Israel complied with Law of Armed Conflict--Hamassholes, not so much

A report released Thursday by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) argued that Israel complied with the law of armed conflict (LOAC) and the actions needed to mitigate civilian casualties in May hostilities with Hamassholes in the Gaza Strip.

“IDF military operations complied with LOAC and consistently implemented precautions to mitigate civilian risk, some exceeding those implemented in recent US combat operations that we participated in, despite confronting an adversary that often sought to exacerbate that risk deliberately,” the report assessment concluded. 

The report was performed by a task-force of twelve retired US generals, admirals and military legal experts commissioned by JINSA, a Washington, D.C. based organization.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) used a number of measures to reduce collateral damage to Gazan civilians such as: dropping leaflets warning of impending attacks, telephone calls to Gazan residents, text messages also used to warn Gazans the proverbial feces was about to hit the proverbial fan, and warning them to leave before airstrikes were about to level the playing field. In some cases small munitions were used as a "knock on the roof" just prior to an attack to provide further warning.

On the other side of the conflict Hamas wasn't so transparent in what they planned to do, which was a violation of LOAC.

“Yet, we found a significant gap between this reality of IDF LOAC compliance, and of Hamas’ violation of it, and the public’s perception. Israel’s messaging efforts were unable to close this gap,” the report stated.

* * *

Why not subscribe to Brain Flushings and check out the ads on these pages. It costs nothing to subscribe and it's worth every penny. And remember, every time you click on an ad, you help in the fight against the tech giants.

* * *

The report states that it presents the first independent analysis of the conflict by US military commanders and lawyers with experience in counterterrorism and the laws of armed conflict.

The assessment by the contributors of the report was based on primary source research, a fact-finding trip to Israel, and discussions with senior Israeli and United Nations (UN) officials.

“The most telling feature of the Gaza conflict was the strategy mismatch between Israel’s purely military and operational objectives to degrade Hamas’ military capabilities and Hamas’ information-based strategic objectives of delegitimizing the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in global opinion as a violator of Palestinian rights and international law and degrading the IDF’s operational advantage,” the report found.

In the eleven-day Guardian of the Walls operation in May, approximately 4,300 rockets were fired blindly by Hamas from the Gaza Strip in the direction of Israel in a "point, fire, and pray" attempt to kill anyone unlucky enough to be at the receiving end of the rocket's flight. Hundreds of those rockets actually landed in Gaza to the dismay of the anti-Semites. 

Israel responded by striking about 1,600 military targets and destroying over 60 miles of "terror tunnels" in the Gaza Strip that were intended to be used for Hamassholes to enter Israel and kill anyone they could kill, including women and children as had been the case in the past. As far as the rockets go, the Iron Dome air defense system intercepted 90% of the incoming rockets. The Biden administration, especially members of "the squad," called for the defunding of Iron Dome in order to allow Hamas to do kill Israelis--it's as simple as that.

The JINSA report cited Israeli estimates of 264 total deaths in Gaza during the conflict, including 99 confirmed combatants, 40 believed to be combatants, and 120 civilians, with 20 of those killed by misfired Hamas rockets.

The hostilities claimed the lives of 12 Israelis, including one IDF soldier.

“Hamas serially violated LOAC by directing attacks against Israeli civilians, launching indiscriminate attacks against Israel, and exposing Gazan civilians to avoidable risk to either intentionally complicate Israeli military operations or exploit civilian casualties in order to make false claims of Israeli war crimes,” the report said. “Hamas deliberately located its military assets — including rocket launchers, mortar positions, command and control posts, and military tunnels — in close proximity to civilians, indicating an unlawful intent to utilize human shields and render it near impossible for the IDF to attack lawful targets without serious risk of incidental civilian casualties or collateral damage to civilian property.”

The JINSA report faulted Israel for “insufficiently” countering Hamas’ strategic use of disinformation. 

“The mismatch between Hamas’ strategic informational and Israel’s military operational objectives enabled both sides to claim victory in the May 2021 conflict, failing to resolve any foundational issues in the conflict and suggesting a high probability of future hostilities,” it was stated.

So nothing has changed between the two sides.

The task force concluded,  based on what it learned from the Israel-Hamasshole conflict: “the United States should prepare for operations against future adversaries that fight in complex environments, willingly put civilians at risk, and deploy deliberate disinformation campaigns to blame the other side for it.”

In conclusion, if you hate Israel, and thereby hate Jews, [because you can't have one without the other] you might believe the poor Hamassholes were innocent freedom fighters going up against the evil Israelis, but the opposite is the truth. 

No other nation on Earth has done so much to protect the civilian population of their enemy [who has made every effort to attack the civilian population] as has Israel.

Tweet