Weighing Crimes and Ethics in Urban Warfare
Weighing Crimes and Ethics in Urban Warfare - Steven Erlanger, New York Times
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Your unit, on the edges of the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya, has taken mortar fire from the crowded refugee camp nearby. You prepare to return fire, and perhaps you notice - or perhaps you don’t, even though it’s on your map - that there is a United Nations school just there, full of displaced Gazans. You know that international law allows you to protect your soldiers and return fire, but also demands that you ensure that there is no excessive harm to civilians. Do you remember all that in the chaos?
You pick GPS-guided mortars, which are supposed to be accurate and of a specific explosive force, and fire back. In the end, you kill some Hamas fighters but also, the United Nations says, more than 40 civilians, some of them children.
Have you committed a war crime?
More at The New York Times .
actually, HRW does investigate all sides
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Originally Posted by
Jones_RE
Since Hamas is in government shouldn't there be an investigation into whether the targetting of their rocket systems complies with the laws of war? How about their use of fighters wearing civilian clothing? Or siting weapons systems in the middle of sensitive sites like schools?
There have been in the past, and there certainly will be in the future. As Garlasco comments in the interview:
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Garlasco and Human Rights Watch also examine the other side, and he says, "We believe that the Grad and Qassam are illegal weapons because they are not accurate enough to be used in this situation." He adds that Hamas makes frequent use of land mines and explosive charges that are liable to injure civilians.
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In 2005, Garlasco met with a political representative of Hamas and told him that use of Grads is a contravention of the Geneva Convention. The reply he got from the Hamas man was: "'All Israelis are military.' And I explained to them that their reading of international law is wrong."
After the 2006 war, HRW undertook an extensive investigation of Hizbullah rocket attacks against Israel. It found:
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Hezbollah's attacks in violation of the laws of war, when combined with such statements indicating criminal intent, is strong evidence that some Hezbollah members and commanders were responsible for war crimes.
Couple of minor points...
Don't know but would bet the Israeli GPS guided 120 mortar round is NOT a WP round, that would make no sense.
The use of WP in war is 'legal' -- it is not a proscribed weapon. It is used heavily in some cases and few who engage in infantry combat will avoid getting WP burns occasionally. As they say, it only hurts for a little while...:wry:
There are those who say it should not be used at all; there are others who say it should not be used if civilians are present. Those who say that in most cases have never had to worry about getting shot and generally do not understand all they know about what they are saying.
I do not know if they Israeli's used it or not; they probably did -- I certainly would have -- and if so, the noise about it is merely spin. HE wounds and kills FAR more people than WP.