Around 9:30 p.m. in late February, a white Mazda pulled up near a game cafe in the Jenin refugee camp on the northern edge of the West Bank, where a crowd of boys and young men often gathered to socialize.

As the car stopped, a few people walked by on the narrow street. Two motorbikes weaved past in different directions. “Everything was fine at the time,” according to an eyewitness sitting nearby in the camp’s main square.

Then the car erupted in a ball of flame. Two missiles fired from an Israeli drone had hit the Mazda in quick succession, as shown in a video the Israeli Air Force posted that night.

According to the IAF, the strike killed Yasser Hanoun, described as “a wanted terrorist.”

But Hanoun was not the only fatality: 16-year old Said Raed Said Jaradat, who was near the vehicle when it was hit, sustained shrapnel wounds all over his body, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International-Palestine. He died from his injuries at 1 a.m. the next morning.

Jaradat is one of 24 children killed in Israel’s airstrikes on the West Bank since last summer, when the Israeli forces began deploying drones, planes, and helicopters to carry out attacks in the occupied territory for the first time in decades.

    • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      He was suspected of involvement in a shooting at a kibbutz near the West Bank. There is no right to attack settlements with no military value.

          • Flyswat@lemmy.ml
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            5 months ago

            90% of Israelis are military or reservists, making them non-civilians under International Law. So yeah, a kibbutz can be seen as a valid military target.

            • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              90% of Israelis are military or reservists, making them non-civilians under International Law.

              Not true. Until they are activated for service, they are noncombatants under international law.

                • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  They are noncombatants under international law. Noncombatants are not valid military targets.

              • Count042@lemmy.ml
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                5 months ago

                Using that same logic, most of the Hamas members targeted by the Israelis are also civilians.

                Remember, Hamas is a singular governmental organization that kept the militant wing separate from the civilian wing. i.e. Gazan Hospital Administator? Hamas.

                That is a literal justification Israel has used to justify killing Gazan civilians, including police officers.

                So, which is it? Are IDF reservists military, or are Gazan police and hospital administrators civilians?

                You don’t get to have both.

            • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              If there are only civilians inside, then it’s not a military target.

              If there are any combatants inside, then it’s a military target.

        • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          They can’t arrest him, he doesn’t live in Israel. And killing enemy combatants is legal, for example Osama bin Laden.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            I’m sorry I just spent that entire time laughing. The IDF and Israeli Police absolutely have the run of West Bank. It’s not called an occupation for nothing.

            And when you kill someone without even trying to arrest them inside your civil jurisdiction, it’s called murder. At least it is in civilized countries.

            • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              Israel is not the civil authority of Gaza. Hamas is.

              More important, the attack on the kibbutz occurred during a war between Israel and Hamas. That makes the attacker a combatant, not a criminal. In fact, you cannot legally prosecute combatants unless they commit war crimes.

              Combatant immunity bars the prosecution of combatants for mere participation in hostilities. Thus, they are immune from prosecution for murder and destruction of property committed as part of an armed conflict, unless such acts constitute war crimes.

              • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                That’s all great. But this is in the West Bank. Not Gaza.

                And you can absolutely be prosecuted for a war crime. Your own link says that.

                • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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                  Yes the link said that, and so did I.

                  Are you suggesting Yasser Hanoun committed a war crime?

      • Anas@lemmy.world
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        Settlers have no right to be in the settlements, either.

        Also, suspected isn’t enough.

        • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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          The kibbutz was in Israel, and Israelis have the right to be in Israel.

          And as an armed member of Hamas, he was a military target even if he wasn’t involved in the kibbutz shooting.

    • Snowclone@lemmy.world
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      Yeah, it worked great for US forces when they captured uniformed, trained, ranked military in countries we decided were state sponsored terrorists, so they weren’t military, just ‘enemy combatants’ being ‘extraordinarily renditioned’ to an ‘advanced interrogation’ in a ‘happy play time building’ or what ever insane bullshit we were saying when we were ‘liberating’ oil fields, poppy fields, and other private resources to be carefully maintained by a trusted and legitimate corporation rather than being LOOTED, by a dictator to do evil shit like… build schools and hospitals… but also chemical weapons he bought. And WE KNOW!!! because we sold them to him.

      But yes…

      They are clearly all terrorists. Particularly when they attack Israeli police or military.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    Oh, but I’ve been told that Gazans voted for Hamas, so they’re getting what they deserve. Awfully young voting age they have in Gaza…

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      Also this is the West Bank. They’re governed by Fatah, not Hamas.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        That was my fault. I just keep hearing about more and more dead children in Gaza and then see people say that Gazans voted for Hamas so that’s what you get when you do that…

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          That’s Southern Lebanon.

          The political organization for the West Bank is the Palestinian Authority. It is viewed as completely subservient to the Israel government to the point of allowing the IDF to take Palestinian children hostages (Technically the IDF calls it an arrest, but there are no charges, and often times no trials. It is functionally equivalent to kidnapping.)

          Regardless, you’ve made it clear you have literally no idea what you’re talking about and you are doing so in defense of the slaughter of innocent children.

    • Snowclone@lemmy.world
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      Considering Hamas ended all voting when they came into power, it seems unlikely these children did. Also because there children.

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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    It’s just children! They would have probably gotten really angry and grown into militant adults. Remember how the avengers didn’t kill Hitler as a child or Thanos? They didn’t get it.

    Anyway sorry for this comment. Imagine how insensible and out of touch you would have to be to think of, plan and authorize such an attack. The only thing I can think of right now is how we could change our government so it could never help stuff like this to happen. Do the Ukraine thing and help in a morally strong way!