Monday, June 24, 2024
Elder of ZiyonSo for example, the UN analysis says:
What is obvious whenever one reads Israel's responses to allegations like these is that the IDF is playing chess while the "experts" are judging them with a knowledge of tic-tac-toe, and often not even knowing the rules of that.
In some cases, where the military objective is unknown because Israel has made no claims, it is nevertheless hard to conceive of a military advantage that would justify the predictable scale of harm to civilians and civilian objects. For instance, the strikes on Jabalya market on 9 October killed at least 42 persons, including 14 children and one woman, and Taj3 Tower on 25 October killed at least 105 persons, including 47 children and 32 women.Israel published a response within an amazing five days that demolishes the argument of the UN.
It states precisely what international law, what proportionality is, and the impossibility of determining guilt without knowing what the commander knows at the time of the decision to strike.
For the two cases the UN OHCHR cites above, the IDF says:
OHCHR does not hold a full understanding of the facts and circumstances surrounding the mentioned attacks, except for what was published by the IDF, which is limited due to security and operational considerations, as well as others. For example, though not published at the time by the IDF spokesperson, the strike at Jabalya on 9 October comprised of several military targets including a terror tunnel with tunnel shafts, which was part of a Hamas compound that also held a rocket launcher and Hamas military infrastructure, alongside Hamas militants. Any proper legal assessment of the strike must take into consideration the military advantage of all the targets which were struck, compounded by the fact that at the time there were no alternatives for ground operations.Lack of information regarding the strike on 25 October requires similar caution in legal conclusions. While the sensitivity of the information prevents a more elaborate response, it can be mentioned that on that day, the IDF struck several unique and high value Hamas military assets and infrastructure, which were used by Hamas’ highest level of military commanders, both above and underground.
This is slight on detail, but it has to be. As the report notes, "As a matter of law, no army or State has an obligation to disclose information or intelligence
regarding strikes conducted during hostilities. In many times, sharing the intelligence held by
the commander prior to the strike, and sharing details regarding the targets struck (even after
conducting the attack) might compromise sources or intelligence tactics, techniques, and
procedures, thus undermining the effectiveness of the intelligence and disrupting future
intelligence gathering."
Actual military experts know this. OHCHR has none, apparently, As the Israeli response concludes:
The State of Israel firmly rejects the conclusions and factual assertions portrayed in the background note, as they are methodologically flawed. The note aims to assess the legality of aerial strikes, though lacking many crucial facts and understandings that are crucial for any sound legal discussion. It is apparent that the document suffers from hindsight and methodological biases which cast a shadow on the credibility of its legal assessment.
It also appears that the authors of the background note lack operational expertise to fully grasp the rationale of military operations and the need for specific munitions in an operational reality.
As a bonus, the IDF notes that the UN relies on Hamas information, some of which is laughably flawed, like classifying several male terrorists as women.
What is obvious whenever one reads Israel's responses to allegations like these is that the IDF is playing chess while the "experts" are judging them with a knowledge of tic-tac-toe, and often not even knowing the rules of that.
This is why any criticism of IDF actions that is not written by someone with actual military field experience of urban warfare is worthless .It also explains why the vast majority of those who do have that expertise fully support Israel's actions in Gaza.
(h/t Aizenberg)
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