At least 20 dead as walkie-talkies explode in Lebanon

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/hezbollah-explosions-attack-lebanon-walkie-talkies-pagers-b2615018.html

by iamflimflam1 • 2 years ago

29 92 2 years ago

independent.co.uk

ericzawo• 2 years ago

How does this not violate Geneva Convention?

bravetraveler• 2 years ago

Perhaps the agreement relies on enforcement or, well, agreement to be effective

This violated the curfew for my unborn son, see what I mean?

preisschild2• 2 years ago

Afaik the Geneva Convention doesn't apply at all towards Terrorists, because they target primarily Civilians.

bamboozled21• 2 years ago

You will start getting people ask questions like "What exactly constitutes a terrorist?" and "Was Nelson Mandela a terrorist?"...

pjc502• 2 years ago

Because it's Israel filling another country with small remote mines, not an "unfriendly" (to the US) country.

bamboozled21• 2 years ago

Isn't it attacking a militant group who killed 11 children a few months ago? 11 children murdered by Hezbollah at a soccer game? Do you think anyone will actual sympathize with them ?

This is the nature of the game with these people, they're not an established military so what are you supposed to attack in order to stop your children being blown apart at a soccer game?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-28/golan-heights-strike-...

https://www.timesofisrael.com/massive-tragedy-kids-killed-in...

Edit: Added another source because I saw some cowardly accuse me of "spreading Israeli propaganda and then deleting their comment, there's a non-bias news outlets story too, the ABC".

bamboozled21• 2 years ago

Would you prefer they bomb a house, school, or mosque, or some other place where they hangout with civilians to use then as shields? Because when they did that everyone was up in arms, and now they try a more targeted approach and they're "terrorists"...meanwhile Putin is basically trying to make a whole country freeze this year and I hardly anyone complains all calls him a terrorist, apparently, that's fine?

Israel is held to some impossibly high standards. Makes me wonder why?

Hezbollah has recently launched rockets into Israel and killed 11 children...as a start.

barbequeer• 2 years ago

...meanwhile Putin is basically trying to make a whole country freeze this year and I don't hear anyone complain.

You haven't heard anyone complain about Russia invading Ukraine?

arresin2• 2 years ago

“World you prefer they go and kill 16,000 civilians in carpet bombing in residential areas?! Ha didn’t think so!”

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza-death-toll-ho...

Hackbraten• 2 years ago

Unlike rockets and other military weapons, electronic household gadgets that unexpectedly explode in your face nationwide is absolutely a thing that induces terror and fear. As a civilian, I can feel reasonably safe in my home but this supply chain attack upends everything. Contrary to what most consumers believe, there are layers upon layers of resellers and licensed subcontractors of manufacturers. Platforms such as Amazon comingle their inventory.

So what will detonate next? My RTL-SDR stick at home that I unluckily happened to purchase from a comingled manipulated Amazon batch?

This is nothing short of scandalous, and I wonder how Mossad agents can even sleep at night.

JoeyBananas11• 2 years ago

Gaza looks like the aftermath of a major WWII battle, and it has been that way for years because of an air/sea/land blockade that prevents efforts to rebuild. Not just the residential buildings are destroyed, but also water/energy infrastructure. Due to the demographics of Gaza, this mostly impacts women and children. So, it is undeniable that Israel bombed infrastructure knowing that it is mostly women and children who will be harmed.

Putin absolutely 100% does not do that kind of bombing in Ukraine. Even contested cities do not look 1/10th as bad ad Gaza. And he has helped cities such as Mariupol rebuild...

I recommend honestly considering the possibility that your opinion on this topic is based on lies. Sorry to break the news to you, but reality is a bitch

echoangle3• 2 years ago

Which part of the Geneva Convention specifically?

netsharc• 2 years ago

Not the Geneva Convention: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/18/the-gu...

a global treaty came into force which “prohibited in all circumstances to use booby-traps or other devices in the form of apparently harmless portable objects that are specifically designed and constructed to contain explosive material”. Has anyone told Israel and its jubilant supporters that, as Brian Finucane of the International Crisis Group points out, it is a signatory to the protocol?

Specifically it's probably this one: https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-...

But oh well, it's fine if it's Israel doing it, and any protest against it is anti-semitic and supporting Hamas and the killing of more Jews! /S

"'War crimes' are defined by the winners": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiKFAwiKjBo

31337Logic• 2 years ago

It's not fair to cite a rulebook when only one side is expected to abide by it.

