News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices. Parent comment

Re:Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices by emmelaich on Monday May 06, 2024 @02:01PM (#40277516)
This talk of a ratio is mostly irrelevant. Palestinians are not being killed as a matter of retribution. They are being killed as enemies or collateral in the pursuit of enemies.

If Israel could neutralise Hamas and retrieve the hostages with zero casualties, they would do it. That's obviously impossible.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices by ethbr1 on Monday May 06, 2024 @04:22PM (#40279053)
Israel could nuke Gaza and kill most of Hamas.

Presumably we all agree that's unacceptable.

So somewhere between "zero collateral civilian casualties" and "all collateral civilizian casualties" is warranted.

Which leads to a debate about where the line should be.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices by Sabinus on Monday May 06, 2024 @05:46PM (#40279870)
With the ratio of the dead being about 4 civilians to every 1 Hamas fighter it checks out with other major wars. Considering Hamas is a gurella force that's actually quite good.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices by ethbr1 on Tuesday May 07, 2024 @01:21PM (#40288688)
Gen Westmoreland might provide some insight on the consequences of making enemy KIA the reward function, and the incentives that back-propogates to the classifier.

And to the IDF's credit, as much as I have issue with their absent strategic goals and tactical choices, they are fighting a guerrilla insurgence in one of the most density populated areas in the world.

So, it could have been worse? But it still isn't great.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices by bakuninsbart on Tuesday May 07, 2024 @07:59AM (#40284481)
The ratio of civilian to military deaths of the October 7th attack is very similar to Israel's in Gaza, around two thirds.

Israel has been caught multiple times willfully killing civilians in this conflict, and there are hundreds of statements by politicians, officers and soldiers calling for atrocities or even genocide. Israel is not a moral actor, and far more comparable to Hamas than any real democracy.

[ Parent | on HN ]