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The biggest problem with this isn’t the horror of the actual war crime. The far more serious concern are the lengths the government will go to avoid holding anyone accountable. That is so much worse because it unintentionally endorses future crimes and challenges the offenders to take ever more offensive actions without fear of consequences.

The guidelines of HN, to be kind and curious in the comments, are difficult to follow in this case. Outrage doesn't bring anything either, but a polite and curious discussion is impossible. The lack of reflection in the western world on this issue is seriously disturbing.

This comment thread is the most civilised online discussion I have seen in a long while about this particular topic, despite people coming from diverse backgrounds and disagreeing.

In this sense, hackernews gives me hope that online culture is not lost yet.

Israel is an excellent example of what happens if a fundamentalist theocracy becomes too powerful compared to its neighbors.

A only have one question: Why is this time different from the countless times this happened before?

Hasn't humanity already decided on the worth(lessness) of the people living there? That their suffering and death is worth the cause? Why is their treatment bothering people now? Is it because of the manner it was done? Or maybe, just maybe, its people are starting to realize that everyone's worth is intrinsically the same and when you willingly let others devalue the worth of human beings, you inadvertently let them devalue the worth of yourself and the ones your care about too. Watch, this is the fate that likely awaits most of us, including you.

https://www.standupforpeace.org/ is intended to help organize around this issue.

Why though, what does it achieve? Do they want to make sure that there will be terrorists / freedom fighters in the future so that they have a reason not to negotiate? Because they expect to "win" if violence continues?

Is anyone surprised at horrific behaviour by Israel and the IDF at this point?

Every country has a percentage of right wing psychopaths. Unfortunately, they seem to be running the government in Israel.

Israel's intended end game seem to be to make Gaza completely uninhabitable, so that the Palestinians are forced to leave, then Israel can grab the land. A bit like they are doing in the West Bank, but on turbo mode. However, the Palestinians don't want to leave their land (why should they?) and no other state wants to take them. So we are left with enormous human misery, with no end in sight.

Most baffling of all, many Western states are not just turning a blind eye, but actively supporting Israel. Shame on them.

Gaza is the the grave yard of not only Palestinians, but the lie of a rules-based international order. Israel has been allowed to get away with - the backing on it's western allies - flagrant legal violations of international law, alongside accusations of Genocide by the ICJ.

The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. -- Thucydidus

How does this belong on HN.

I visited Israel for a sports seminar some ~10 years ago and met many nice people. I felt sympathetic to their reality of living in an ever-hostile environment from all sides, and struggle to keep their place in the world safe. I admired their resilience and strength.

When this Gaza conflict started, I saw how the Israeli protested against their government and demanded peace, so I thought there is a semblance of an excuse for glimpses of abhorrence being reported - "it's a small number of people in power, not the Israeli nation doing it, and also there are always 2 sides to the story".

Since then, there have been unfathomable horrors and crimes against humanity done from the Israel side, with extreme intensity and one-sidedness, and it's now been going for so long. I can find no excuse of any kind anymore, for what has been and is being done in Gaza. I don't think any normal person could. The weight of these things, in my mind at least, is such that if the Israeli people really wanted anything different, it was their human duty and utmost responsibility to stop this by now, in whatever way needed. They didn't... It's sad that people who have suffered so much as well, let themselves become the villains to this depth and extent.

Some context first so my opinion isn't misconstrued as as leftist stereotype. This is within context of the behavior described in the article.

  - I'm a Jew in USA, and served in the military for more than a decade.
  - I used to get annoyed by the Palestinian protests I'd see in the years before this, and generally sided with Israel, and the operations its military performed in counter-Shia-militia operations etc in the region, and was outraged at the Oct 7 attacks.

Israel's operations as described in the article are clear-cut war crimes. The military and civilian leaders responsible for these ROE should face something similar to the Nuremberg trials. I am embarrassed for my country's support of Israel's operations.

This is large-scale, continued, intentional CIVCAS.

As a westerner, I feel ashamed that my country is Isreal's ally. It makes me guilty by association because the western world is letting Israel commit thoses atrocities.

Worse, we are helping them when they need it, and closing our eyes when they don't want us to watch.

People ought to understand that this problem of innocent Gazans - often children - being fired upon by IDF soldiers isn't a new one, it predates the current food distribution operation.

An article from October in the NY Times detailing some well-documented atrocities ("44 health care workers saw multiple cases of preteen children who had been shot in the head or chest in Gaza") was published as an opinion piece, in spite of the fact that it consisted of dozens of eyewitness accounts. [0][1]

The incomparable sway that Israel holds in American media and American politics prevents pressure to hold those responsible accountable on an international level. When there's enough pressure within Israel to demand accountability for something terrible (and that's rare enough, outside of their peace movement) the conclusion drawn is typically that the soldiers are just careless, but not acting with malice. [2] If there's a single instance of an IDF soldier being held accountable for a civilian killing in this conflict, someone could make me feel a little better by sharing it.

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/09/opinion/gaza-...

[1] https://archive.is/9Lr00

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Alon_Shamriz,_Yotam...

What else new. It’s just more blatant this time, but does anyone truly believe bombing all hospitals in the strip is anything but more of the same thing?

They’re deliberately creating martyrs so they can prolong this pointless war into the next generation.

I can’t imagine there’s anyone left in Gaza that wouldn’t happily gun down any Israelian just for a chance to get back at them.

We already knew this was happening from testimony from Gazans, it was obvious that the new US-Israeli monopolized "aid" organization was running the Hunger Games, with dozens killed by Israelis (+ US contractors) every time there was a distribution day, and horrific pictures and video of it. Entirely predictable too when the genocidaires are controlling the aid. It is good there is now proof from the inside as well.

