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elcritchtoday at 9:24 AM3 repliesview on HN

Israel invests in defending their civilians with technology like Iron Beam.

In contrast the Gazan government strategically uses humans shields [2, 3] and despite this the majority of Palestinians still support starting this war by attacking civilians on Oct 7th [1]. Defense technology doesn’t help if you don’t want it unfortunately.

Hamas also has hundreds of miles of tunnels which civilians aren’t allowed to use.

1: https://www.pcpsr.org/en/node/1000#:~:text=The%20Trump%20Pla... 2: https://stratcomcoe.org/cuploads/pfiles/hamas_human_shields.... 3: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2023/11/01/hamas-officials-admi...


Replies

kennywinkertoday at 9:39 AM

To say that israel invests in defense is at least 1/4 untrue, since the US sends billions every year. The US gave them about 7b cash last year, which is around 1/4 of their defense budget, and doesn’t include things like stationing carriers nearby, or doing airstrikes on houthi blockades.

Us $ to israel: https://usafacts.org/answers/how-much-foreign-aid-does-the-u...

Israel defense budget: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-raise-defen...

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LorenPechteltoday at 4:32 PM

Nitpick here: Your link #1 turns out to have been being manipulated by Hamas.

I do agree the Hamas strategy was explicitly about getting civilians killed, though.

buran77today at 10:20 AM

> the Gazan government strategically uses humans shields

This just means Israel knows they're hitting women and children every time they send a bomb their way.

> the majority of Palestinians still support starting this war

Palestine isn't a democracy with well documented preferences. Israel is though, so why don't you say that a majority of Israelis are fine with the killing of women and children in Gaza?

elcritch, you're beating around the bush but strongly suggesting there's a reasonable justification (not just an explanation) for killing women and children if it suits someone's needs. Does this apply just to Israel killing people in Gaza or universally valid? Because I distinctly remember the US going to war over WMD that never existed. So elcritch, are you saying US women and children are fair game now?