Thread

Updated Google Maps shows destruction of the city of Rafah

943 points · 947 comments · slowin

bognition · 1790616426 · focus · HN ↗
Its really telling to see the destruction limited to where the structures used to be rather than to all of the surrounding green spaces. If the destruction of civilian dwellings was purely an accident you'd expect to see the destruction spread evenly over the area. Instead it looks much more like a prolonged set of surgical strikes to destroy the buildings while preserving as much of the surrounding areas as possible.
For a great example of this, look at this pin <a href="https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZcMbdFcx87PrqoYNA" rel="nofollow">https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZcMbdFcx87PrqoYNA
And here's a pin of where the farms were spared <a href="https://maps.app.goo.gl/iZbbTH4iH27FCz4s9" rel="nofollow">https://maps.app.goo.gl/iZbbTH4iH27FCz4s9
1. YZF · 1790663982 · focus · HN ↗
  The buildings were levelled with bulldozers for the most part after the civilians left during combat operations against the tunnel infrastructure and any remaining combatants. Not sure what the "surgical strikes" comment is about. Are you asking why weren't open spaces destroyed or attacked?
  1. a_paddy · 1790665596 · focus · HN ↗
    How does bulldozing a family home have any affect on a tunnel?
    JumpCrisscross · 1790673037 · focus · HN ↗
    > How does bulldozing a family home have any affect on a tunnel?
    The tunnel entrances and exits are tremendously hard to find. Some of them were located in private residences.
    But Israel has an oil & gas industry. They have equipment that can look underneath a quiet city. If tunnel elimination were truly the goal, temporarily displacing the population while clearing operations took place should have been sufficient. As it stands, simply bulldozing over the entrances probably doesn't actually destroy the tunnels. It just hides their entrances.
    21asdffdsa12 · 1790675542 · focus · HN ↗
    The problem is that the homes are booby trapped. US would not send soldiers into iraq towns too- one trap - one ambush, and its artillery o clock.
    Georgelemental · 1790685974 · focus · HN ↗
    Every single house in the entire city of Rafah was booby-trapped?
    WarmWash · 1790688394 · focus · HN ↗
    No, but how do you tell which ones are and which ones aren't?
    Like when packaged food gets potentially contaminated, you don't test each package for bacteria. You throw away the whole lot.
    ImPostingOnHN · 1790689806 · focus · HN ↗
    > Like when packaged food gets potentially contaminated, you don't test each package for bacteria.
    You're comparing wiping out tens or hundreds of thousands of innocent civilian people's lives... to disinfection.
    Like yeah, there's plenty of examples of israel's current leaders calling the Palestinian race sub-human, vermin, animal, saying it should be wiped off the earth, etc, but I didn't expect it on HN, JFC.
    WarmWash · 1790698638 · focus · HN ↗
    These homes being bulldozed are empty.
    ImPostingOnHN · 1790709752 · focus · HN ↗
    my dude, you just compared the ethnic cleansing of Palestine to getting rid of contaminating pathogens, and were called out on it, and you're gonna try to change the subject like you aren't walking around with freshly-crapped pants?
    why should anyone continue to discuss this topic with you, when you're basically just channeling german dictators at this point?
    WarmWash · 1790716928 · focus · HN ↗
    If you check the parent for this thread, the conversation is about Israel use of bulldozers to flatten Rafah, and the reason they do it is the same reason you toss any possible contaminated food. It's impractical to check a bunch of empty buildings for booby traps. Rafah was evacuated about a year and a half ago.
    Here is a link to the conversation topic to help clear your confusion:
    <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49890287#49898968">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49890287#49898968
    ImPostingOnHN · 1790725606 · focus · HN ↗
    Again, you're comparing the ethnic cleansing of an entire city to "tossing possibly contaminated food".
    Take a step back and see the echoes of your words in history.
    > It's impractical to check a bunch of empty buildings for booby traps
    That's life. That you might find it hard to achieve your military conquest without engaging in ethnic cleansing isn't a legal or moral excuse for perpetrating ethnic cleansing. Find a way that doesn't require ethnic cleansing or pick more realistic military objectives.
    > Rafah was evacuated about a year and a half ago.
    A forced expulsion of all existing inhabitants of a city without any right of return is commonly called "ethnic cleansing". So is razing the city. It's called that because it is cleansing the city of all people and/or traces of an ethnicity, like israel did here. Both constitute crimes against humanity, regardless of the excuse (the nazis had excuses for their similar crimes too, look how that went for them).
    21asdffdsa12 · 1790776239 · focus · HN ↗
    Man, i cant wait for qatar to run out of money and send these bots back to McDonalds.

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