this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2024

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Did exploding pagers break international law? (360info.org)

submitted 4 days ago by 101@feddit.org to c/worldpolitics@lemmy.ca

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[–] paddirn@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Maybe, though if they’re not getting punished for the whole, y’know, genocide thing, I think they’re not going to get punished over weaponized pagers either.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I don't know by it might matter that Lebanon is an internationally recognized country in a way that Palestine isn't.

[–] Comment105@lemm.ee 1 points 3 days ago

I just think that morally it means it's okay to break international law against Israel.

[–] nik282000@lemmy.ca 14 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Citing American and other officials briefed on the operation, the New York Times reported Tuesday that Israel hid explosives inside a batch of pagers ordered from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo and destined for Hezbollah. A switch was embedded to detonate them remotely, it added.

Is there a law that covers indiscriminate killing?

The United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW or CCWC), concluded at Geneva on October 10, 1980, and entered into force in December 1983, seeks to prohibit or restrict the use of certain conventional weapons which are considered excessively injurious or whose effects are indiscriminate.

Yup, looks like a war crime to me.

Edit: On further thinking, do they know that none of the modified pagers made it into other markets? They likely changed hands more than once between installing the explosives and distributing them to Hezbollah members allowing for inventory 'shrinkage.' I'll bet this is going to end up like Project Eldest Son were exploding pagers show up for ages after they were meant to be set off.

[+] DarkThoughts@fedia.io -6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yup, looks like a war crime to me.

How is directly targeting Hezbollah indiscriminate? It's literally the opposite. It would be indiscriminate if they prepared general pagers / whatever that may or may not be used by Hezbollah, but also countless other people. But as far as we can tell the collateral damage was comparatively low, since they targeted shipments directly meant for Hezbollah itself, meaning this was a highly efficient strike.

[–] WraithGear@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I so looking into it. It looks like few of the pagers are given to actual militants. They were given out to any who they needed to be in contact to, which includes civilians. I can’t get any percentages or counts other than 12 dead and 2700 injured. But the fact that the US indicates that Isreal made the bombs, and even they can’t give any estimate how effective it was… yes it was a war crime akin to disguising a bomb as a harmless object. Your claim that this was a “targeted strike” Is an assumption unfounded by any evidence.

[+] DarkThoughts@fedia.io -6 points 3 days ago (3 children)

If you're sympathizing or even in direct contact & planning with a terrorist organization, then you're part of the terrorists, and with that, a target. You're just one of the many unthinking "Israel bad" people here. There's much to criticize about Israel, this ain't it. Unless you're a Hezbollah sympathizer of course, in which case, see my first sentence.

And no, the US being unable to gauge the effectiveness does not indicate a war crime. That's just ridiculous mental gymnastics, which don't even make the slightest bit of sense.

[–] Tagger@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

And the two dead kids?

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca -1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

A yes because a relative or wife or kids are all part of the problem right?

[–] DarkThoughts@fedia.io 2 points 3 days ago

Yes, that's obviously what I said. 🤡

[–] xSUPRNOVA@lemmy.world 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

So is it good that some children were killed? Were there terrorists/part of the terrorist organization? Were the random people standing in line at the grocery store terrorists? Even if the Israeli government knew for a FACT that only Hezbollah members were in possession of the pagers, detonating them in public places would still be an act of terror. Even if they knew for a fact that none of the pagers were in public, this would still be a war crime.

[–] DarkThoughts@fedia.io -1 points 3 days ago (2 children)

How did you even manage to get to this moronic conclusion? You wanted Israel to cause less collateral damage, this is less collateral damage. Yet you're still crying about it. Unlike some of what you people believe, they don't have magical space lasers to pin point kill just the terrorists.

[–] xSUPRNOVA@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I expect Israel to not commit acts of terror and war crimes. It would be an act of terror no matter what country did it. But sure, I guess an acceptable number of children were killed. You know, there are easier ways to tell everyone that you think genocide is chill.

[–] DarkThoughts@fedia.io 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Alright... Now we went from two dead kids and thousands of wounded terrorists to literal genocide. Maybe stop swallowing the bullshit propaganda.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca -1 points 3 days ago

So what are they doing in general when they kill people of a certain ethnicity.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca -1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Even if they did they would just raze the found with them.

[–] DarkThoughts@fedia.io 1 points 3 days ago

Thanks for proving my point about you all just blindly hating on the dumbass zionists instead of finding some nuance in your world.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 days ago

If it's Israel ... no

If it's any other country .... yes