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Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by ardfard on Tuesday September 17, 2024 @08:38PM (#41574436)
> Some of the initial footage shows such a device going off while innocent bystanders remain unharmed.

This is false. Many innocents are killed including children[1]. You can even see in the footage, the device exploded while someone was shopping in a busy market. You can't determine where the device is when the bomb is activated. This is an indiscriminate attack.

https://apnews.com/article/lebanon-israel-hezbollah-pager-ex...

Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by 1over137 on Tuesday September 17, 2024 @08:48PM (#41574504)
>This is an indiscriminate attack.

It’s the opposite. They discriminated carefully.

Perhaps you mean to say innocent bystanders also were collateral damage, which certainly seems true also.

Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by stahtops on Wednesday September 18, 2024 @12:38AM (#41575851)
They may have discriminated carefully on which devices were modified, but any care or intelligence ends there.

When they triggered the bombs, they can’t have known who or what was in the blast radius. Video shows one going off in a produce market. The fact that those variables are uncontrolled make it indiscriminate, by definition.

Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by BjoernKW on Tuesday September 17, 2024 @08:51PM (#41574523)
> This is false. Many innocents are killed including children

That article - just like all other sources - mentions one 8-year-old girl, not "many innocents" and not several children either. Hence, this is deliberate misinformation.

> You can't determine where the device is when the bomb is activated.

You absolutely can. It's highly likely to be in the targeted person's pocket. Where else would it be?

After all, people usually don't hand their phones to random strangers or leave them lying around - and those pagers aren't even mere personal devices used for private purposes. Why would any of those devices end up anywhere else but the pocket of the person using it?

> This is an indiscriminate attack.

Launching rockets at civilians is. Blowing up pagers explicitly used for terrorist activities isn't.

Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by Ichthypresbyter on Tuesday September 17, 2024 @10:13PM (#41575022)
>After all, people usually don't hand their phones to random strangers or leave them lying around - and those pagers aren't even mere personal devices used for private purposes

And even compared to a phone, the limited functionality of a pager means the owner isn't going to hand it to a friend to show them a funny video or sports highlight, or to a kid to let them play games on it.

Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by necovek on Wednesday September 18, 2024 @12:56AM (#41575948)
TBH, toddlers and younger kids would find pagers extremely fun: if you are at home, I wouldn't think that too far fetched.

However, since children causalties are "good anti-propaganda", any more would have certainly been reported, so I doubt there are more. Still, how successful targeting was is anyone's guess.

Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by wholinator2 on Tuesday September 17, 2024 @09:15PM (#41574694)
> You absolutely can. It's highly likely to be in the targeted person's pocket.

This seems intentionally avoiding the point. Duh, it's a pager. The real question is can the person donating the explosive tell if the pocket is completely isolated from innocents or if it's standing in a crowded line sitting very near to a childs head.

I do believe that Israel _tried_ to discriminate but its an explosive, you can only aim those to a point. Israel wasn't deliberately trying to kill children/harm innocents, Isreal did knowingly engage in a set of actions where it was possible outcome.

I want to be clear i am not trying to choose a side. These are actions of war in the 21st century.

Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by colordrops on Wednesday September 18, 2024 @12:26AM (#41575783)
You are totally right but the Israeli propaganda apparatus is so powerful and comprehensive that they are right here in this thread downvoting comments in mass. It's sickening.
Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by __m on Wednesday September 18, 2024 @03:49AM (#41576961)
Are they in the same room with us now?
Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by dredmorbius on Wednesday September 18, 2024 @02:28PM (#41583681)
Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email [email protected] and we'll look at the data.

<https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by ardfard on Tuesday September 17, 2024 @09:18PM (#41574703)
> After all, people usually don't hand their phones to random strangers or leave them lying around - and those pagers aren't even mere personal devices used for private purposes. Why would any of those devices end up anywhere else but the pocket of the person using it?

I leave my phone all the time, my kids are actually playing games on it. Also, I can be on public transportation, I can be driving, near a flammable object, or boarding a plane. As demonstrated an 8-year-old girl died, it's enough proof that an innocent died.

Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by hackerknew on Tuesday September 17, 2024 @09:54PM (#41574929)
I think the part you are missing is that this was not an ordinary cellphone. These were pagers handed out by Hezbollah to the militants in their organization so they could communicate, specifically because they did not want to use ordinary cellphones out of fear of being tracked.

The only person who would be likely to have such a pager is a Hezbollah militant who is deemed responsible for secret Hezbollah information (i.e. mid-to-high ranking members). While it is technically possible that such a pager would get into the wrong hands, that would be the fault of the person who left his pager on the table or let his family play with it.

Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by ardfard on Tuesday September 17, 2024 @10:29PM (#41575124)
> While it is technically possible that such a pager would get into the wrong hands, that would be the fault of the person who left his pager on the table or let his family play with it.

What the hell? Why isn't it the fault of the one who detonates the bomb? This sets a dangerous precedent for attacking unsuspecting army personnel, even when they're off-duty. I don't think people's stance would be the same if this were done to off-duty IDF or US Army personnel and when they just doing ordinary things in public, for example. Moreover, Hezbollah is also a political party, and it's not just their military wing that's being targeted.

Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by jdietrich on Tuesday September 17, 2024 @11:53PM (#41575620)
>This sets a dangerous precedent for attacking unsuspecting army personnel

Israel and Hezbollah are at a state of war. Hezbollah is a paramilitary organisation that does not meaningfully distinguish between military and civilian staff. There is already a very clear legal precedent - being an unsuspecting or off-duty combatant offers you no protection under international humanitarian law. Unless you're hors de combat, you're a legitimate target at all times. Sabotage of this type is an entirely legitimate ruse of war.

Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by murderfs on Wednesday September 18, 2024 @04:05AM (#41577068)
By that logic, aren't the vast majority of Israeli adults legitimate military targets due to mandatory conscription and reserve service?
Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by jdietrich on Sunday September 22, 2024 @03:02AM (#41615150)
"While in some countries, entire segments of the population between certain ages may be drafted into the armed forces in the event of armed conflict, only those persons who are actually drafted, i.e., who are actually incorporated into the armed forces, can be considered combatants. Potential mobilization does not render the person concerned a combatant liable to attack."

https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule3

Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by hackerknew on Tuesday September 17, 2024 @10:43PM (#41575217)
Given that the pagers are for secret messages to be sent between militants, it would be highly unlikely for them to end up in the wrong hands unless the militant is being irresponsible.

Certainly you would not expect somebody in the military to leave a loaded gun around the house. But, also it should be obvious that they would not leave their radio device for transmitting top-secret information either due to the implications of having such information and how that would affect the safety of family members.

It is likely that nobody could have expected their pager to literally explode. But, military or merely involved in the "political" side, anybody who lets their family play with such a radio/pager is putting their family at risk.

Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by ouEight12 on Wednesday September 18, 2024 @12:20AM (#41575747)
> This sets a dangerous precedent for attacking unsuspecting army personnel, even when they're off-duty.

Warzones don't have a day shift and a night shift...

Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by ardfard on Wednesday September 18, 2024 @12:52AM (#41575919)
All of Lebanon is not an active Warzone
Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by xupybd on Tuesday September 17, 2024 @10:16PM (#41575048)
I think the struggle here is that the combatants aren't on a battlefield in these modern wars. They're walking around a city full of civilians. Observing this it's hard not to feel like it wasn't a military target, however it clearly was.
Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by hackerknew on Tuesday September 17, 2024 @10:47PM (#41575250)
Not only that, but from reports, it sounds like they deliberately sent an alert several seconds before detonation to ensure that the user of the pager would be the direct target. Or perhaps that was just the time it took for the fuse to detonate the explosive? Either way, some of the videos out there show the incredible precision that the owner of the pager was taken down and people in the vicinity were unscathed.
Re:Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon by IAmGraydon on Tuesday September 17, 2024 @10:49PM (#41575260)
Yep. That happens. It’s war.