is a deliberate legal requirement that a path to safety always be left open, even in the middle of an active siege. Surrounding a city on only three sides is, militarily, a real concession: it is more effective, and often safer for the attacking force, to seal off every side of a besieged city completely. Jewish law requires giving that military advantage up specifically so that civilians and anyone unwilling to fight has somewhere to go.

Why It Matters

The rule draws a sharp, structural line between combatants and everyone else, embedding into the laws of war themselves the assumption that the goal of a siege is to defeat an opposing force, not to trap and annihilate an entire population caught within a city's walls. Together with the requirement to offer peace before any war begins, this rule is central evidence that Jewish law's approach to warfare is built around minimizing loss of life and preserving an escape from harm wherever possible — the opposite of a legal system oriented toward extermination.