It is absolutely terrorism. When the pagers went off most of the people hit by them were in plain clothes, including a child, people were just seeing other randomly exploding and are adding strain to hospitals. This is a terrorist attack.
I think the point was that, for the people around, this was undistinguishable from suicide bombers, which are usually considered as terrorists.
Terrorism is meant to inspire terror and insecurity. This did exactly that.
Customary international humanitarian lawprohibits the use of booby traps – objects that civilians are likely to be attracted to or are associated with normal civilian daily use – precisely to avoid putting civilians at grave risk and produce the devastating scenes that continue to unfold across Lebanon today. The use of an explosive device whose exact location could not be reliably known would be unlawfully indiscriminate, using a means of attack that could not be directed at a specific military target and as a result would strike military targets and civilians without distinction.
It’s a good point
But the accusation isn’t flippant. That’s exactly what this is.
If the beepers and radios were targeted at Hezbollah militia members, then it isn’t terrorism.
If the equipment was sold in regular retail channels meant for the general Lebanese population, then it is terrorism.
We don’t know enough to make that call 100%, but early analysis is strongly suggesting it was targeted.
To call it terrorism at this point is flippant and unsupported, and draws attention away from and fails to highlight their larger crime of genocide.
It is absolutely terrorism. When the pagers went off most of the people hit by them were in plain clothes, including a child, people were just seeing other randomly exploding and are adding strain to hospitals. This is a terrorist attack.
Yes, and when we bombed Germany in WW2 we killed hundreds of children. War is bad. Terrorism is bad. But they are different things.
Genocide =/= war. Stop trying to justify genocidal terrorism on the basis of some imaginary “war”.
There is a difference between the actions in Gaza and the actions in Lebanon.
Too early to tell, but likely not
oh good, if i find myself an active combatant in a war-zone i should just chuck on a t-shirt.
Regrettable but civilian casualties in a war-zone are inevitable
they weren’t randoms, at the moment it seems they were Hezbollah
That’ll happen when a large number of combatants are taken out at once
I think the point was that, for the people around, this was undistinguishable from suicide bombers, which are usually considered as terrorists. Terrorism is meant to inspire terror and insecurity. This did exactly that.
Human Rights Watch called it unlawful:
There is no “war-zone”. There are no “combatants”.
There’s just genocidal terrorists murdering civilians in several different states.
Hezbollah have been firing rockets into israel for months, it absolutely is a warzone