It’s saddening to see Israel’s military attack civilians and civilian infrastructure in retaliation for Hamas having attacked civilians and civilian infrastructure.
That’s because there is no difference between Hamas infrastructure and Civilian infrastructure in Palestine. They deliberately use residential buildings for their operations so that if Israel retaliates against an attack, even if they’re striking a building actively shooting rockets at them, that they are forced to kill civilians being used as human shields. Hamas blurs the lines on purpose, so that Israel can’t strike them without being blamed for the collateral damage.
There are only two ways around this:
Israel does nothing when they are attacked so that not a single innocent Palestinian dies, and accepts regular bombings as a way of life.
Israel obliterates Hamas military targets, and passes the blame of the collateral damage to Hamas for using human shields.
I used to think that option #1 was the most humanitarian approach, but #2 is pragmatic. Eventually you have to stop letting your enemy make the rules, and defend yourself. Killing civilians may be a war crime, but so is using human shields, so if Palestinian civilians are killed because they are being used a shields by Hamas, it follows that you blame Hamas for using human shields, not Israel for striking military targets being used to kill Israeli civilians.
Eventually you have to stop letting your enemy make the rules, and defend yourself.
Well, it looks to me like both sides are convinced that unless they punish the other side, the other side will keep on doing what they’ve been doing. Acting on that belief only provides evidence for the other side for the case that the other will stop at nothing but the other’s extinction, that the only rational course of action is yet more offensive action until the other side finally capitulates- …which seems unlikely to ever happen so long as Palestine remains the accepted battlefield for the proxy war that this conflict is.
Yes, Hamas commits war crimes by using civilian infra
Yes, Israel commits war crimes by bombing it
The context of this exchange of atrocities is… the occupation of Gaza, which meets too many of the measures of a genocide. At this point, neither Israel nor Hamas are defending themselves, they’re cooperating in the genocide of Palestinians
The broader context of that is that Israel:Palestine is a proxy conflict between their respective allies, who are just fine watching Palestine burn
That’s because there is no difference between Hamas infrastructure and Civilian infrastructure in Palestine. They deliberately use residential buildings for their operations so that if Israel retaliates against an attack, even if they’re striking a building actively shooting rockets at them, that they are forced to kill civilians being used as human shields. Hamas blurs the lines on purpose, so that Israel can’t strike them without being blamed for the collateral damage.
There are only two ways around this:
I used to think that option #1 was the most humanitarian approach, but #2 is pragmatic. Eventually you have to stop letting your enemy make the rules, and defend yourself. Killing civilians may be a war crime, but so is using human shields, so if Palestinian civilians are killed because they are being used a shields by Hamas, it follows that you blame Hamas for using human shields, not Israel for striking military targets being used to kill Israeli civilians.
Well, it looks to me like both sides are convinced that unless they punish the other side, the other side will keep on doing what they’ve been doing. Acting on that belief only provides evidence for the other side for the case that the other will stop at nothing but the other’s extinction, that the only rational course of action is yet more offensive action until the other side finally capitulates- …which seems unlikely to ever happen so long as Palestine remains the accepted battlefield for the proxy war that this conflict is.
Yes, Hamas commits war crimes by using civilian infra Yes, Israel commits war crimes by bombing it The context of this exchange of atrocities is… the occupation of Gaza, which meets too many of the measures of a genocide. At this point, neither Israel nor Hamas are defending themselves, they’re cooperating in the genocide of Palestinians The broader context of that is that Israel:Palestine is a proxy conflict between their respective allies, who are just fine watching Palestine burn