Somehow I feel like Hamas doesn't run investigations when it kills civilians. Israel has just sacked 2 officers, reprimanded 3 more and passed the investigation to military lawyers for criminal charges.
Israel dismisses 2 officers over deadly drone strikes on aid workers in Gaza
I find it absolutely amazing that Hamas apologists cry for war crimes investigations but fail to see there are significantly more happening from their side which are celebrated by the government. No side has clean hands here but at least 1 is appearing to ensure warfare is conducted in relation to LoAC.
You're absolutely correct. I just want to add some points.
The international concept of dealing with war crimes is that each country should have a set of laws defining war crimes and investigating and prosecuting their own people for war crimes committed by them. This is exactly what happens within Western powers and Israel. The ICC only becomes involved in circumstances where a country does not fulfill its obligations. In short the ICC complements and does not replace national judicial systems respecting war crimes.
To put it into specific terms for this conflict, Israel should continue to investigate and prosecute alleged war crimes events. On the other hand, since there is no evidence that Palestinians are investigating or prosecuting the massive war crimes that they have committed, the ICC should conduct an investigation against Palestine.
What makes the issue even more interesting is that Israel has never become a party to the Rome Statute and as such the ICC has no general jurisdiction to prosecute any Israeli citizens. Israel was a signatory but later revoked its standing due to many reasons including the "invention of new war crimes by the court," and the political isolation of Israel in the UN and its exclusion of membership in UN regional groups. OTOH, Palestine is a party to the Statute and there is no impediment to stop the ICC from investigating the myriad of war crimes committed by Hamas and Palestinians.
In effect. however, the office of prosecutor Karim Khan of the ICC (who has visited bit Israel and Palestine) is investigating the circumstances of Oct 7th and the subsequent actions by all parties. It will be interesting to see if this will be an even handed investigation. Whatever reports or actions will come out of this is to be seen in the decades to come.
To get to the incident of the 3 WCK vehicles in question. Were the three vehicles deliberately targeted? The evidence is clear that they were but, on the mistaken belief that they were occupied by Hamas personnel. The issue isn't deliberate targeting of WCK workers but whether there was a breakdown in the coordination and targeting operations within the IDF. It appears there were and Israel will be taking action. It is doubtful whether those actions will satisfy some elements of the Israeli or Palestinian or international communities as all of these parties seem to have already rushed to judgement in the case. Their beliefs are deeply engrained and will not be swayed by facts.
I've been watching this thread now for several days and while I'm a great fan of the open discourse we have here, I'm highly suspicious of the postings by one member who has hardly ever participated in any discussions. There was a quick series of drive-by posts concerning the attempted coup in Turkey in 2016 and then - nothing - until a few days ago with what are, IMHO, highly provocative and trolling posts. Quite frankly, I can't understand why some of the more reasonable and even handed members of this forum are even giving him the satisfaction of calling him out and engaging in arguments with him (or it if its a bot or info ops campaign like I consider it to be). We all have the ability to use the "ignore" function on this site and the moderators will, in time, clean house.
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