Major Y [an American who went to Israel to fight] and other people on the ground I have spoken with say that they estimate about one in every two or three [civilian] homes in Gaza they go into has military weaponry, including AK47s, grenades and rocket launchers. And they routinely find entrances to Hamas’s terror tunnels inside civilian houses. And not just anywhere, but most often in the children’s bedrooms and even under cots.

Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20240118082318/https://nypost.com/2023/12/28/opinion/hamas-philosophy-all-civilians-all-children-are-tools-of-war/

  • GenEcon@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    Which is still Hamas fault. If you place your military facilities in houses of civilians, refugee camps or even hospitals, these become legit targets. Which is why the term ‘genocide’ is completely missplaced. IF Israel would target civilian houses, that would be a war crime (even though still not a genocide), but since there have been countless proofs of Hamas using them for military purposes, they are legit targets.

    So yes, Israel is allowed to bomb a children’s bedroom – because of Hamas.

      • speaker_hat@lemmy.oneOP
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        10 months ago

        This is a byproduct of Hamas tactic, to disguise themselves as civilians.

        If Hamas would care for “their” civilians, they would separate themselve, both visually and physically, from their civilians.

      • fubo@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Well no, the Netanyahu administration has been propping up Hamas to keep the Palestinian Authority weak and incapable of resisting illegal settlements. Illegal settlers are a big part of Netanyahu’s base.

        There is no Palestinian genocide. If the Israeli government wanted to commit a genocide, they would be doing it a lot more effectively. After all, there are many ethnic Palestinians who are Israeli citizens; if there was a Palestinian genocide, those people would be getting killed, efficiently and systematically. They’re not.

        Netanyahu is a traitor to the state of Israel for funding an antisemitic terrorist organization, Hamas.

        It is unfortunate that Hamas likes to hide military operations in hospitals, schools, and apartment buildings. There’s a really good reason that international law forbids that sort of thing — because doing that makes hospitals, schools, and apartment buildings legitimate military targets.

        • enkers@sh.itjust.works
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          10 months ago

          Maybe you need a refresher on what genocide is. Here’s an excerpt from the UN definition:

          Article II of the Genocide Convention contains a narrow definition of the crime of genocide, which includes two main elements:

          1. A mental element: the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such”; and
          2. A physical element, which includes the following five acts, enumerated exhaustively:
          • Killing members of the group
          • Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
          • Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
          • Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
          • Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

          Israel simply intends to kill enough Palestinians to guarantee an ethnic majority in the region. Even if they don’t intended to eliminate every Palestinian, that still constitutes a genocide.

          • speaker_hat@lemmy.oneOP
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            10 months ago

            A mental element: the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such”;

            Israel never showed intention to do so. So this is off.

            Killing members of the group

            Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group

            Hamas members are necessarily Palestinians, so these are off.

            Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part

            Israel never showed intention to do so. So this is also off.

            Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group

            Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

            Israel never showed intention to do so. And never forcibly transfered children. So this is also off.

            Hence, your argument of genocide is false.

            • alcyoneous@midwest.social
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              10 months ago

              Intent doesn’t need to be explicit, but in this case it is.

              https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/harsh-israeli-rhetoric-palestinians-central-south-africas-genocide-106471144

              In particular:

              “Deputy Knesset speaker Nissim Vaturi from the ruling Likud party wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Israelis had one common goal, “erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth.” Israeli Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, from the far-right Jewish Power party, suggested that Israel drop a nuclear bomb on Gaza and said there were “no uninvolved civilians” in the territory.”

              Also the list of genocidal acts, as per the UN Genocide Convention, stipulates that any one of those acts is genocide, not that all 5 must be done. Acts 1 to 3 are very clearly being used in Gaza, and with Knesset members establishing intent it’s clearly a genocide, but arguably even without those statements the actions Israel has undertaken still fit the definition.

              • speaker_hat@lemmy.oneOP
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                10 months ago

                Thanks for the detailed reply. I agree that the fact that the Israeli government is currently far-right is a problem, and it’s no making the war situation easier.

                Both politicians you quoted, Nissim Vaturi and Eliyahu, are far-right in their vision and views, as a result they say such an extreme sayings.

                However, they don’t have any military influence and cannot have because of their position.

                The ones who do have military power, didn’t show intentions to do so.

        • speaker_hat@lemmy.oneOP
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          10 months ago

          Per Hamas 2017 charter, there is no indication about “civil rights” or “civil safety”, so they actually (unfortunately) don’t care.

    • maness300@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      No, it’s Israel’s fault for stealing land and then committing genocide when those it was stolen from fight back.

      Also, what about the hundreds of children Israel has killed every year before the Oct 7 attacks?

      • speaker_hat@lemmy.oneOP
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        10 months ago

        stealing land those it was stolen from fight back

        Ah the old “land stealing” argument again.

        Israel didn’t steal any land from Gaza, so your argument is false.

        what about the hundreds of children Israel has killed every year before the Oct 7 attacks

        Show proof with source