Hezbollah dudes and others wounded as Hacked Pagers explode

[sputnik]

Sept 20, 2024 13:02:57 GMT kittylady said:

Sept 20, 2024 0:55:07 GMT sputnik said:

yeah it's very likely a violation of the convention on certain conventional weapons (CCW), mainly because it doesn't discriminate between military/enemy targets and civilian populations.

Do you think anything will be done about it if it is?

nothing directly. these international norms and conventions aren't binding in the way criminal law is where if you're caught breaking them you can be arrested and face consequences. only the security council can adopt resolutions that are binding and can result in international sanctions. though nothing is stopping individual countries from enacting unilateral sanctions in response to perceived violations of international laws. 

with breaking international norms, consequences when there are any are more indirect, especially for a powerful country like israel with a lot of allies in the west. for instance, in the case of israel, in recent months, several european countries have started restricting or limiting sales of weapons to israel, because of public outcry over the situation in gaza and what many view as clear violations of international law there. 

re: the pagers, it could make more countries wary of authorizing exports of technology to israel if there is a chance they could be used for this type of attack. though in this case people are still trying to break down the layers and layers of shell corporations that were used to purchase the pagers, so it wouldn't be easy to trace them directly to israel. but i don't think it's a coincidence that the factory where these pagers were manufactured is in hungary. also, this plan was years in the making. the war might only  have started in october but from the analysis i've read, this plan had been in the works for a good two years or so. 

so no direct consequences per se but the more it happens, the more the pool of countries willing to sell weapons or do business with israel risks being reduced. they are also at risk of alienating longstanding allies or seeing that support watered down.