• Vqhm@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Rule 28. Medical units exclusively assigned to medical purposes must be respected and protected in all circumstances. They lose their protection if they are being used, outside their humanitarian function, to commit acts harmful to the enemy.

    https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule28#:~:text=to medical units-,Rule 28.,and protected in all circumstances.

    the protection of medical units ceases when they are being used, outside their humanitarian function, to commit acts harmful to the enemy. This exception is provided for in the First and Fourth Geneva Conventions and in both Additional Protocols.[37] It is contained in numerous military manuals and military orders.[38] It is also supported by other practice.[39]

    While the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols do not define “acts harmful to the enemy”, they do indicate several types of acts which do not constitute “acts harmful to the enemy”, for example, when the personnel of the unit is armed, when the unit is guarded, when small arms and ammunition taken from the wounded and sick are found in the unit and when wounded and sick combatants or civilians are inside the unit.[40] According to the Commentary on the First Geneva Convention, examples of acts harmful to the enemy include the use of medical units to shelter able-bodied combatants, to store arms or munitions, as a military observation post or as a shield for military action.[41]

    • ???@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah except the majority of the dead were civilians. Israel has no proof of this anyway, and there being tunnel under the hospital does not mean any medical staff is cooperating.

      Just a license for genocide.

      • Vqhm@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Unfortunately based on the rules of was the medical staff do not have to cooperate, or even be aware, simply storing weapons, or a command center, or staging armed soldiers for war next to a hospital removes the protections.

        The rules of war aren’t about making things perfect, they’re very much a do not let perfect be the enemy of good and filled with compromises.

        If you want protections for medical staff you have to clear a section of ground for them that isn’t used for war.

        I didn’t make these rules. These rules were agreed to in order to try to prevent total war. Where carpet bombs flattened entire cities like what happened in Dresden.

        • ???@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          That’s BS. Proximity shielding is used to excuse war crimes. You should not kill people especially if they aren’t even aware. Using it as an excuse for murder is propaganda.