The UN has been very clear about the rights of the child, and child soldiers are universally classified as victims regardless of whether they are armed or affiliated with a militant group. Israel isn’t actually allowed to carpet bomb child soldiers under international law.
Stop trying to frame this as the health administration trying to create confusion. Children are classified as civilians, period.
Also, wanna know something extremely fucked up? Half of Gaza’s population is under 18 and 70% of the population are under 30. The fact that Hamas uses child soldiers is shaped by the fact that Israel created conditions where boys can’t expect to live long enough to even become men.
You do see how Hamas employing child soldiers and then lumping them in with dead civilian numbers to generate outrage is deceptive though, right? Because that was my point.
I just did a fairly deep dive on this because it would be a horrible thing to argue about without a full understanding. You’re incorrect - a child soldier is a combatant under every relevant international law I could find, from the Geneva convention onwards. Further, there have been numerous horrific cases of soldiers having to shoot armed children, none of which has been labeled a war crime.
A particularly concise quote from the European journal of international law:
The starting points are articles 4(A) of the 1949 Third Geneva Convention and article 43 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I, which provides for the definitional elements of what a combatant is under international humanitarian law, albeit overtly in the context of an international armed conflict. If a child is enrolled in the armed forces of a party to an international armed conflict, there seems to be no apparent basis in current international humanitarian law to characterize that child as anything other than as a combatant.
Okay this is actually something concrete to talk about. This is from the UN Human Rights Committee
The Committee takes note of the efforts made by the State party to prevent children from being used or recruited by illegal armed groups and to separate those who have been recruited from those groups and offer them assistance and protection. It is concerned, however, at reports of the continued use and recruitment of children by illegal armed groups, including, in particular, the use and recruitment of indigenous and Afro-Colombian children, and by illegal armed groups that formed in the wake of the demobilization of paramilitary organizations. The Committee takes note of the State party’s statement that, in accordance with the laws in force, security forces do not engage in intelligence activities or military civic acts that involve children. It is concerned, however, by reports of cases in which members of the security forces allegedly involved children in such activities during the reporting period (art. 24).
Has Israel made any efforts, at all, to prevent children from being used or recruited in this conflict? I don’t think they have, aside from blowing them away once they have been recruited (if they are even differentiating between combatants and civilians - I doubt it).
The State party should continue and step up its efforts to prevent the use and recruitment of children by illegal armed groups; to ensure that, in accordance with the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court, all children who have been used or recruited by such groups are treated as victims, regardless of which armed group they have been separated from; to ensure that all children separated from such groups receive protection and proper care with a view to their physical and psychological recovery and to the restoration of their rights; and to ensure that the responsible parties stand trial and are punished. The State party should also adopt effective measures to ensure that, in actual practice, children are not involved in intelligence work or in military civic activities.
Israel has certainly never made any efforts to separate children from Hamas and protect them from recruitment. Israel neither has ever made any efforts to rehabilitate or re-socialize child soldiers that it has captured, and it rarely bothers with capturing them alive.
It is unclear if children are to be considered victims before separation, so point to you. Under a strictly textualist interpretation, international law doesn’t protect active child soldiers. That is not the only way to interpret law; I’d argue we should look at the purpose of the law i.e. to protect children from war, so every effort should be made to avoid killing children except when absolutely necessary.
But that’s for the ICJ and ICC to decide, not lemmings. So! Point to you, child soldiers that die on the battle field could be counted as combatants. I disagree and don’t think that’s the end of it, but I can see that as a valid interpretation of humanitarian law.
But! Once they’re dying in the hospital it’s pretty clear to me that they have been separated from Hamas, at which point they must be considered victims. Victims that Israel is blockading from food, fuel, medicine, sanitation, habitation, and humanitarian assistance.
I’m also highly skeptical that Israel really is targeting militants and I’m done giving them the benefit of the doubt. You understand, right?
Also, I find articulating my opinions actually makes them better. Often these are just angry thoughts buzzing around in my head, so writing them all out like this helps me focus my ideas. Don’t worry, I am not trying to convince anyone of anything when I argue on the internet.
The UN has been very clear about the rights of the child, and child soldiers are universally classified as victims regardless of whether they are armed or affiliated with a militant group. Israel isn’t actually allowed to carpet bomb child soldiers under international law.
Stop trying to frame this as the health administration trying to create confusion. Children are classified as civilians, period.
Also, wanna know something extremely fucked up? Half of Gaza’s population is under 18 and 70% of the population are under 30. The fact that Hamas uses child soldiers is shaped by the fact that Israel created conditions where boys can’t expect to live long enough to even become men.
And now they’re just killing the boys.
You do see how Hamas employing child soldiers and then lumping them in with dead civilian numbers to generate outrage is deceptive though, right? Because that was my point.
It’s literally not deceptive because child soldiers are civilians under international law. Extra clarification isn’t necessary.
Hamas is doing nothing wrong by not identifying dead children as legitimate military targets, because they never are.
That’s an insane take and I think you know that. Let’s end this discussion here.
It’s insane that you think child soldiers are legitimate military targets.
We should end this discussion before I say something that gets me banned lol
Child soldiers are legitimate military targets the second they pose a military threat. That’s awful, but how war works. Have a nice day.
That’s literally not how it works under international law but okay, whatever
I just did a fairly deep dive on this because it would be a horrible thing to argue about without a full understanding. You’re incorrect - a child soldier is a combatant under every relevant international law I could find, from the Geneva convention onwards. Further, there have been numerous horrific cases of soldiers having to shoot armed children, none of which has been labeled a war crime.
A particularly concise quote from the European journal of international law:
Okay this is actually something concrete to talk about. This is from the UN Human Rights Committee
Has Israel made any efforts, at all, to prevent children from being used or recruited in this conflict? I don’t think they have, aside from blowing them away once they have been recruited (if they are even differentiating between combatants and civilians - I doubt it).
Israel has certainly never made any efforts to separate children from Hamas and protect them from recruitment. Israel neither has ever made any efforts to rehabilitate or re-socialize child soldiers that it has captured, and it rarely bothers with capturing them alive.
It is unclear if children are to be considered victims before separation, so point to you. Under a strictly textualist interpretation, international law doesn’t protect active child soldiers. That is not the only way to interpret law; I’d argue we should look at the purpose of the law i.e. to protect children from war, so every effort should be made to avoid killing children except when absolutely necessary.
But that’s for the ICJ and ICC to decide, not lemmings. So! Point to you, child soldiers that die on the battle field could be counted as combatants. I disagree and don’t think that’s the end of it, but I can see that as a valid interpretation of humanitarian law.
But! Once they’re dying in the hospital it’s pretty clear to me that they have been separated from Hamas, at which point they must be considered victims. Victims that Israel is blockading from food, fuel, medicine, sanitation, habitation, and humanitarian assistance.
I’m also highly skeptical that Israel really is targeting militants and I’m done giving them the benefit of the doubt. You understand, right?
Sometimes there isn’t a point worth making to someone with a position not worth holding. They’re just wasting your time.
It’s not like my time is valuable lol
Also, I find articulating my opinions actually makes them better. Often these are just angry thoughts buzzing around in my head, so writing them all out like this helps me focus my ideas. Don’t worry, I am not trying to convince anyone of anything when I argue on the internet.