In theory the laws of war apply to Hamas, but in practice there is no realistic mechanism to enforce them, because those enforcement mechanisms are themselves outlawed against the only party trying to follow any rules The takeaway for Hamas and others is that this strategy works

As to the OT, its a distortion of LOAC to say that errors/failures/practical limits in civilian harm mitigation efforts (awful as they are) doom the entire military campaign If that were true, no war, even legal from a jus ad bellum standpoint, would be legal jus in bello

My expectation is that the IDF will apply its learnings to up its deconfliction tactics for aid groups, *which already existed* but clearly failed, with the aim of preventing this terrible event from recurring - which is the goal of a responsible application of LOAC

@abbaleh its so boring, nobody believes this deep down

@accountpalatine There are those who believe it when it applies to certain groups of people

@abbaleh @threadreaderapp unroll

@abbaleh It's not a cheat code, it's the way things have been run by paramilitary groups for decades, with the same issues always arising. It's not even a novelty for the IDF. It was already the case with OLP.

@abbaleh Actually, it is, since embedding yourself within the civilian populace is not only a war crime, it makes it not a war crime to attack the places you've embedded yourself. Unless, of course, the attacker is Jewish.