this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023
248 points (77.1% liked)

World News

38979 readers
3394 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 141 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (20 children)

To be clear, staging militant attacks from a hospital is a war crime.
To make matters worse, it opens up the likelihood and justification of counter-attacks against that hospital and the people in it.

According to international humanitarian law (IHL), health establishments and units, including hospitals, should not be attacked. This protection extends to the wounded and sick as well as to medical staff and means of transport. The rule has few exceptions.

Specific protection of medical establishments and units (including hospitals) is the general rule under IHL. Therefore, specific protection to which hospitals are entitled shall not cease unless they are used by a party to the conflict to commit, outside their humanitarian functions, an "act harmful to the enemy".

Medical establishments and units enjoy protection because of their function of providing care for the wounded and sick. When they are used to interfere directly or indirectly in military operations, and thereby cause harm to the enemy, the rationale for their specific protection is removed. This would be the case for example if a hospital is used as a base from which to launch an attack; as an observation post to transmit information of military value; as a weapons depot; as a center for liaison with fighting troops; or as a shelter for able-bodied combatants.

Source: The International Committee of the Red Cross

Nobody should beat around the bush here. Hamas are using injured civilians as a human shield to stage attacks, and in doing so they are inviting retaliation and suffering under well-establish terms of international law. There's not really any particular gray area here. It's horrible, it's unethical, it's criminal, and it's just plain wrong.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (14 children)

This is the thing that pissed me off - the organization that has a humanitarian symbol so strong you can be legally held accountable for using it in a way that lessens its importance acknowledges that attacking a hospital being used as a military bases is a legal part of war. Meanwhile there are people whos education doesn't pass high-school screaming that this isn't legal, or its incorrect, or blaming the aggressor instead of those deliberately putting civilian lives at risk by blatantly ignoring intl rules of conflict.

If you want to throw in your argument against the red cross, spend your life and billions of dollars helping humanitarian issues world wide and then you might have some authority on the matter.

This is modern warfare. War is horrific, innocents get killed, people suffer. We put rules in place to lessen the effects on the innocent and those who circumvent those rules to try make the others look bad need to be removed in the quickest and most efficient way we can - as soon as one group gets away with ignoring the intl rules, everyone can.

[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (11 children)

I don't think any intellectually honest person that supports Palestine thinks Hamas are the "good guys", they are an evil created and grown directly and indirectly by Israel's actions.

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

Hi there. How about an old soldier who actually had to know this stuff and use that knowledge in a war?

First off, a single incident isn't enough. A sniper or even a squad doing stuff can be dealt with in other ways. In order to strike a hospital (or any protected target) with explosives you need evidence it's a target of "military or strategic value". This is why Israel isn't just claiming a few sporadic attacks but instead that all of the hospitals are actually command centers.

Second, the protected target can only be hit by proportional force that accomplishes a specific goal. If there's an artillery battery in the parking lot and I level the obstetrics wing with dumb bombs then I've committed a war crime. Smart bombs with very low yields absolutely exist. Another example is the eponymous claim of rooftop rockets. I can hit that with an airburst explosive to prevent structural damage to most concrete buildings. In the context of protected targets these things matter. You don't get a green light to demolish it unless it's basically been hollowed out for military use only.

Third, whoever fires on the protected target is responsible for providing the evidence it was required. And war crimes investigators take a very dim view of "they did it once a decade ago", as a reason. Israel and it's allies have yet to do anything that actually proves the existence of a military or strategic target in places like the UNRWA Gaza headquarters.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (20 children)

It doesn't give them the right to bomb the hospital point blank period, proportionality clauses kick in and it's arguably reason to ground assault it but they cannot ignore the civilian cost of life when they're are other ways to go about clearing the garrison.

Ed: Jesus Christ, 3 seconds on Google prior just can't seem to do.

The principle of proportionality prohibits attacks against military objectives which are “expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated”. In other words, the principle of proportionality seeks to limit damage caused by military operations by requiring that the effects of the means and methods of warfare used must not be disproportionate to the military advantage sought.

load more comments (20 replies)
load more comments (11 replies)
load more comments (19 replies)
[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Beyond these crazy and terrible events, I'm left wondering what the big picture end game was here? Was it to block Israel from normalizing relationships with neighbouring foes, or is it a part of a bigger play by foes of Israel to highlight the injustices from their point of view?

This sacrifice of the innocents on all sides is a terribly high price on humanity and how long an eye for an eye will take to play out in the generations to follow.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's exactly it. Hamas has previously and continues to do all it can to destroy any hopes for peace and Israel's far-right has been happy to leverage them for the same reason.

Palestinians and Israelis suffer and die while a few powerful men maintain or gain power from the situation.

