Iran: Unlawful Cluster Munition Strikes on Israel (www.thenationalherald.com)
from QUIC1DE@lemmy.zip to world@lemmy.world on 30 Mar 23:04
https://lemmy.zip/post/61698128

The Iranian government has repeatedly used inherently indiscriminate cluster munitions delivered by ballistic missiles in attacks on Israel since February 28, 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. At least four civilians have been killed in the strikes, which violate the laws of war and may amount to war crimes.

#world

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canadian_commie@lemmy.world on 30 Mar 23:18 next collapse

Israel uses white phosphorus. Cry more.

frongt@lemmy.zip on 31 Mar 00:24 next collapse

Against civilians in known populated areas, specifically.

QUIC1DE@lemmy.zip on 31 Mar 03:51 collapse

News flash for the clueless noob who think they are military experts with a “gotcha” moment- white phosphorus is a common, well known agent with many valid military uses. From Wikipedia:

White phosphorus is a highly efficient military substance used for creating immediate smoke screens to mask movement and infrared signatures. It is deployed in grenades, mortar rounds, and artillery shells for screening, target marking, and incendiary purposes, reacting with air to produce thick smoke. Primary Military Applications: Smoke Screens: Used in infantry grenades, artillery, and armored vehicle launchers to create an immediate, dense screen of phosphorus pentoxide vapor, blocking visibility and infrared, notes Wikipedia. Target Marking: Used by spotters to designate targets for artillery. Incendiary Agent: Utilized for its ability to burn at high temperatures.

White phosphorus is illegal only when used purposely against civilians. Given that southern Lebanon is sparsely populated and has been under evacuation orders for weeks, the use of white phosphorus itself is not indicative of a crime.

Not to mention, you seem to be equating ongoing mass attacks against millions of Israeli civilians in cities with tactical use of white phosphorus in an active battlefield? Shame on you.

canadian_commie@lemmy.world on 31 Mar 12:58 collapse

Found the boot licker.

QUIC1DE@lemmy.zip on 31 Mar 14:29 collapse

and to think you are actually a mod here. disgusting.

canadian_commie@lemmy.world on 31 Mar 14:34 collapse

I’m a mod? News to me.

QUIC1DE@lemmy.zip on 31 Mar 17:28 collapse

Sorry it’s hard to keep track of all the haters. I didn’t mean to promote you. Carry on.

canadian_commie@lemmy.world on 31 Mar 17:29 collapse

If you didn’t say moronic nonsense you’d have less haters.

sun_is_ra@sh.itjust.works on 30 Mar 23:41 next collapse

any post that even suggest Iran might be doing something wrong gets heavily down voted from bots.

I get it that each party in the war try to spread its propaganda but this is getting ridiculous. I hope mods do something about these bots

porcoesphino@mander.xyz on 31 Mar 01:07 collapse

There were comments in place with some justifications when you wrote this and you just ignored them?

sun_is_ra@sh.itjust.works on 31 Mar 01:45 collapse

I am not ignoring them. I am doing my part and reporting them to mods.

Don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with their comments but when you view their profile and see its 100% political posts and all about same topic (Russia/Iran/China are great and US/Israel is shit) then you’ll realize you’re dealing with bots.

I don’t want to spend my time arguing with ChatGPT or another language model

Archangel1313@lemmy.ca on 31 Mar 00:17 next collapse

War crimes are war crimes. Once one side crosses that line, the other side has less incentive to follow the rules as well.

And in this case, the US used cluster munitions on that girls school, so…

QUIC1DE@lemmy.zip on 31 Mar 03:17 collapse

You are factually wrong, on multiple accounts:

  1. It was widely reported that the girls school was hit with a Precision Strike Missile (PrSM). See BBC: www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx29mzmwdw2o

  2. As opposed to the intentional Iranian attacks, the girls school was a operational mistake, not a declared target. The official target was the adjacent IRGC base.

  3. Iran’s ballistic missiles deploy the separating clustered payload at 1-2km above a city and scatter bombs over a 5-10km radius. That’s 100s of thousands of civilians indiscriminately targeted by each Iranian missile.

  4. Iran has sent hundreds of such missiles at multiple cities. Each one is an intentional, calculated, premeditated war crime.