The comment section in the article is revolting. I don't know if they're state actors, or if they're real people with those beliefs, but my god.

This genocide has, for many people, burst any illusions of a "rules based world order".

There multiple EU signatory countries of the Rome Statute (pledging to cooperate with ICC) that have welcomed these war criminals... who have warrants out by the ICC.

And the same war criminals are invited to give a speech at the U.S Congress to near unanimous applause. It really makes you wonder if we're the "good guys".

-- edit -- If you're curious how much your congressperson receives from AIPAC (Israeli lobby) this website is a great resource: https://www.trackaipac.com/congress

The news from Palestine are atrocious; a genocide is unfolding before our eyes, and world leaders are doing nothing to stop it.

Clever piece of engineering that needs to be studied. The US and Israel setup a company/foundation to "distribute" aid. I guess to escape the accusations that they are systematically starving Gaza's population. It seems to be working, they can hide behind this while inflicting even more crimes against Palestinians.

I was going to ask if people really fall for this, but it seems like they do.

I appreciate that this topic has been permitted to stay on the HN front page. It has been utterly horrific watching the barbaric and inhuman behavior of Israel. I have no idea how we are supposed to ever respect or forgive our own states that have aquiesced in this, let alone Israel.

> He also said the activity in his area of service is referred to as Operation Salted Fish – the name of the Israeli version of the children's game "Red light, green light".

The Israeli tradition of giving their Gaza operations names of children's games also continues, after "Operation Cast Lead".

(Not sure if they wanted to make a reference to Squid Games as well...)

Israel commits a genocide.

Everyone knows, none is doing anything about it, coz Zionists own many goverments and overall world finances.

“Judge my ppl by the content of their hearts” - so ppl did in the past and now we all can see they were in fact “correct”.

I know it’s an overly simplified view but it’s becoming more and more of a reality, Israel is the 21th century nazi.

Yeah it’s not aryan but israelian race that is superior to the Arabians, what’s the difference ?

They don’t send them in camp, they just destroy completely their land, demolish and populate with israelian. What’s the difference ? A family without home and earning is as good as dead.

There is still some democracy in Israel and a small part of the population opposed to that racism but for how long ? War always push people more and more to extremism.

I’m not going to claim a side in this, but I do have a question to pose. When you have two ideologies which are so diametrically opposed to each other that they cannot coexist in the same space at the same time, what is the alternative outcome? One must destroy the other for peace to exist - this is the nature of war. To think that there is some world where everyone comes away from this with a handshake and an agreement is just naive.

I’ll ask again: What is the alternative?

A street in Gaza, a map of dreams, and the people desperate to live

https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/jun/26...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44387199

And qatar is at it again

How credible is the reporting in in Haaretz?

I am normally fairly well accustomed to the reliability and credibility of newspapers, but I have never read this newspaper.

There has been so much disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda from so many nations and interested parties that I find it impossible to believe any claims anymore without seeing a video for myself. In this case, there are none. Even according to the article, the soldiers were ordered to fire on looters, which seems reasonable in the context of this war.

GHF discloses 12 of its local staff members murdered by Hamas, others tortured in Gaza

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-859425

If we look at history, do the oppressed always become oppressors?

If Russia were to win the war and a Ukrainian underground would launch "guerrilla attacks" against Russia, they would be lauded as heros. Now here we have a somewhat similar story, of a foreign invader that displaced the local people not too long ago and a remaining native opposition. There is no version of this that will end up with the Palestinians getting a fair outcome. I've calling this a genocide quite early on, sadly it looks like I was right and there is probably many condemning details we aren't yet aware of.

And that's just the beginning. They want to expand to the east.

This is a description of blackest evil.

Anyone who knows they are raising an assault rifle to a crowd of civilians and pulls the trigger is a mass murderer and a psychopath

I guess the Israeli government's original plan to arm and support drug gangs and literally ISIS (euphemistically called 'clans') as "aid security" wasn't working out? Especially after it was revealed said "security" was stealing and reselling the food aid under the protection of IDF while the Israeli govt. and media blamed the looting on Hamas.

And after the Israeli opposition leader exposed the whole charade and Netanyahu defended it saying “On the advice of security officials, we activated clans in Gaza that oppose Hamas. What’s wrong with that? It only saves the lives of Israeli solders, and publicising this only benefits Hamas.”

[1] - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/06/netanyahu-defe...

[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Abu_Shabab

[3] - https://archive.is/20250606144357/https://www.ynetnews.com/a...

This is yet another hoax - https://x.com/adamrfisher/status/1938959933803728997?s=46

Most of the sources in the article are anonymous. Their descriptions of specific shootings are uncorroberated. I question the veracity of this article. It is clearly designed to elicit a pre-determined result and is conjecture and evocative narrative disguised as journalism. If these officers and soldiers are so morally outraged, let them say so on camera with their name underneath. If this is really happening and they are real soldiers who were actually there, then any concerns for their careers or safety should be secondary to revealing the truth in an open and verifiable way.

This isn't ambiguous. This is really clear evidence of (at minimum) an atrocious and continuing war crime with full intentionality. Realistically, it is more likely explicitly genocidal in intent.

Poor people :(

I really don't think that it's a coincidence that just as this news was starting to gain traction a few weeks ago, Isreal started bombing Iran. It was the perfect distraction.

It's worth comparing these reports to the Flour Massacre (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flour_Massacre) that occurred over a year ago.

I'd also suggest this (impassioned) video about the event: https://youtu.be/sCW-ARvywto?t=5020

Compare this reporting from a year ago with the Wikipedia page now. How has this reporting from a year ago held up?

WW3 is going to be China vs Israel. Watch.