• PugJesus@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I find this a far more compelling view. Trapping the equipment of enemy paramilitaries seems a very strange hill to die on to paint as a war crime. On the other hand, the haphazard distribution of the pagers and the lack of care taken to minimize civilian casualties absolutely suggests this was a war crime - just not for the reason of trapping communications devices.

  • Asidonhopo@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Feels like increasingly that is the new reality for all of us, everything is a potential attack vector, even if it’s much less lethal attacks. Data grabs, money grabs, attention grabs. Show me something weaponizable that isn’t being exploited as one in one way or another.

  • blady_blah@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Honestly, the real question to me is how many innocent people were maimed, injured, or killed in this attack. This is incredibly indiscriminate, even though the idea is that only the bad guys are holding the pages or walkie-talkies, but if they’re in a cafe they’re not the only ones getting hurt. Think of it as attaching an explosive to a thousand Hezbollah people, and then exploding them as they wander through a city. That’s the true crime, the potentially disproportionate massacre of innocent civilians.

    • LustyArgonian@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Agree, I am incredibly disturbed by the nature of this attack and the implications for how other countries might use this idea.

    • crashfrog@sopuli.xyz
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      3 months ago

      Honestly, the real question to me is how many innocent people were maimed, injured, or killed in this attack.

      Quite a bit fewer than 0.1% of the individual detonations appear to have harmed anyone except the Hezbollah operative assigned to the pager, so this doesn’t actually appear to be a question. The attack was extremely discriminate and targeted.

      but if they’re in a cafe they’re not the only ones getting hurt.

      In every case in which one of these went off in a cafe, the intended target was the only one hurt.

      That’s the true crime, the potentially disproportionate massacre of innocent civilians.

      But that isn’t what happened. The opposite happened.

      • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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        3 months ago

        Several of the victims were children. They went off in crowds. There was no way they could control that many devices with precision when they set them off all at once like that.

          • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.social
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            3 months ago

            That particular pager was in a bag, against a person, pointed away from anyone or anything else. Not to mention anything of the second attack, which used much larger charges and started fires and blew out windows across Lebanon.

            And anyway, a single example isn’t going to assuage anyone who has been reading reports of women and children dying from the attack.

            • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              3 months ago

              They’re also ignoring the literal terror being experienced by civilians who witnessed people’s legs and faces being blown off in public.

              That’s terrorism.

            • crashfrog@sopuli.xyz
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              3 months ago

              That particular pager was in a bag, against a person, pointed away from anyone or anything else.

              Where else would you carry a pager? You have to feel it when it vibrates.

              Not to mention anything of the second attack, which used much larger charges and started fires and blew out windows across Lebanon.

              Well, I’m sorry to hear that Lebanon’s glazers just got several months of guaranteed work, I guess, but I’m otherwise not sure why this is relevant.

              And anyway, a single example isn’t going to assuage anyone who has been reading reports of women and children dying from the attack.

              What reports?

          • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            3 months ago

            The mental gymnastics people will do to defend literal state sponsored terrorism.

            And don’t waste your time, I actually know what those words mean.

            • crashfrog@sopuli.xyz
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              3 months ago

              Yes, it’s pretty shocking how people have come out in support of an Iranian-funded terrorist group that has killed women, children, and a hundred Americans

        • crashfrog@sopuli.xyz
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          3 months ago

          Several of the victims were children.

          The fathers of these dead children will simply have to live with the terrible consequences of their involvement with antisemitic terror (who are we kidding, they don’t care.)

          They went off in crowds.

          In every such case only the agent was harmed. You’re proving how targeted the attack was.

          • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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            3 months ago

            The kid’s blood is still on whoever triggered the devices hands. The child didn’t do anything.

            Do you have a source stating that no bystanders were harmed? I can’t find anything making that claim.

              • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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                3 months ago

                First article I pulled up:

                https://www.npr.org/2024/09/20/g-s1-23812/lebanon-israel-exploding-pagers-hezbollah-international-law

                Many, but not all, of the pagers and walkie-talkies that unexpectedly blew up over two days across Lebanon and in some neighboring countries were in the possession of Hezbollah fighters, functionaries or allies. In this photo, an ambulance believed to be carrying wounded people drives down a street in a southern suburb of Beirut on September 18, 2024. The ambulance is white with a blue light on top that spans the width of the vehicle. Men stand on the sides of the street, which is lined with buildings. Middle East crisis — explained Another wave of blasts hits Lebanon, as Hezbollah reels from pager explosions

                The group is designated as a terrorist organization by several nations, including the United States, but many of its members and supporters operate in civilian areas across Lebanon — and some of the explosions left innocent bystanders, including children, injured or dead.

                • crashfrog@sopuli.xyz
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                  3 months ago

                  Ok, and what does this refute? I haven’t claimed there to be zero civilian casualties, but it’s currently fewer than one in one thousand.

                  Again, I’ve posted video. Why would I believe that could harm anyone but the bearer?

            • irreticent@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              Do you have a source stating that no bystanders were harmed?

              They keep citing a tweet while others keep refuting what they’re saying with articles from BBC, NPR, and other news outlets. There’s no point in arguing with someone that can’t provide reputable sources for their claims.

              *Edit: typo

          • Stubb@lemmy.sdf.org
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            3 months ago

            The fathers of these dead children will simply have to live with the terrible consequences of their involvement with antisemitic terror

            So the children have to pay for their father’s crimes? This isn’t really a justification, and they don’t not care, now they have a real reason for retaliation—starting the cycle of hate all over again.

            • crashfrog@sopuli.xyz
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              3 months ago

              So the children have to pay for their father’s crimes?

              No, they don’t have to. But they will when their fathers deliberately put them in danger.

              Again, he’ll just have to live with the tragic consequences (just kidding, we know he doesn’t care.)

              • AreaSIX @lemm.ee
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                3 months ago

                And you complain about pro Israel accounts getting banned. Literally justifying the murder of children should be banable no matter what county you’re supporting. Despicable behavior that everyone now sadly expects from rabid genocide supporters.

            • crashfrog@sopuli.xyz
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              3 months ago

              Hezbollah publicly announces their war casualties so they’re the source

              I don’t know how to explain that any more clearly. If you’re still puzzled, I recommend asking a question instead of posting a single word

              • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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                3 months ago

                They are asking for the source of your statement that less then 0.1% of the victims where valid targets. Since most have seen evidence to the exact opposite of that statement.

                Oh and although I can put links to back that statement up, I will not. (Since that is the presiding fashion here apparently)

                • crashfrog@sopuli.xyz
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                  3 months ago

                  They are asking for the source of your statement that less then 0.1% of the victims where valid targets

                  Hezbollah is the source. That’s three times I’ve said so. What about that is still unclear?

  • SeattleRain@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Yup, and it seems like more and more that it wasn’t explosives, but regular pagers tampered with to explode using parts they already contain as to not arouse suspicion.

    It will be interesting to see how this impacts the reputation of Western electronics. There’s already unverified reports of Middle East markets abandoning western built phones end masse for Chinese ones.

    Also wait until this technique gets into other malicious actors hands and we start seeing this attack happen everywhere. I don’t think Westerners understand what a Pandora’s box they’ve opened.

      • SeattleRain@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        No one knew it was possible until now. Now every government on earth is going to put in overtime to figure out how it was done and id they’re vulnerable.

    • blady_blah@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      “Yup, and it seems like more and more that it wasn’t explosives, but regular pagers tampered with to explode using parts they already contain as to not arouse suspicion.”

      There’s no way this can be the case. Regular pager batteries do not explode. At most they can catch fire, but they don’t explode. There’s no way there wasn’t a high-grade explosive in each of the pages. The electronics may have been normal and triggered with regular software, but there had to be an explosive and a detonator in the pager.

