Israel declares siege of Gaza as Hamas threatens to start killing hostages
theguardian.com
Highlight:
“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel, everything is closed,” Gallant said. “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”
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Oh, so war crimes are justified as long as the other side does it first?
Potentially, sure. Things like carpet bombing civilian areas, certain uses of minefields, certain munitions, etc are banned by convention but the thing about the Geneva Conventions are that they are a mutual treaty. Your nation agrees not to do it to other signatories or nations or forces that have otherwise agreed to the limitations as well.
In this case? No. Not at all justified. Hamas might not agree to the Conventions, and thus don't benefit from the protections, but the moment they suspended elections they lost the right to claim they represent the Gaza Strip, even if Israel didn't claim it as territory regardless.
Israel is a signatory of the Conventions, and the Gaza Strip is their claimed land, this is a war crime against people they claim as their own, the actions of what amounts to a domestic terrorist network is irrelevant to whether they can starve people into submission.
A standard genocidal tactic of imperialists everywhere, mind you, from the Irish famine, to the Holodomor, to the Bengal Famines.
Israel doesn't claim Gaza though
Fair enough, it's just the rest of the world that says they act like they do whatever they officially claim, while they refuse to recognize everything necessary for Palestine to exist as a functional state.
Oh most certainly. Palestine as a whole isn't a functional state, just the Gaza Strip (albeit under varying degrees of blockade since Hamas was elected and won the civil war). I'd consider the W.B to be occupied/undergoing a slow process of annexation. I think the most realistic solution for the citizens of the W.B is that they at some point in the future get the option to become Israeli citizens with all the rights (and responsibilities) that entails.
How do you explain the illegal Israeli settlements there then?
There aren't any.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_statistics_for_Israeli_settlements_in_the_Gaza_Strip
well, I stand corrected.
You're thinking of the West Bank.
yeah probably
Israel unilaterally removed itself from the gaza strip all most 20 years ago. They only sell infrastructure to the gazan government.