this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
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[–] Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It's unreal that they can just say out loud "we design war crimes" like what the actual fuck.

[–] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

There is a whole lot of terrible shit going on in Gaza, and Israel is committing war crimes all over the place.

However, chasing down and shooting a fleeing enemy combatant is not a war crime. If a russian soldier tries to flee from a failed assault, Ukrainian troops are free to shoot them in the back. The same applies to troops fleeing a position that is being attacked or encircled. They can be hunted down and shot unless they surrender.

I'm pointing it out because it's a common misconception the enemies that are unarmed, wounded or fleeing are "out of bounds", but that's not the case. It's perfectly legal to bomb an enemy camp full of sleeping soldiers, or shoot an unarmed or wounded enemy that hasn't surrendered.

The absolutely horrifying thing with Israel is that they treat starving civilians as if they were soldiers, and shoot unarmed civilian kids in the back.

[–] Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

That is a good shout, withdrawal =/= surrender. You're not wrong to clarify rules of war, as false accusations lead to propaganda reinforcing against the real accusations.

Though my statement does stand - "they design drone technology for war criminals to pursue fleeing targets" is a factual statement.

Plus, we will almost certainly see a new version of the Geneva convention in response to drone warfare in our lifetime.

[–] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

Oh, they're absolutely selling weapons to war criminals that use them to commit crimes, I 100 % agree.

Just wanted to clarify that "persuing fleeing targets" isn't a war crime, it's the targeting of civilians itself that is. Your statement,

It's unreal that they can just say "We design war crimes"

Made it sound like you thought chasing down fleeing targets was itself a war crime, regardless who the target was.

I can see there being some changes to laws of war, or at least interpretation in response to drone warfare. Specifically, there's a law against "causing unnecessary suffering" which prevents the use of weapons designed with the intent to maim rather than kill. Most countries have banned anti-personnel mines, and use this as part of the reasoning (another being the non-directed nature of the weapons, and long-term effects after the war is over).

Drone-dropped grenades have a clear tendency to wound rather than kill, and I can see an argument that when infantry throw grenades they usually follow up with gunfire rather than leaving the enemy in a field. With this in mind, I can see an argument against drone-dropped light grenades. Then again, drone-dropped grenades give such a massively asymmetric advantage that I have a hard time seeing any army giving them up.