Archangel1313@lemmy.ca on 31 Mar 06:10 collapse

I think your information might be out of date regarding what the US used on that girls school.

QUIC1DE@lemmy.zip on 31 Mar 07:55 collapse

see, this is where the school of tiktok and CoD starts falling short of actual military knowledge. HE Fragmentation blasts (ie shrapnel shells, the “metal pellets” as explained in your link) are quite different than cluster munitions.

Fragmentation uses the primary explosion of the payload to propel metal fragments which are what deal the actual damage, as compared to a pure explosive in which the heat and explosive force are the main actors. Shrapnel shells just make the primary payload more effective (lethal), they have no effect on the accuracy or targeting of the delivery mechanism. If you have seen pictures of the PrSM impact which hit the school, it’s easy to see that the blast radius was tightly contained onto roughly the top 1/2 of the building.

Cluster munitions, on the other hand, are BY DESIGN meant to scatter across a large area, with each bomblet delivering its own individual explosive payload (which BTW may also be augmented with shrapnel). Each one of Iran’s missiles scatters tens of separate bomblets over a 5-10km radius, indiscriminately targeting whole city areas with 100Ks of civilians.

If you can’t tell the difference I can only conclude that you don’t WANT to see a difference between a single tragic targeting mistake vs ongoing intentional war crimes against broad swaths of civilian populations.

femtek@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 31 Mar 04:40 next collapse

bellingcat.com/…/us-iran-mines-israel-village-mis…

Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk on 31 Mar 04:42 next collapse

That would be awful except Iran, Israel and the USA all refused to sign the international agreement banning cluster munitions.

So you can’t really complain or take the moral highground.

And its only really a war crime if the countries involved signed the treaty of Rome.

Again, Israel, Iran and the USA refused to sign.

QUIC1DE@lemmy.zip on 31 Mar 07:38 collapse

got it. So by that logic I guess everything Israel does is also perfectly OK, since they didn’t sign it either. So every single complaint against Israel automatically lacks merit. Hooray, they are free to do whatever the F they feel like…

Brilliant. Flawless.

BTW Israel also hasn’t signed anything regarding nuclear weapons, so I guess they have your “moral highground” to pull those out too, right?

Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk on 31 Mar 08:24 next collapse

Missing the point.

The point I am trying to make is that you cannot complain about other countries using indiscriminate terror weapons like cluster munitions on you when you are guilty of doing the same thing.

If Israel and the USA were both signatories to the treaties banning their use then they’d probably getting more support from the international community…

As it stands, a country unwilling to ban their use and has demonstrated willingness to use them and to also indiscriminately bomb civilian areas has got absolutely no right to complain when it happens to them.

QUIC1DE@lemmy.zip on 31 Mar 09:06 next collapse

… and you are purposely missing the point that using a precision missile with a shrapnel warhead to attack a specific building is absolutely NOT equivalent to indiscriminately scattering 1000s of bomblets across entire cities. Especially when the former wasn’t even done by Israel, it was done by the US.

Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk on 31 Mar 09:36 collapse

Where did I say it was?

And still sickening considering the precision missile destroyed a school.

QUIC1DE@lemmy.zip on 31 Mar 10:12 collapse

yes I don’t think anyone disagrees with that. Terrible tragedies happen in war, that’s why most civilized countries try to avoid war whenever possible.

phutatorius@lemmy.zip on 31 Mar 09:48 collapse

you cannot complain about other countries using indiscriminate terror weapons like cluster munitions on you when you are guilty of doing the same thin

Sure you can. All it takes is to be a hypocrite.

Calfpupa@lemmy.ml on 31 Mar 10:02 collapse

everything Israel does is also perfectly OK, since they didn’t sign it either.

Well they certainly operate on this rule. Next you’ll say that people who believe in tolerance should tolerate genocide.

phutatorius@lemmy.zip on 31 Mar 09:46 collapse

But white phosphorus is OK, right? And attacking civilian infrastructure? And committing genocide against a captive population? And blockading that same population? And deliberately taregeting journalists and NGO workers? And launching wars of aggression?

QUIC1DE@lemmy.zip on 31 Mar 10:10 collapse

And how exactly is your laundry list of whataboutisms related to the topic of Iranian war crimes?