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Comment by edanm | Hacker News Reader

But Israel and Hezbollah are at war, and these are (reportedly) devices used by Hezbollah operatives.

A war Hezbollah declared, btw.

Yes, but these are more akin to bombings and not surgical strikes.

We’ll know more in the coming days on the impact, but I too feel uncomfortable even as someone who’s mostly supportive of Israel.

> Yes, but these are more akin to bombings and not surgical strikes.

Not sure why you think that? If reports are true, these were relatively small bombings that only impacted people carrying a pager that was specifically handed out to Hezbollah members, and presumably only military members. There was collateral damage, but far less than there would be by even the most surgical of surgical strikes (which usually refers to sending in highly targeted missiles to take out, say, only a single apartment).

Of course we might learn that that isn't accurate, but that's the story as I currently understand it.

Because on the face of things, the Lebanese buyers were assumed to be Hezbollah. They sold pagers and handhelds without bombs, but when sold to Lebanese?

We don’t know at this time what percentage of these pagers were sold to and in possession of civilians.

So unlike a single phone, it certainly seems more indiscriminate.

Again, according to reporting, these bombs were placed specifically in pagers that were were for Hezbollah member's use. The reporting suggest that it was a shipment of pagers for Hezbollah members.

Again, if we want to wait a bit more and see more reporting, then update, I'm all for it. But it's been a few days, and Hezbollah has already claimed that most of the people killed by pagers were their members, iirc. We also all know of the horrible and tragic death of one 9-year-old girl.

I haven't seen any reporting suggesting that there were many civilians harmed. I've certainly heard many people claiming that civilians could've been harmed, but I'd think that if there were many civilian victims, in this day and age of social media and instant communication, we'd have heard about them. I at least haven't.

Again, totally willing to change my mind. But my prior is to trust Israel to not do some kind of indiscriminate attack. Add to this reporting saying that this was targeted, add to this that several days later there aren't stories of massive civilian casualties - for now, I think it was a targeted attack.

And I guess like in Gaza, civilians are de facto complicit. Plus they are Arabs and not Jewish so can we really apply human rights to them? Are they even actually humans? I guess it’s not genocide when it’s done to animals. /s

1. We are guilty by association. 2. When a guy makes a choice to join up with a terrorist organization he will bring that guilt home with him. It will affect those around him.

We may be free to choose but we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions. Even when they affect the innocent we associate with. If this is a new thought to you read a few more books.

Here are some suggestions... The Holy Bible Hillbilly Elegy The Narnia Series The Hobbit The Lord of the Rings

We are not guilty by association. Becoming a militant does make you are valid target though and terror organizations are mostly militant.

Of course civilians aren't complicit, neither in Lebanon nor in Gaza. (Nor in Israel, for that matter, though few people seem to complain when Hezbollah targets civilians explicitly every single day.)

I never said otherwise, not sure why you think I did?

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