Jazny
Brownlow Medallist
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This is what the anti-Israelis get wrong also. One side of a conflict disregarding or breaching IHL does not mean the other side can too. If you disagree, you would have to acknowledge there could be arguments Hamas could make to say October 7th was a justified response to Israeli breaches of IHL. The truth is this not how IHL works and October 7th is unjustifiable under law and morality, and so would any subsequent breaches of IHL commited by Israel.So what is proportionate? When Hamas doesn’t respect international law (they are not a nation) but Israel should, I detect a handicap being placed on one side. They have to weigh up “maintaining good relations with their western allies” or surviving. Looks like it’s one or the other, not both, although they are trying.
In IHL, proportionality is with respect to achieving the military aims. So Israel can't just nuke Gaza in response to the October 7th terror attack. It can't indiscriminately carpet bomb Gaza. They can launch a ground and air war though like they have, but then all their action in bello have to accord with IHL principles of proportionality too which is generally determined on a case by case basis.
I think its okay if the international community does hold Israel to that standard, as those standards are there to protect the civilians caught up in war.
It's not about playing nice. It's about protecting civilians as much as possible. If you don't think one side should be doing it because the other side isn't, then every single war forever will have all belligerents ignoring IHL, because they will be claiming rightly or wrongly that they are the victim and the other side is breaching IHL.You want them to play nice, but how is that possible? Hamas won’t play nice, they won’t conduct their side of the war in an honourable way. Or they wouldn’t be using human shields, which no one wants to talk about. They wouldn’t be clinging to the hostages. They have directly and deliberately caused the deaths of 23,000 people, unsuspecting people trying to live from day to day, unaware (but maybe not) that their neighbour is going to launch an attack and could attract a response.
If they attacked from unpopulated areas they wouldn’t last five minutes, as they well know. Israel could wipe Rafah out overnight but the fact they haven’t is due to trying to pinpoint targets, as they did with the operation that eliminated 27 known and named terrorists in a command centre in a school. Hamas information ministry of course immediately issued inflated casualty numbers, another thing that’s never questioned.
I don't like war, I didn't invent war, but if people are going to fight in wars, they should do so while respecting human life as much as possible.
Based on all the evidence available, I believe Israel does take many measure to prevent disproportionate attacks while still being able to achieve their military goals, but that doesn't mean they get it right all the time and their military never take action that breach of IHL. This would be very naive to think.
Because they are terrorists who have little regard for human life and suffering. That's why they are bad and probably shouldn't be allowed to continue to exist as an organisation.Hamas could stop this war today, by giving back the hostages. Why don’t they?