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Comment by reddozen | Hacker News Reader

Sure you can hold that opinion but Volume II, Chapter 1, Section F of Customary International Humanitarian Law[1] strictly disagrees with you.

[1] https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule1

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Are you an expert on this code? Because I’ve read quite a few interviews with experts in international humanitarian law, and they pretty much agree that what Israel did was criminal.

https://theintercept.com/2024/09/19/israel-pager-walkie-talk...

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/18/do-lebanon-explosio...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/18/the-gu...

It directly calls out Israel for its attacks against civilians in Lebanon:

> "Similarly, the UN Security Council has condemned or called for an end to alleged attacks against civilians in the context of numerous conflicts, both international and non-international, including in Afghanistan, Angola, Azerbaijan, Burundi, Georgia, Lebanon, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tajikistan, the former Yugoslavia and the territories occupied by Israel."

That sentence doesn't "directly" call out Israel specifically for any attacks against civilians in Lebanon. It just calls out attacks against civilians in Lebanon - which yes, would include attacks by Israel, but would also include attacks by Lebanese militant groups, including Hezbollah (i.e. in the course of the various internal conflicts there).

It would also implicitly apply to attacks wherein civilians were actually the target; expecting military operations to have zero civilian collateral casualties is unrealistic. This exploding pager/radio attack seems to have been targeted at militants specifically, not civilians.

Circulating thousands of bombs disguised as innocuous consumer devices into the public is targeting civilians. I'll add that Israel's terrorist act goes beyond those who were hit with explosions. We're all more at risk. It's a crime against humanity and the world is less safe, we all have to look at our devices differently. I will not forget that Israel did this.

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