Israel’s prime minister and senior figures with the Palestinian group are wanted for war crimes.
Archived version: https://archive.ph/xfGGI
I mean is there anything proving Hamas leaders intentionally planned any civilian deaths? They’re definitely not doing enough to stop them, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything specifically incriminating their top brass.
They are money holders, and it was a well financed and coordinated attack. And they are in direct control even now as they try to negotiate ceasefire and hostage release.
and it was a well financed and coordinated attack.
True enough, but there’s only so much you can do once the soldiers are actual fighting if you’re not on the field (especially when you don’t particularly care either way). That said, I haven’t seen anything since this “war” started that would serve as evidence to implicate, say, Sinwar in an international court of law. If he says “our plans didn’t involve attacking civilians our soldiers didn’t it out of their own accord” nobody can prove him wrong. Now I do think that’s actually what happened (from a strategic perspective Hamas has too much to lose and too little to gain by killing civilians during a military attack), but even if that’s not the case there’s simply too little evidence to prove it.
Arrest warrant is not a sentence. If he’s brought to the court, he will have a chance to prove the lack of evidence. But even by proxy, leaders are responsible for the actions of their subordinates. Same way we attribute authorization given by leaders sitting in their “war rooms” to launch drone attacks or giving “go” to tactical teams to them and not individual actors.
Then who orchestrated the attacks on only civilians? Hamas hurting civilians is nothing new. Both sides have been assholes long before this started. Everyone in the region would benefit from both parties being prosecuted.
Then who orchestrated the attacks on only civilians?
They… didn’t? That’s exactly what I’m talking about. The attack had clear military objectives (taking hostages is morally grey but still not the kind of atrocity we’re talking about). At least as far as I know everything you’ll think of when you hear the words “Oct 7 Hamas atrocity” can be passed as, and probably is, spontaneous violence caused by the fact that Gazans hate Israelis’ guts rather than any orders from the top brass. Now I’m not denying general Hamas terror; the shootings and suicide bombings definitely happen, but in a court of law everything we’re saying right now about October 7th would be thrown out as speculation, because it is.
would be thrown out as speculation, because it is.
Not sure how hostages and deaths are speculative evidence. Also what were the military objectives you alluded to? I only heard about the terror attacks.
You’re right that it is possible that Hamas didn’t intend for the scale of civilian casualties that were seen on Oct. 7th, but even if that’s true then they are still responsible for not keeping their people from commiting said spontaneous violence. As the leaders of a militant faction, like a regular military they are responsible for training their soldiers (or equivalent) and keeping them in line during operations.
I’m actually more on the Frantz fannon school of thought about the necessity of violence against oppressors to overthrow colonial regimes, so I’m more amenable to hamas’ plight than most I think, but Oct. 7th is still pretty indefensible.
Having said all that, to make clear, I’m not defending Israel or their retributive genocide. Fuck them. But I don’t think we should go easy on Hamas’ war crimes either, so I don’t think the ICC is really ‘both-sides’-ing in this case.