Israel's Precision Pager Attack Against Hezbollah Was Legal Under International Law

[duluxe]

This week, in a scene one would expect from a Hollywood thriller, thousands of pagers and walkie talkies exploded across Lebanon and the Middle East, killing, maiming, or severely injuring thousands of Hezbollah terrorists.

Although the attacks were immediately attributed to Israel, the Jewish state has so far not claimed responsibility. In the event that Israel did carry out the operation, it could only be understood as the most audacious and unprecedented counter-terrorism precision attack in military history, and one that was entirely justified and in full accordance with international law.

The attack not only disrupted Hezbollah's terrorist capabilities and infrastructure; it re-established Israeli deterrence and leveled psychological trauma on the entire terror organization, from its leader Hassan Nasrallah, to the most junior of Hezbollah foot soldiers, who now know that no-one is safe, and every terrorist can be reached at any time.

Lest you be swayed by the false and malicious narratives of those trying to defend Hezbollah or blame the Jewish state, some necessary context is in order.

A photo taken on September 18, 2024, in Beirut's southern suburbs shows the remains of exploded pagers on display at an undisclosed location. Hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon on September.


First, Hezbollah is a Lebanese-based jihadist terrorist organization and a standing army that is funded, supplied by, and serves entirely at the behest of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Like Hamas, Hezbollah also has genocidal intentions to annihilate Israel and kill all the Jews, intentions which they have made repeatedly clear and have continuously sought to act on. Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah has said that that the entire Middle East will not rest until the "cancerous gland" that is Israel is removed, and on October 8 last year, a day after the Hamas massacre, Hezbollah formally joined the war in the wistful hope that they might help eradicate the Jewish state.

 

[JohnTan]

This week, in a scene one would expect from a Hollywood thriller, thousands of pagers and walkie talkies exploded across Lebanon and the Middle East, killing, maiming, or severely injuring thousands of Hezbollah terrorists.

Although the attacks were immediately attributed to Israel, the Jewish state has so far not claimed responsibility. In the event that Israel did carry out the operation, it could only be understood as the most audacious and unprecedented counter-terrorism precision attack in military history, and one that was entirely justified and in full accordance with international law.

The attack not only disrupted Hezbollah's terrorist capabilities and infrastructure; it re-established Israeli deterrence and leveled psychological trauma on the entire terror organization, from its leader Hassan Nasrallah, to the most junior of Hezbollah foot soldiers, who now know that no-one is safe, and every terrorist can be reached at any time.

Lest you be swayed by the false and malicious narratives of those trying to defend Hezbollah or blame the Jewish state, some necessary context is in order.

A photo taken on September 18, 2024, in Beirut's southern suburbs shows the remains of exploded pagers on display at an undisclosed location. Hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon on September.


First, Hezbollah is a Lebanese-based jihadist terrorist organization and a standing army that is funded, supplied by, and serves entirely at the behest of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Like Hamas, Hezbollah also has genocidal intentions to annihilate Israel and kill all the Jews, intentions which they have made repeatedly clear and have continuously sought to act on. Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah has said that that the entire Middle East will not rest until the "cancerous gland" that is Israel is removed, and on October 8 last year, a day after the Hamas massacre, Hezbollah formally joined the war in the wistful hope that they might help eradicate the Jewish state.

Denazifying islamic terrorists and their supporters is always legal.

 

[laksaboy]

No one should debate the legality of pest extermination.

 

[duluxe]

Since then, Hezbollah has fired more than 8,500 rockets at Israel, each an unquestionable war crime, murdering 47 people, including 12 children who were struck while playing football in the Majdal Shams massacre in July. In the meantime, over 80,000 Israelis have also been displaced from their homes in the north of the country, as a result of the ongoing attacks.

Generally speaking, under Article 7 of the Amended Protocol II to the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, the use of booby traps in communication devices are indeed prohibited in certain situations. There is, of course, an overriding caveat, which is that pursuant to Article 52 of the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Convention I, such acts are permissible in circumstances where the objects in question are no longer used for civilian purposes.

In this case, the pagers and hand-held devices, which were distributed specifically to Hezbollah operatives, were being used for the purposes of communicating, planning and conducting operations. As such, they immediately ceased to be considered "civilian objects" and became legitimate military targets.

Accordingly, their destruction constitutes a clear military objective under customary international law (per Art. 52 of the Additional Protocols), and they are a lawful target of attack.

Under the Principle of Distinction, one of the cornerstone principles of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), parties to an armed conflict must also at all times distinguish between civilians and combatants.

 

[duluxe]

No one should debate the legality of pest extermination.

The forum ChiCom @superpower think it is terrorism attack, you are slapping him on his right cheek.

 

[laksaboy]

The forum ChiCom @superpower think it is terrorism attack, you are slapping him on his right cheek.

Of course, the CCP regime under Winnie has more or less sided with the anti-Israel Muslim countries in the Middle East, which wasn't the case before Winnie took the throne.

And for the pro-CCP doggies, whatever their masters want they will bark the same tune. It's the same with anti-Japanese sentiments.

 

[myfoot123]

International law does not exist. The world is ruled by self serving Western laws.

 

[laksaboy]

International law does not exist. The world is ruled by self serving Western laws.

The law does not matter when you are exterminating rats and cockroaches.