    • crashfrog@sopuli.xyz
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      3 months ago

      Yup, and it seems like more and more that it wasn’t explosives, but regular pagers tampered with to explode using parts they already contain as to not arouse suspicion.

      Totally false.

  • RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Attacking a civilian population of a country you’re not at war with is a violation of international law.

    And Isreal has done it at least nine times in the last year.

  • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I don’t get this. It’s war, there isn’t much law. You can have agreements between countries, but is it really law if it’s not enforceable?

    • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      It’s enforceable. A war between two countries does not exist in a vacuum. The whole rest of the world can impose sanctions against the violator.

      Whether they will in this case is another matter entirely.

      • MrNesser@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Problem with sanctions is they haven’t proved Israel did this. Its plausible deniability

        • homura1650@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Part of plausible deniability is that it has to be plausible. There has been no plausible argument presented that Israel did not do the pager and walkie talkie attack. For that matter, there hasn’t even been a denial about it.

          • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Then again a denial would also not be plausible. Either way, saying nothing is their best course of action.

      • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Is that law though? No one is going to jail. Sounds more a contract or agreement.

          • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            The difference is enforcement capabilities. Geopolitical enforcement is not impossible it just gets murky quick. So many different priorities.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      There is international law and there are international war crimes. This could very well be a war crime. It needs to be investigated.

    • ArbiterXero@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Well, that’s up to debate.

      In war there are still rules of engagement and expectations about things like “child soldiers” and “civilian casualties” and “collective punishments” etc….

      But also, how much to those rules actually stop people?

      Which rules are worth breaking if they prevent open war and millions of deaths?

      No idea. Some deep philosophising and rationalisations around all of it is required regardless of your stance

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      There’s plenty of law of war.

      But you’re right, laws are worth northing if they’re not followed or enforced.

    • Threeme2189@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Not to mention the tens of thousands of rockets Hamas made from water pipes, lamp posts, etc.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        3 months ago

        I’m pretty sure the meaning isn’t that you aren’t allowed to turn an ordinary item into a weapon. It’s that you can weaponize ordinary items. If you make a pipe bomb, for example, it’s pretty obviously a bomb now, and not an ordinary pipe. Basically, making it so people have to fear using ordinary items is what we typically call terrorism.

        I don’t like that word, because it’s usually just used as a weapon against less conventional forces by states with more power, meanwhile the states typically still use fear to enforce a political agenda. In this case it’s unarguably the bad kind of terrorism, and they should be held responsible for it.

    • EddoWagt@feddit.nl
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      3 months ago

      A drone made for warfare is not the same as a dji 3 or whatever. Now if you put a bomb in that dji and sold it to people…

  • Lord Wiggle@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    As if Israel suddenly is going to care about international law. They have been committing war crimes and crimes against humanity for a long time now. This is telling nazis “hey, what you are doing is bad mkay?” like they would give a fuck.

    • ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      absolutely. i mean it is not as shitty as cutting of the breasts of women who attended that festival back then. but I do not understand how pagers are “ordinary devices”. what a joke. and why does iranian ambassador have one?

      • Lord Wiggle@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Just because terrorists are doing horrible acts, doesn’t mean you are free to do whatever you want. Crimes against humanity and war crimes do not have an asterisk saying “except when the enemy commits crimes too”.

        About the pagers, are they specifically made for the military? Or are they commercially available? Just because terrorists use them doesn’t mean no one else does. There are still many hospitals for example using pagers. Does that make doctors terrorists or military?

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Yes. But do pants! That would be fun…

    ok sir your shoes go in this bin. We want your pants, underwear and belt in that other one. Those will be returned to you after the flight reaches Michigan…

    Oh. We’re sorry sir, your luggage is here, but your pants, belt and underwear were flown to Michoacan. Very common occurrence. You may take this pair of paper pants with our Logo while we wait for several connection flights for your belongings…

  • DaMonsterKnees@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    We’re talking double secret probation. Super cereal shit man.

    Constantly wringing my hands at the lack of adults in leadership. Accountability ends atrocity.