The terror groups Hezbollah and Hamas have for years launched rockets into Israel, in the general direction of kibbutzim, towns, and cities. Most often they land harmlessly; sometimes they manage to achieve a palpable hit, knocking a hole in a building. Thanks to safe rooms which Israelis run to when the sirens sound their warnings of incoming rockets.. These rockets are sent skyward toward Israel with the hope that they may possibly hit a building or someone who did not get to a shelter in time. Very occasionally, a civilian may be killed. Now Hezbollah has started to employ a different kind of attack, using not rockets but laser-guided anti-tank missiles fired not into the sky, but directly at houses in Israel. Elder of Ziyon has characterized this as “a new war crime.” More on Hezbollah’s “war crime” can be found here: “Hezbollah has innovated a brand new war crime. Human rights groups don’t give a damn.,” Elder of Ziyon, January 16, 2024:
On Monday [January 15], Hezbollah shot two anti-tank missiles at a house in Kfar Yuval. Mira Ayalon, 76, and her son Barak Ayalon, 48, were killed.
Hezbollah has been using laser guided anti-tank missiles a great deal since they started their fighting with Israel in October.
There is a qualitative difference between Hamas-style rockets and these missiles. First of all, there is no defense for a home or building targeted by such missiles. Iron Dome cannot defend against them; the missiles are shot at ground level.
No anti-missile system meant to intercept airborne missiles, such as Iron Dome, can possibly stop a missile that is not shot into the air, but remains close to ground level.
Secondly, they cannot miss. They use lasers or radar to guide them to their target.
These missiles are not shot into the air in the direction of an Israeli town or city, but are sent hurtling toward a specific target at close to ground level, beneath the IDF’s radar until — guided by lasers or radar — they hit that target. Flying at that low level, far beneath enemy radar, they cannot be shot down, and as precision-guided missiles, they do not miss.
Which means that this is a different quality of war crime than the Qassam-style rockets. The violation of the laws of war for Qassam rockets is violating the principle of distinction – indiscriminate fire does not distinguish between civilian and military targets; the rockets are shot in the general direction of a town and the terrorists don’t know exactly where the rockets will land. They are tools of terror but Hamas can (and does) claim that they really only want to shoot military targets but just don’t have the tools to be that precise. It is an obvious lie – in Arabic they happily admit they want to terrorize Jewish civilians – but they can at least make that claim.
Here, Hezbollah deliberately aimed at a civilian house. Their own video makes this quite obvious.
Hezbollah’s previous war crime consisted in its indiscriminate firing of missiles in the general direction of Israeli towns, having little idea of where, among a civilian population, they would land, or if they would cause any damage. It is the indiscriminateness of these attacks aimed at civilian areas, that are intended to sow terror in a civilian population that constitutes the war crime.
But the anti-tank missiles that Hezbollah has just used to attack a house in northern Israel, killing a mother and son as they sat down to dinner, are “war crimes” for a different reason: they hit what they aim towards, and their firing is not “indiscriminate” but precise, and deliberately aimed at civilian targets.
And they have shot scores of anti-tank missiles at homes, public buildings, chicken coops, businesses and vehicles have been hit by this fire.
The deliberate nature of knowingly and provably aiming at unquestionably civilian objects – and civilians – changes things from the violation of the laws of armed conflict to a grave breach of international law. It is the moral equivalent of holding a gun at a civilian’s head and pulling the trigger.
Hezbollah has been aiming these weapons at civilian targets for months. One would think that human rights groups would be up in arms about using a weapon that is directly aimed at civilians.
One would be wrong….
In the past, Hezbollah would launch rockets into the sky in the direction of populated areas of northern Israel, hoping that these indiscriminate attacks just might hit something but that was only a bonus. The terror group knew that even without hitting buildings or people, they were sowing terror, as sirens would sound and Israelis would run to their safe rooms, repeatedly having their lives disrupted. Now Hezbollah is aiming anti-tank missiles that fly close to the ground and parallel to it, undetected by Israeli radar, impossible for Iron Dome to shoot down, and able to precisely hit civilian targets.
The anti-tank missile used by Hezbollah in this latest murderous attack on the northern Galilee was shot directly at the house where the 76-year-old Mira Ayalon and her 48-year-old son were sitting down to dinner. Hezbollah was not firing indiscriminately. It knew precisely that it was firing at a civilian residence that posed no military threat. It placed a gun to the head of this inoffensive family, and pulled the trigger. This is a war crime.
Ian Senior says
These crimes go unreported in mainstream media. It shows the prejudice towards the Jewish People and Jewish nation.
The protests in Britain by Hamas supporters is an abuse of British freedoms and hospitality. Hamas is the aggressor not Israel.
Ray Jarman says
Good Point Ian Senior.
It seems that the MSM worldwide is complicit for if this is not reported, how are people to react and demand that their governments take proper action. Also, when someone does not know what is happening, it is impossible to react. It is like walking around while wearing a blindfold. As we have witnessed in the past, most western governments, if not all, are cowards.
Ray Jarman says
Good Point Ian Senior.
It seems that the MSM worldwide is complicit for if this is not reported, how are people to react and demand that their governments take proper action. Also, when someone does not know what is happening, it is impossible to react. It is like walking around while wearing a blindfold. As we have witnessed in the past, most western governments, if not all, are cowards.
Mike says
Exactly. If the IDF strike a residential area, it’s because they are targeting missiles or terrorists who have honeycombed themselves in that area, and not because they (the IDF) are intentionally trying to kill innocent civilians.
The brutal, evil savages of Hamas and Hezbollah, on the other hand, deliberately target innocent Israel civilians in residences which pose no military threat.
Hopefully the Mossad will hunt down and kill all of the Hezbollah and Hamas leaders to avenge the murders of this elderly lady and her son, and many other Israeli civilians killed in the genocide by Islamofascist terrorists.
Walter Sieruk says
What else can any informed person expect from that Quran based, 9;5, 123, 47:4, Islamic terror /murder machine ,Hezbollah ,expect war crimes ?
That’s the very essence of Islam’s vile and heinous brutal cruel murderous jihad
ed says
How did they get these missiles?
WPM says
Ukraine black market ,or US weapons left in Afghanistan come to mine. In the article it does not say who made the weapons’ or the how these savages’ obtained them .
ed says
If and when they get nukes if they haven’t already they will no doubt use them
Samblamm says
Time to recolonize and follow the Golden Rule.
WPM says
Right now Islamic army of “refugees” is colonizing Europe and the Americas. With the blessing of the leaders of those countries. I give it about 4 months when plans to “resettle” Gaza “refugees” into either Canada or America ,hell just show up at Americas southern border then get a bus or plane ride to a blue city in a blue state easy.
terry says
Globalism, Marxism, Islam, Cartels are all criminal entities, and colluding with each other. Toss in their hordes of blood-thirsty zombies, Foundations, Grants, and untold supra-national organizations, and here we are, being enslaved, oppressed, murdered, raped, harvested, and even more countless gruesome violence under guises of agendas said to be good for all of us! Deception, delusion, demonic, and devilish. Stop embracing their world wide visions of the ‘system of the beast’; cease running with the crowds in the streets of their ‘Mystery Whore of Babylon’: Revelations 18:4 “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”