Israel using trebuchet to fire flaming projectile at Hezbollah
Israeli soldiers on the northern border have been seen using a medieval catapult-like weapon to shoot flaming projectiles into Lebanon, igniting plantations to prevent Hezbollah fighters from infiltrating into the south.
Footage widely shared on social media shows the soldiers loading a trebuchet and flinging fireballs into Lebanese territory. "This is a local initiative and not a tool that is widely used," the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement, denying that this is a widely adopted tactic by the forces.
https://www.newsweek.com/israel-idf-trebuchet-catapult-lebanon-hezbollah-1912442Open linkView original on lemmy.world201
Comments30
His ultimate dream fantasy consisted of being content and sleeping eight hours in a row.
Yeah, that's not the real reason. Might be a secondary reason, but just like in Gaza, destruction of food sources and civilian property is NOT incidental. It's very much a deliberate tactic, which is a war crime.
Sooo... just bog-standard "counter-insurgency," then?
No. Just because the US military does it with impunity doesn't mean it's standard and not a war crime.
Strange... I could swear it was the exact same strategy used by colonialist forces since colonialism began, including every European power in Africa, right up to modern-day conflicts such as the Anglo-Malayan War, the Vietnam War, and pretty much everything Israel has done right up to this very day.
Are you saying it was all war crimes?
Yeah, international humanitarian laws weren't codified because nobody was doing things that they should never do..
All the instances of targeting civilians and food sources as a weapon of war? You bet your ass I am.
Well... fine, then.
No, it was added to the Geneva convention in 1977
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation_(crime)
So something is only evil once a pack of institutionalized racketeers writes a bunch of legalese about it?
Well, the question was on the practice's legality, not its morality.
So yes.
I'd say that there's a whole lot more to it than merely it's legality and/or morality.
Depends on whether you define a crime as a "legal" bad action or a "moral" bad action. While the latter may be problematic, because anyone can have different values, it is still widely considered a bad thing to kill people who did not do anything.
Is that all there is to it, though? The backlash against Israel since Oct 7 isn't adequately explained by either... neither is the generalized silence on Israel's behavior before Oct 7.
I'm reminded here of Sun Tzu's concept of "moral law" - which neither concerns itself with morality nor law, but rather the credibility of the actors in question.
Well, it is the superior siege engine.
preferred superior siege engine
Just like the Old Testament!
That's the only testament they know.
The new testament was just as boring. I gave it a 3/10. Plot point was all over the place, inconsistencies , unbelievable characters ,and the motivation seemed force. Would not recommend.
I might be wrong, but didn't Einstein say something about WW3 being fought with a club? Maybe this is the beginning of that developement back to the roots.
Snopes says this sentiment was actually expressed by Einstein, though perhaps not in this exact phrasing.
relevant xkcd
WW4
Shooting balls of fire might be medieval, but the IDF doesn't care about rules of war and Geneva convention anyway. "eh war crime shmore crime, am I right?"
"catapult like" they fucking wish
Slightly more HD version here on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgJmAK-MxhQ
For what it’s worth, this is the only article I can find that says it was for burning “plantations.”
From NBC News
Or, if you prefer an outlet with a different perspective…
From Middle East Eye
What israel is allowed to do it create a buffer zone within their own territories. Move back their Nazi colony.
What israel is not allowed to do is create a buffer zone in Lebanon by burning farmland and acres to the ground. Which they subsequently use as excuse to expand their Lebensraum on.