 

[myfoot123]

The law does not matter when you are exterminating rats and cockroaches.

Based on your logic, that should rightly include CECAland.

 

[True Believer]

States cannot battle terrorism using kid's gloves

 

[superpower]

The forum ChiCom @superpower think it is terrorism attack, you are slapping him on his right cheek.

The former CIA chief doesn't agree with you.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveb...tion-of-hezbollah-pagers-a-form-of-terrorism/

Former CIA chief Panetta calls mass detonation of Hezbollah pagers ‘a form of terrorism’​

​

By JACOB MAGID
FOLLOW
23 September 2024, 8:24 pm

• 85

Outgoing US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, February 2013. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

Former CIA chief and defense secretary Leon Panetta says the mass detonation of Hezbollah communication devices, widely attributed to Israel is “a form of terrorism.”

“The ability to be able to place an explosive in technology that is very prevalent these days and turn it into a war of terror. This is something new,” Panetta tells CB
S.
“This has gone right into the supply chain. When you have terror going into the supply chain, it makes people ask the question, ‘What the hell is next?’ This is a tactic that has repercussions, and we really don’t know what those repercussions are going to be,” he continues.

“The forces of war are largely in control right now of what’s going on,” the former CIA chief adds.

Pressed on whether the US should condemn Israel for the operation, Panetta dodges.

“I think it’s going to be very important for the nations of the world to have a serious discussion about whether or not this is an area that everybody has to focus on because if they don’t try to deal with it now, mark my word, it is the battlefield of the future,” he says.

 

[superpower]

Even the New York Times - usually a staunch supporter of Israel - is calling the pager attacks terrorism. Israel is a terrorist state. Period.​

---

Israel’s Pager Bombs Have No Place in a Just War​

Sept. 21, 2024

By Michael Walzer

Mr. Walzer is the author of “Just and Unjust Wars” and the co-editor of “The Jewish Political Tradition.”

The exploding pagers and walkie-talkies targeting members of Hezbollah in Lebanon were certainly an espionage and technological coup. Few people on the spot or reading about them from far away could fail to be amazed. But the explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday were also very likely war crimes — terrorist attacks by a state that has consistently condemned terrorist attacks on its own citizens.

Yes, the devices most probably were being used by Hezbollah operatives for military purposes. This might make them a legitimate target in the continuous cross-border battles between Israel and Hezbollah. But the attacks, which killed at least 37 people and wounded thousands of others, came when the operatives were not operating; they had not been mobilized and they were not militarily engaged. Rather, they were at home with their families, sitting in cafes, shopping in food markets — among civilians who were randomly killed and injured.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the attacks but is widely believed to be behind them. If those allegations are true, it is important for friends of Israel to say: This was not right.

The theory of just war depends heavily on the distinction between combatants and civilians. In contemporary warfare, these two groups are often mixed together in the same spaces — often, indeed, deliberately mixed together, because the killing of civilians invites moral condemnation. The war that Hamas designed in Gaza is a grim illustration of the strategy of putting civilians at risk for political gain. Still, a military responding to this strategy has to do everything it can to avoid or minimize civilian casualties. Israel claims to be doing that in Gaza, although serious criticism of its conduct there has appeared in media around the world, not to mention a case brought against Israeli and Hamas officials alike at the International Criminal Court alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/21/opinion/lebanon-pagers-israel-gaza-war-crimes.html

 

[duluxe]

The former CIA chief doesn't agree with you.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveb...tion-of-hezbollah-pagers-a-form-of-terrorism/

Former CIA chief Panetta calls mass detonation of Hezbollah pagers ‘a form of terrorism’​

​

By JACOB MAGID
FOLLOW
23 September 2024, 8:24 pm

• 85

Outgoing US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, February 2013. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

Former CIA chief and defense secretary Leon Panetta says the mass detonation of Hezbollah communication devices, widely attributed to Israel is “a form of terrorism.”

“The ability to be able to place an explosive in technology that is very prevalent these days and turn it into a war of terror. This is something new,” Panetta tells CB
S.
“This has gone right into the supply chain. When you have terror going into the supply chain, it makes people ask the question, ‘What the hell is next?’ This is a tactic that has repercussions, and we really don’t know what those repercussions are going to be,” he continues.

“The forces of war are largely in control right now of what’s going on,” the former CIA chief adds.

Pressed on whether the US should condemn Israel for the operation, Panetta dodges.

“I think it’s going to be very important for the nations of the world to have a serious discussion about whether or not this is an area that everybody has to focus on because if they don’t try to deal with it now, mark my word, it is the battlefield of the future,” he says.

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His points are not very convincing, as it is very clear cut the pagers were used as military devices and not civilian devices. But i agree with him on the point Israel has set a precedence for future warfare.

 

[superpower]

His points are not very convincing, as it is very clear cut the pagers were used as military devices and not civilian devices. But i agree with him on the point Israel has set a precedence for future warfare.

A military device that is set off in public killing and maiming innocent civilians as collateral damage is a civilian device.

If the Israeli can program the pagers to detonate only when the Hezbollah target is alone shitting in his toilet, then I'll take back my terrorism claim. Until then, Israel is a terrorist state.

 

[congo9]

All these israel and Lebanon and middle east matter, we don't interfere.
The mid east terrorist and they country supporting the attack against israel is asking for it !