Hamas can't have peace otherwise a more legitimate government takes over and continues toward a two-state system (they had in the past made a wave of suicide bombings to derail the peace process). Israeli far-right doesn't peace either (they've shot one of their PMs in the past over this) as that would put a stop to their ambition of power and colonizing more Palestinian land.

Israeli reporters have shown how the current Israeli PM and his party had passively allowed the financing of Hamas to come into Gaza (enemy of my enemy...) so they would keep destabilizing any peace talks and fight the more moderate Palestinian parties.

In short, Hamas is horrible and keeps provoking Israel and Israel keeps biting the bait and reacting exactly as Hamas expects them to do: doing their own round of horrible atrocities in a vicious cycle of suffering and death which breeds the next generation of extremists.

Anybody looking at this issue purely as a military problem is missing the big picture.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

I don't know if there is an endgame. Just dogs chasing cars. I do know a lot of people have died.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (15 children)

Has it seriously not occurred to zionists that there's a middle step between doing absolutely nothing and leveling the entire building? Send troops in there to liberate the hospital. A lot fewer innocents will die, and yea more IDF troops will die that way, but in what fucking universe is it preferable to murder civilians than to run a risky military operation? Even if Hamas kills a bunch of patients or doctors in retaliation there will surely be more survivors than if you just bomb the place. But nope, apparently Israeli lives are worth infinitely more than those of Palestinian civilians, so the best solution is to murder all Palestinians so they're not a "threat" to Israel

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (40 children)

No sane team lead would accept a mission like that. That's just asking for massive friendly casualties.

Kicking in doors has an extremely high death toll, especially if it's a known base, of course they're going to level it instead of committing a team that's definitely going to get blown up by ied's and killed in ambushes.

In order to effectively suppress and seize that hospital, you're asking that at least 100-200 friendlies die during the operation to take a building that's a known travel route to their tunnels which house thousands of hamas and related fighters and their kit. Given the level of failure of the intel community in Isreal right now, no one operations side is going to take their word that it's safe to send a team into that hospital.

It's a hospital when it's in operation, right now it's a terrorist base of operations SPECIFICALLY because it was a hospital.

See: https://ground.news/article/hamas-has-command-center-under-al-shifa-hospital-us-official-says

load more comments (40 replies)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

When your

best solution is to murder all Palestinians

...bombing hospitals, refugee camps, schools, and endless civilians is a good thing... and explains Israel's behaviour and rhetoric in a pretty straightforward way.

...of course, killing all those kids makes the question "why are Hamas bad" a bit awkward... I know! Saying it's bad to murder children is anti-semitic now - that's not an obvious, massive self-report!

I don't personally care to judge whether Israel or Hamas are worse - they're both monstrous, genocidal murderers, killing innocent civilians... But only one of them has the ability to actually deliver on their genocidal intentions, and they're making headway.

load more comments (13 replies)
[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (6 children)

funny how when Palestine makes a claim, Lemmy just eats it all up.

but when Israel releases footage and coordinates to support their claims, everyone is suddenly questioning.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I guess it has to do with the enormous social media machine Israel has. I take both sides with a grain of salt tho

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (5 children)

It's comical how many Hamas-apologists there are on this site.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (11 children)

I literally haven't seen a single Hamas apologist. Nobody likes those terrorists, but those of us that pay attention don't like IDF either

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (7 children)

It's not comical how many anti-Semitic and/or pro-genocide apologists are on Lemmy.

load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (74 children)

Counter attacking with troops and killing the terrorist is a reasonable response.

Leveling the entire hospital and surrounding neighborhood with missiles is NOT.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Well it's a good thing they didn't do that, then. Israeli troops will be entering the hospital to get at the Hamas base within it

Edit: they entered last night

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (73 replies)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (23 children)

Uh oh, guess that means there's no choice but to level the entire place and kill every civilian in there :(

load more comments (23 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (24 children)

Not a good way to avoid having your hospitals bombed...

load more comments (24 replies)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

but the forces bombing hospitals, escape routes, and journalists, they aren't terrorists??

[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 year ago (5 children)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Palestinians and isreali civilians are caught between two asshole organizations and as they say, when elephants fight, the ants suffer.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (5 children)

It's tiring to see everyone taking sides. Just admit that both sides are wrong: Hamas are using civilians as cover, Israel is just killing everyone to get at Hamas. The people suffer. :-(

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

I don't understand why this is such a difficult concept for so many people. Two sides can absolutely be in the wrong, especially over the span of generations. At such a point it really hardly matters anymore at all who started what, it's just two sides showing humanity's ugliest side non-stop.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

of course that's possible, I'm pointing out that the language used in the title of this post doesn't want you to see it that way

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›