Quote:
Originally Posted by Bownesian
Civilian deaths as a percentage of total deaths in this war are not out of line with other conflicts:
WWII - 60-70% civilians
Korea - 75% civilians
Vietnam - 67% civilians
Chechnya - 87% civilians
NATO in Yugoslavia - 50% civilians
NATO in Afghanistan - 28% civilians
IRAQ II - 33% civilians
Battle of Mosul vs ISIS (probably the most similar) - ~50% civilians
For the Hamas attack on Oct 7 - 67% civilians (plus unknown hostage deaths)
For the Israeli counterattack in Gaza:
Hamas' estimate - 67%-100% civilians
Israel's estimate - 50% civilians
US estimate - 60% civilians
Most of the non-Gaza conflicts had units fighting away from civilian centers, which is not the case here.
Because Hamas embeds themselves amongst civilians (a war crime) and launches attacks from those embedded positions (another war crime), at least some part of the civilian death toll is a result of those war crimes. Some of these Hamas-attributable Palestinian civilian deaths are direct (such as a rocket falling short on your own side) and some are indirect (fighting from an apartment block, for instance, which invites inevitable counterattack).
I don't see it as a genocide, just an inevitable result of urban warfare.
|
You're arguing the intent aspect of the commonly accepted definition of genocide. I can at least respect that, rather than the nonsensical claims that Palestinians are just Jordanians and therefore can't be genocided, or equally as bad, they deserve the genocide because they support Hamas, therefore it's not genocide.
I think where your argument falls apart, is the intent is fairly clear cut, including statements from high level Israeli officials, particularly early on in the war. There's obviously the now infamous Amalek and human animals statements, however, a European NGO has put together a running list of comments by Israeli officials that can be equally as damning.
https://law4palestine.org/law-for-pa...ously-updated/
Some of those instances are fairly tame, admittedly, however there are some horrific things in there that show clear intent to destroy the Palestinian population in Gaza.
Further to this, the destruction of all universities, hospitals, using starvation as a weapon of war and numerous other instances only make sense if Israel's main goal is ethnic cleansing, rather than the defeat of Hamas.