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by bawolff 814 days ago
> That is, only members of the armed wing of Hamas (not recruiters, weapon manufacturers,..

I think the loop-hole here is that a weapon manufacturing facility is almost certainly a military strategic target, and international law allows you to target the infrastructure provided the military advantage gained is porportional to the civilian death.

So you can't target the individuals but according to international law its fine to target the building they are in while the individuals are still inside provided its militarily worth it.

1 comments

But presumably if you can target the building e.g. at night when nobody is there, that's preferable to targeting it during the day when there may be more civilian workers.
Exactly! The key difference is that the worker still count as civilians in the calculus that considers whether an attack is proportional (anticipated military advantage vs expected civilian effects) and whether the attacker took all feasible precautions to avoid and minimize civilian loss, including attacking at night, using tailored weaponry, giving a warning, …