• KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    Hamas can’t be guilty of war crimes because they are not a country or international government organization. They can’t legally wage war. War crimes can only be committed by a country that can legally wage war.

    Hamas is a local government / criminal organization. They can’t commit war crimes any more than the Mafia can. They just commit regular crimes and hate crimes (regular crimes motivated by racial hatred), which they are obviously doing.

    Israel is probably guilty of crimes against humanity and genocide. Forcing millions of people to move is genocide. They are not waging a war on any country, so legally this is just a large police action.

    Who do you blame for mafia or cartels running free in a country? The perpetrators and the government. The Israeli government has the obligation to protect people living in Israel and what it claims as its territory in Gaza. They haven’t done that for Israelis, Gazans, or residents of the West Bank.

    • HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      This is where a few things start to blur. Hamas is both the government of Palestine and a designated terrorist organization by everyone but the UN security council (impotent veto pricks).

      War crimes can only be committed in state-state conflict - Palestine v Israel, state - state. But at the same time terrorists cannot as it is not war - its conflict (actually the definition). So can Palestine be done for war crimes but its government and militants not? Terrorists don’t get protection in protected places like hospitals and temples and therefore remove their protected status, but they can’t be done for endangering civilians as they aren’t a state that has to follow the rules of war.