How far does that excuse stretch though?
There is a reason we have well trained professional militaries as opposed to sloppy, undisciplined militias, and there is a reason why many countries have specific rules of engagement policies, including Israel.
In part, they are to prevent atrocities from occurring right? So if they are being routinely ignored or laxly enforced, which seems to be happening, then that opens Israel up to some valid criticism.
I think it is past the point where a military solution is the answer. There needs to be a political one before the humanitarian disaster is beyond mitigation. Israel, imo,
has moved from defense to retribution and this is evident by it’s obstruction of humanitarian aid, high civilian casualties (in comparison to other other urban conflicts) and laisse fare attitude to the rules of engagement. Israel has offered no real plan for the millions of civilians it has pushed into Rafah ahead of it’s offensive into Rafah.
Understandable…but what exactly is the end?
If it is the complete extermination of Hamas and it’s military capabilities…there doesn’t seem to be a coherent framework beyond destruction, and without that all they are doing is creating power vacuums that give space for Hamas, other militant groups or warlords to reinfest.
Case in point: Al Shifa hospital. The IDF took Al Shifa in January decisively (at a huge civilian cost) and found considerable evidence of Hamas avtivity and tunnels, and cleaned it out.
Then at the end of March, they went had again, and while they got a large number of combatants, the civilian toll was somewhere around 200.
What happened between January and the end of March that allowed tbe hospital to become re-occupied? Incompetence? Lack of any real long term strategy?
