[the_origami_fox]

There are many issues raised with the report, including it omits the invasion by the government of Gaza, Hamas, on 7 October 2023 entirely, and it omits that the Israeli army is fighting the army of Gaza, the Qasam brigades, who had 40,000 salaried fighters (pre-war), have fired thousands of missiles, developed hundreds of kilometres of tunnels specifically for urban warfare, and subverted public and private infrastructure for urban warfare. For such a serious allegation, it is important to consider and address all aspects and not simply omit them.

I would like to add, I don't think this topic is appropriate for Hacker News.

[Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe]

Is it actually relevant? It's not about why israel fights but about how they fight. The report is not about the conflict at large but about how exactly israel is handling day to day operations.

[toomim]

Genocide is about intent. The party must be acting with intent to destroy the nation or group.

So yes, it's about why they fight.

Here's another rebuttal: https://archive.is/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/opinio...

By the definition of genocide, it's actually Hamas that is genocidal. See: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/israel-law-review/ar... or the discussion on https://old.reddit.com/r/Israel/comments/1nm3jk8/genocide_is... for a lay interpretation with remarks from a Genocide scholar.

[dragonwriter]

> Genocide is about intent. The party must be acting with intent to destroy the nation or group

True, but provocation does not mitigate genocidal intent.

> By the definition of genocide, it's actually Hamas that is genocidal.

Hamas being genocidal, or even committing genocide, has no relevance to whether or not Israel is connitting genocide.

[tguvot]

the atlantic article from almost exactly year ago: https://archive.is/wKScw

-------------------

Brett McGurk would push back against the complaints, invoking his stint overseeing the siege of Mosul during the Obama administration, as the U.S. attempted to drive ISIS from northern Iraq: We flattened the city. There’s nothing left. What standard are you holding these Israelis to?

It was an argument bolstered by a classified cable sent by the U.S. embassy in Israel in late fall. American officials had embedded in IDF operating centers, reviewing its procedures for ordering air strikes. The cable concluded that the Israeli standards for protecting civilians and calculating the risks of bombardment were not so different from those used by the U.S. military.

When State Department officials chastised them over the mounting civilian deaths, Israeli officials liked to make the very same point. Herzl Halevi, the IDF chief of staff, brought up his own education at an American war college. He recalled asking a U.S. general how many civilian deaths would be acceptable in pursuit of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the jihadist leader of the anti-American insurgency in Iraq. The general replied, I don’t even understand the question. As Halevi now explained to the U.S. diplomats, Everything we do, we learned at your colleges.

-------------------------

in other words Israel using same approach as NATO armies. And if any of NATO armies will be in same situation, the outcome will be same.

[Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe]

Took me a while to figure out but this is the most literal whataboutism message I've had to read in a while.

It's not relevant what other countries did, why israel fights, where they got their weapon or training or ideas. It's only about how israel handles day to day operations.

I'd be happy to read reports about wether the US commited a genocide. And I don't want to read comparison with other countries in such reports.

[tguvot]

>It's not relevant what other countries did, why israel fights, where they got their weapon or training or ideas. It's only about how israel handles day to day operations.

and according to US diplomates israel handles day to day operations in same way as any western army will handle it, as it uses same procedures and protocols.

[epolanski]

Hamas never hid they targeted civilians to make Israel suffer.

It's Israel engaging in a genocide pretending to fight a terror group.