this post was submitted on 06 May 2024
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If Hamas wasn't using their own population as human shields and shooting rockets from next to the refugee camps then perhaps there would be no need for it. I also find it quite ironic how they're yet again criticized for bombing civilians while there's a perfect example right there of to which lenghts they're going to warn them beforehand. I doubt Hamas did that before shooting rockets at the aid delivery corridor a few days back. Again, 350 meters from a civilian campsite.
This "warning them beforehand" fig leaf only works if you think of everyone as fit healthy and mobile.
Anyone with disabled people, chronically ill people, terminally ill people and elderly people in their own lives knows it's not that simple.
Most of us don't have people physically weakened by famine in our own lives but it doesn't take Einstein to know this is a problem too. And from NGOs we know there's a lot of parentless children and a disproportionate number of child amputees in the mix as well.
If your response to this many civillians being killed is "it's their fault for not getting away" you need to examine your logic, I think.
I brought up the roof knocking because it's what Israel does aswell as dropping leaflets and sending text messages and making phone calls before the strikes. This goes against all the accusations about genocide and intentionally targeting civilians. It would be quite cynical to think that this all is just a cover up so that they can continue with their plan of murdering every single Palestinian. I'm just not buying that. The high number of civilians in that area are a huge inconvenience for Israel and killing them is extremely bad PR. They know this and Hamas knows it aswell.
For the high number of civilians killed I think the most simple explanation is also the most likely to be true; it's urban warwafe on a country with extremely tiny land area and a population of millions. You could blindly drop a bomb quite literally anywhere there and you're likely to hit someone. This is what war looks like.
No, it's really not necessarily what it looks like at all, though you could be forgiven for thinking it. I think perhaps this is the difference between those who focus on this issue because they're interested in Israel, versus those who focus on it mainly because they're interested in human rights.
Blindly dropping bombs on densely populated areas is a war crime.
Yes, killing this many people this fast is a consequence of the choices the IDF is making. No, they are not inevitable choices.
For instance, in its entire war against Islamic State the US dropped just one 2,000lb bomb. Israel is dropping hundreds of them.
Roof knocking and leaflets are a fig leaf - a fiction with the aim of avoiding international condemnation, a bit like the peculiar interpretations of "occupying force" and international law we see from them.
I've seen footage of those leaflets raining down on innocent people in Gaza, the panic and despair. It's not humanitarian at all. Ironically some of the people best equipped to get away in time are Hamas fighters, which is probably why the IDF uses "Where's Daddy" to kill suspected Hamas leaders when they are at home.
Israeli politicians and public figures have been pretty clear in their national discourse about what their plans are. I don't think we need to speculate further than that.