Israel ‘hit squad’ kills three in West Bank hospital operation
Israel ‘hit squad’ kills three in West Bank hospital operation
Hospital says the men were ‘assassinated’. Israel says they belonged to a ‘Hamas terrorist cell’.
This post and multiple comments are being reported, so I'm making a top post to be 100% clear on this:
The facts of the issue are not in dispute. Israel did send an undercover team into a hospital to assassinate legitimate military targets. They admit to it and we have surveilance camera footage confirming it.
Problem #1 - Patients in hospitals, either ill or injured, are a protected class under the Geneva Conventions. You cannot run an assassination operation in a hospital, that's a war crime. Even if the targets are legitimately bad people.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_neutrality
"The First Geneva Convention states that there should be no “obstacle to the humanitarian activities” and that wounded and sick “shall be respected and protected in all circumstances.”[4]
Article 18 demands that medical units, i.e. hospitals and mobile medical facilities, may in no circumstances be attacked.[5]
Problem #2 - Dressing as civilians, doctors, and women to engage in a military operation is is SEPARATE war crime called "perfidy".
https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v2/rule65?country=us#sectioni
"(4) One may commit an act of treachery or perfidy by, for example, feigning an intent to negotiate under a flag of truce or a surrender or feigning incapacitation by wounds or sickness or feigning a civilian, non-combatant status or feigning a protected status by the use of signs, emblems, or uniforms of the United Nations or a neutral State or a State not party to the conflict."
44They bombed entire hospitals and the world community didn't bat an eye, so they thought that the Geneva convention doesn't apply to them
7Thanks for adding that. I'm not sure that I feel the first point applies here (I can see that people might argue otherwise) but the second point seems like a slam dunk.
6The second point applies to both - a combatant also entered as a civilian and received aid pretending to be a civilian.
One doesn't justify the other - the way i could legitimize it is by saying the hot squad dropped their disguise before engaging... like sending their own flag up the pole. Would need to review prior to saying if it was correct or not.
The arguement against the first section is that those protections apply to civilians and non combatants - conviently left out of their statement. The (pretty solid IMO) arguement is that combatants do not fall under this protection, and terrorists never do, abd these were still designated combatants including possibly carrying arms and planning ops. The room also looks oddly cleaned for three dead people including at least one head shot.
2
Patients in hospitals, either ill or injured, are a protected class under the Geneva Conventions.
Again, not a clear-cut issue. You cannot extrapolate a few lines from the Geneva Convention with your own definitions of what constitutes a "patient". So again, since this misinformation is being repeated, I find it only fair to quote a few passages on why that is, at least, debatable and why it is still indeed very important to add that the 3 killed were terrorists, were carrying guns and were planning a terrorist attack.
The Geneva Convention provides guidelines for the medical treatment of enemy wounded and sick, as well as prisoners of war. However, there are no comparable provisions for the treatment of terrorists, who can be termed unlawful combatants or unprivileged belligerents.
(there wouldn't be an article about it if it was an obvious question: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19998085/ , you should contact that journal and ask them to retract that article since you seem to say that they're wrong)
Qualifying as wounded or sick in the context of international humanitarian law requires the fulfilment of two cumulative criteria: a person must require medical care and must refrain from any act of hostility. In other words the legal status of being wounded or sick is based on a person’s medical condition and conduct.
(https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/gci-1949/article-12/commentary/2016 )
Being an active terrorist member of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, carrying at least one gun, planning a terrorist attack, and very likely committing perfidy by hiding as civilian patients in a hospital, all of that is certainly NOT "refraining from any act of hostility". You're free to consider the more general moral debate on whether it's okay to assassinate terrorists hiding in a hospital, but it's wrong and misleading to make the Geneva Convention say what it clearly doesn't say at all.
What would have clearly defended the terrorists' right to care would have been if they surrendered and left Hamas. But in the absence of that, it's, at best, still debatable whether the First Geneva Convention defends those terrorists' right to hide as civilians in a hospital to "receive care" or not.
With all this said, yes, it is very much indeed misinformation to maliciously leave out the fact that the 3 killed were Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists.
-7
I made a post about this on combatfootage(NSFL) .This is wayyy worse than the post suggests.
The IDF dressed up as medics and civilians and executed a person lying on a hospital bed. It's a new war-crime world record.
19Jeez Christ. War crimes without blinking.
10Every time you think these Israeli terrorists can't get any worse they prove to the world that they can reach a new depraved low
9
Even given that this was a terror cell actively planning a terrorist attack, this is unjustifiable. If they had the operational access to assassinate them, they also had the power to extract and arrest them. If they had evidence strong enough to compel an extrajudicial killing, then they had evidence to present at trial.
18Assuming the 3 killed were Hamas, this is still a warcrime. You don't bomb hospitals, and you don't send hit squads into hospitals to murder people.
17How do you figure that? I absolutely think Israel is guilty of war crimes and Genocide in this current conflict, but this : an actually targeted hit on Hamas fighters, is to be commended IMO. It hit a valid target and in a way that was very unlikely to harm civilians. What's the issue?
1(Still assuming those killed were hamas)
No its not - and to whoever calls me anti or pro something stop hiding behind insults. Stick with the events that actually are war crimes - there are enough to go around from both sides.
It is a war crime to attack a hospital being used for purpose. A hospital (and other protected places) lose their protection when they are used for military purposes, including housing combatants, storage of munitions or logistics and command.
What Israel failed miserably at (and I hope those responsible are held to account) is proportional response, as even without protection the response must be proportional and minimize civilian casualties and wider damage. A small hit team that targeted specific military personnel hiding in a hospital is a much more measured response than bombs through the roof.
If they killed non combatants (either civilians or injured, non combat capable combatants) then a different story.
-3
Why is the most moral army in the world committing war crimes? Does that make them more or less moral?
14Israel committing war crimes like there's no tomorrow. Accountability needs to be taken.
9I wonder if people read beyond the headline, but it's probably too much to ask.
About those assassinated, from that same article:
Hamas confirmed that Jalamneh was one of its members. The Jenin Brigade, which includes a number of Palestinian armed resistance groups, said in a statement that two of the three men were members of Islamic Jihad.
Or is AlJazeera also just Israeli propaganda?
-20It doesn't matter if they were legitimate military targets or not, the conventions of war forbid dressing up as civilians, women, and doctors to assassinate people undergoing medical treatment IN A HOSPITAL.
Israel going "yeah, but they were all bad" is an ADMISSION, not a justification.
There is no questioning the facts here, we have surveilance camera footage. Israeli forces illegally disguised themselves to kill targets in a hospital.
It does not matter that they were legitimate targets. Hospitals are OFF LIMITS.
17Hospitals are OFF LIMITS
To terrorists too? Your oversimplification makes it seem like a clear-cut case when it's not.
With the escalation of terrorism worldwide in recent years, situations arise in which the perpetration of violence and the defense of human rights come into conflict, creating serious ethical problems. The Geneva Convention provides guidelines for the medical treatment of enemy wounded and sick, as well as prisoners of war. However, there are no comparable provisions for the treatment of terrorists, who can be termed unlawful combatants or unprivileged belligerents.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19998085/
So yes, sorry to insist on it again but it does matter and it is important to detail that the 3 assassinated were terrorists, and yes it should be considered misinformation to maliciously leave that out.
-22
No, I've been told repeatedly Al Jazeera is in fact palestinian propaganda that shouldn't be trusted and that I'm ignorant for having done so. Damned if I do damned if I dont I guess
Also I guess you didn't read beyond the article either. Disguising oneself as a medic is a big ol' frownie face in the war crimes community
9