Navigator wrote: Wed Oct 11, 2023 8:06 pm
Guest wrote: Wed Oct 11, 2023 8:03 pm
Navigator wrote: Wed Oct 11, 2023 7:57 pm
But since they declared war on Hamas, they could actually retain all military aged males as POWs and put them in work camps making road gravel or digging irrigation ditches. This is allowed by the Geneva Convention.
An even more sinister option would be to keep all the children under 6, place them in "protective foster care" in Israel and raise them as the Israeli equivalent of the Ottoman Janissaries.
None of which the world would ever tolerate.
What would the "world" do? Would it come together and attack Israeli - Nope. Would it treat Israel as a pariah - It already does so. The ability of the "world" to put pressure on Israel at this point is basically zero.
The USA is a different story, it has clout. But now that Hamas has done barbaric things like beheading babies, and actually posting pictures/video of it doing so, mean that the USA would even tolerate the POW situation described above and the forced relocation of Gazans.
I think it is time to reign in the hyperbole.
US warns Israel to ‘uphold laws of war’ as Gaza faces onslaught
Biden says ‘respect for international law’ imperative as UN warns the humanitarian situation is deteriorating for Palestinians
The US congress is already splitting on racial lines, much the same as the UK. The First Minister of Scotland, a Scottish born Pakistani, is married to a Palestinian from Gaza. Her family is trapped in Gaza, perhaps even now homeless. Scotland has refused to fly the Israeli flag. The Israeli flag was taken down by crowds in several English cities last night and replaced with the Palestinian flag.
Several Israeli officials have already implicated themselves in war crimes; the same utterances would definitely be used against Russian generals and officials who said the same things.
Rear-Adml Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said on Tuesday that “hundreds of tons of bombs” had been dropped on Gaza in response, stressing that “the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy”.
Separately, an unnamed Israeli defence official told broadcaster Channel 13 on Wednesday that Gaza would be reduced to a “city of tents” by the end of the campaign.
The situation in Gaza already qualifies as a war crime.
Nearly 200,000 Palestinians in the 25-mile coastal strip have been left homeless from the Israeli air assault and have gathered in hotels, hospitals and UN-run schools in the hopes that they will not be harmed there.
Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister, drew criticism from UN officials and human rights groups by forcing a “total siege” of Gaza, cutting off water, food and energy supplies for 2.3 million people.
The UN said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was deteriorating after its sole power plant ran out of fuel.
Under the internationally accepted rules of armed conflict, enshrined by the Geneva Conventions, military attacks must be proportionate and not lead to excessive loss of civilian life or infrastructure.
As the intentions of the Israelis are clear, there have also been clear warnings.
The US warned Israel to “uphold the laws of war” as its airstrikes flattened neighbourhoods in Gaza ahead of an expected ground invasion.
President Joe Biden said Israel had a right to respond to the attacks by Hamas, the worst in its 75-year history, but warned its retaliatory action must be “according to the rule of law”.
Mr Biden dispatched his top diplomat, Antony Blinken, to Israel on Wednesday.
As he boarded the plane, the US Secretary of State said it is “our respect for international law and the laws of war” that “separates Israel, the US and other democracies” from Hamas and terrorist groups that engage in “heinous” activities.
He added: “We know that Israel will take all of the precautions that it can” to avoid civilian casualties, “just as we would”.
Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, echoed the call on Wednesday, urging a “proportionate” Israeli response that protected “innocent civilian lives”.
War crimes on the scale of what Navigator has spoken of will not be accepted.