CCTV footage of incidents adds to concerns over military’s rules of engagement in Occupied Territories

  • Both the Israelis and the Palestinians have a casus belli. They are mortal enemies stuck together on the same piece of ground. Hamas literally has the goal of eradicating Israel, and they are supported in that goal by Iran and Hezbollah. Hamas aren’t “freedom fighters” trying to achieve a reasonable and peaceful compromise toward a two-state solution.

    October 7 was conducted deliberately by Hamas to prompt an over-response by Israel. Hamas is hiding among the population and in tunnels under people’s homes knowing damn well that their presence is causing the death of tens of thousands of their countrymen.

    Did the civilian population ask to used as human shields? I doubt it. Hamas decided to start a war without the consent of Gaza’s population.

    • @sudo@programming.dev
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      111 months ago

      Polls show Hamas is the most popular faction in both the West Bank and Gaza and it has only gone up after 10/7 because they showed that they are the only people willing and capable to fight the genocidal apartheid state of Israel. Hamas hides in tunnels because it’s been a proven strategy to survive air raids since Vietnam. The next time an IDF spokesperson claims that a Hamas base was under some civilian structure, consider the idea that Hamas merely had an exit point there. Consider how Hamas somehow trained airborne commandos and maybe that the IDF doesn’t actually know shit about anything that goes on in Gaza.

      The human shields line is total bullshit. Human shields don’t work if the enemy is known to not care about the human. Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas uses “human shields” and then shot the shields anyways. Since 10/7 they have started shooting the “human shields” even if they are Israeli. The IDF just wants to kill civilians and is just giving you the run around.

      Throughout all of this you still acknowledge that Israel is “over-responding”. That “over-response” is outright genocide. All you’re doing is trying to blame the victim of genocide for the genocide. Let’s consider you’re suggestion that Hamas deliberately provoked Israel into doing a genocide. Israel is still doing the genocide. You can question all you want if what Hamas did was necessary, AFTER YOU STOP ISRAEL FROM DOING THE GENOCIDE.

      • @sailingbythelee@lemmy.world
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        011 months ago

        Matthew Waxman, an expert on the laws of war from Columbia Law School, said in an interview (link below) that Hamas clearly is using the population of Gaza as human shields, and that is a war crime. It is also a war crime to deliberately target civilians. But it is not a war crime to kill civilians who are co-located with military forces. That is the fault of the force who co-locates with civilians.

        We can debate all day long about the long, complicated history and broader context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and there is a lot of fault on both sides, but in this post-Oct 7 phase of the conflict, Hamas is mostly to blame for the civilian casualties.

        https://open.spotify.com/episode/4zO63JRg6VQ7LVnKrwI8cm?si=BoIW2OPdQrCIY_uhZ6P0lA

        • @sudo@programming.dev
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          111 months ago

          Matthew Waxman

          Who literally served in the Bush Admin for the Iraq. Maybe this guy is just blowing smoke up your ass to kill more Muslims.

          But it is not a war crime to kill civilians who are co-located with military forces.

          By co-located you mean, anywhere in Gaza. This is also taking what Israel is saying at face value that they always know where all the Hamas militants are and they’re deliberately pin pointing them whenever they drop a dumb bomb on an civilian structure. And somehow Hamas is in literally every apartment block. 10/7 proved that the IDF doesn’t know shit about what goes on in Gaza. The fact that after all this destruction, Hamas is no where near defeated. Best estimates is that it’s capacity has been degraded by only 20%. Israel is lying to you. They want to purge all of the Palestinians from the strip into the Sinai.