JoeyBananas11• 2 years ago

International law is quite literally a work of fiction. You can read the Geneva conventions and explore the implications of the rules in the imaginary world it sets up, but you have to understand that those rules are only valid inside of that imaginary world. None of it has any value in the real world, which is dictated by a different set of laws.

_lvbh• 2 years ago

Pagers I understand but I have two walkie-talkies at home so it’s definitely not something reserved for military use. I hope these attacks don’t continue onto more civilian focused products

preisschild2• 2 years ago

Apparently they were modified in the supply chain, so they might only send "prepared" Walkie Talkies to Hezbollah

rightbyte• 2 years ago

The rethorical Amazon of Lebanon doesn't comingle inventory?

I am paranoid about new hardware as it is. Especially those with radio tranceivers.

And that was before we knew Shin Bet have been massproducing consumer gadgets that blow up in your face.

eviks• 2 years ago

Neither are pagers, strange to tie understanding to what you personally have at home

worthless-trash• 2 years ago

People associate behavior and objects with things they are familiar with. This gives them some kind of grounding in context so they can more easily dissociate with potential threats.

There is a good example of this in batman, which outlines the situation well.

The joker says:

Nobody panics when things go “according to plan.” Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it’s all “part of the plan.” But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!

We expect that soldiers and gang bangers have risks associated with that behavior, but mayors should not.

Same with this the GP wants to believe that the pager is in a different class of 'risk' than the walkie talkie at home, and now walkie talkies are used in an attack, they are adjusting their world view.

Edit: Spelling and punctuation. I could just be talking out of my ass too.

echoangle3• 2 years ago

Does it not entirely depend on the delivery mechanism? If I receive an order from the US military for Radios and I put bombs in them, what would be the risk of hitting civilians when detonating them? Wouldn't that be OK because the probability of a military Radio being given to someone non-military is negligible? If you undermine the Hezbollah supply chain and specifically deliver to them, isn't that pretty targeted?

im3w1l• 2 years ago

What I'm noticing is that this attack, or series of attacks seems to upset people in a way they struggle to verbalize. They try to reach and call it terrorism or war crime but it seems to be neither.

Maybe the real explanation is that this kind of weapon is simply too powerful and terrifying and that's why people want it to be taboo? We become more and more dependent on technology everyday, we are slowly trusting our lives to self driving cars even starting to put electrodes into our brains. The thought of someone tampering with that, it's too scary.

I think that might be what is going on.

inglor_cz3• 2 years ago

I can see where the anger comes from.

It is the "distributedness". People like to split the world into clean zones: here is war, after this border, no more war. After all, the risk gradient jumps extremely when you cross the border from Poland into Ukraine.

An attack like this a) reveals that some people aren't what they perhaps pretended to be, e.g. civilians, b) shows that war can reach with very long fingers into places that considered themselves relatively safe.

kgbcia• 2 years ago

It's weird how these headlines are written in the passive voice and as to blame Hezbollah. "At least 20 dead as walkie-talkies explode in Lebanon as Israel declares ‘new phase of war’ against Hezbollah"

How about Israel detonates 3000 explosives in Lebanon.

bamboozled21• 2 years ago

Are we supposed to feel sorry for terrorists who's lives are spent working out how to murder and blow people up, then when they get blown up with minimal collateral damage caused, what?

Honestly, I'm surprised at how great these people are at invoking emotional responses in their favor. It's incredible. They're certainly smashing the information war.

When the 11 kids got actually blown up by a missile strike while attending a soccer game in Israel, where was all the sympathy then? Do people even know about this?

https://www.timesofisrael.com/massive-tragedy-kids-killed-in...

desdenova• 2 years ago

Israel are the terrorists.

And linking to their propaganda, you're only showing how much you've been brainwashed by them.

pjc502• 2 years ago

How do we know that all of the thousands of people injured in the pager bombings are Hizbollah?

robert_dipaolo• 2 years ago

I think your first point could plausibly be made by either side, not just about this specific incident. I don't think killing people is ever a justifiable solution to any issue and almost always makes things worse.

I think, no matter who the perpetrator is, it's undeniable that exploding electrical items on this scale, is an act of terror and aggression.

ChrisArchitect• 2 years ago

[dupe]

Yesterday's news

Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41580205

At least 20 dead as walkie-talkies explode in Lebanon

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