🧵Australian military expert affirmed tragic death of 7 WCK aid workers was not deliberate, vindicating Israel. He assessed that unexpected gunmen were with convoy and looked like Hamas; but failures still led to mistaken attack. An important independent report, some detail: 1/
The primary reason for the IDF misidentification error was the unexpected presence of armed persons, one of whom fired his weapon into the air on the trailer of the WCK truck, which was deemed “consistent with Hamas hijacking the aid convoy.” 2/
The official Australian report by Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin noted that later on several additional gunmen moved around the WCK escort vehicles. According to the Australian assessment, IDF brigade officials “classified” the gunmen “as Hamas.” 3/
A key reason for the identification of gunmen as Hamas is that the guards were not coordinated with IDF, and furthermore, the IDF would not have allowed armed guards anyhow. Report admits WCK could have inadvertently hired armed guards with links to Hamas. 4/
However there was a situational awareness breakdown and IDF controls failed, which IDF fully admits, which led to errors in decision making and misidentification of convoy as hostile. 5/
An interesting revelation: The Australian report noted that the IDF post-incident investigation system is similar to the Australian system. Fake NGOs @hrw @amnesty @btselem and others (falsely) claim that Israel’s post-incident investigations are a sham, do not really happen. 6/
The Australian report concluded that Israel’s acceptance of accountability, reporting and response has been “appropriate” and “sufficient” – again, contradicting fake NGO and some media claims that Israel never does these things properly. 7/
Report is important as it may be the first time an independent foreign military expert published a public report assessing IDF action. It's also perhaps the only time in history an army has allowed a foreign investigation like this. But Israel is always treated differently. END
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
🧵Report by @Mr_Andrew_Fox debunking Hamas fatality data has been predictably attacked by Hamas defense attorneys who can't accept a group that did 10/7, kidnaps babies & rapes hostages would lie. Review of criticism and why report remains accurate: 1/ henryjacksonsociety.org/publications/q…
First, critics claim, ad nauseam, that Hamas Ministry of Health (MoH) data has been reliable in the past so it's credible today. False, as HJS report and thread below prove. Hamas vastly overstated civilian deaths in prior wars like they are now. 2/
Many react to report's key chart showing male overrepresentation in fatalities with “so what, it's known men die in wars more then women”—thereby admitting the narrative of IDF targeting women & children is false and admitting fatality list probably has many male combatants. 3/
🧵Libelous new @Airwars analysis on Israel bombing of Gaza in Oct 2023 assumes all deaths are civilian unless proven otherwise. This crazy assumption leads to their conclusion that of 606 IDF airstrikes only 32 combatants died versus 5,139 civilians or 99.4%. Analysis: 1/
According to Airwars, IDF invested millions of dollars sending up F35 & F16s, huge air force resources on 606 bombing attacks but could not kill even ONE combatant in 96% of these sorties, but did kill 8 civilians/strike. Are we supposed to take this Airwars report seriously? 2/
Fatal flaw is the "lack of information bias": Airwars does not know which males age >13 was civilian vs combatant as it does not have master list of 40,000 Hamas/PIJ militants. Airwars also does not know how many combatant deaths were omitted from any casualty list by Hamas. 3/
🧵Why does Ireland want ICJ to “broaden its interpretation” of genocide as legally defined? Why did Amnesty find law “cramped” and change it? Because ICJ 2015 ruling in Croatia case clearly proves no genocide in Gaza. Here is review of case. Worth a read to really understand: 1/
Core issue is the very high bar ICJ required to prove “special intent” under the Genocide Convention. For acts by an accused party to be genocide the “ONLY reasonable conclusion to be drawn” from those acts is to kill the group. A strict hurdle that requires hard evidence. 2/
ICJ ruling notes that Croatia argues that Serbia’s crimes are in fact such that the “ONLY reasonable inference to be drawn is that Serb leaders were motivated by genocidal intent.” But if ICJ accepts that Serbia had other specific aims, then this hurdle of intent is not met. 3/
🧵Amnesty invents new laws of genocide 5 times in its “report” which it admits. Amnesty cannot find “intent to genocide” by Israel so it literally created new standards & legal terms in a desperate attempt to find "dolus specialis." It still fails. Detail on 5 fabrications: 1/
Amnesty admits it is not following “international law” but a vague “jurisprudence” allowing them to mix & match opinions & interpretations as they wish. They falsely claim that if "direct evidence" of intent cannot be found, circumstantial evidence is good enough, voila! 2/
Amnesty fabricates more ways to show intent this time by claiming that other violations of int'l law, such as “ill-treatment of Palestinians” and basically anything bad is good enough. It gets easier and easier for Amnesty to prove intent after every page of its report. 3/
🧵Here is a pre-war image of the luxury Hamad towers where Hamas dug under to build a tunnel network where it held and killed 6 Israeli hostages. The lie of Gaza exposed: luxury civilian homes exploited by Hamas for combat. Israel is then blamed for its destruction. Detail: 1/
As disclosed today, 6 hostages were held by Hamas, then murdered, in a tunnel network with many shafts dug right under this complex of 60 5-story buildings comprising 3,000 apartments built by Qatar, in the "open air prison." Here is a map of the tunnels: 2/
Hamad Towers is a microcosm of the entire Gaza war: massive int'l aid pouring in, Gaza is actually a modern urban enclave, Hamas exploitation of civilian Gaza for war, careful IDF action within rules of war and tragic destruction blamed on Israel only. 3/ gulf-times.com/story/557266/w…
🧵Hezbollah vs IDF killed casualty ratio in Lebanon corroborates the IDF claim of at ~18,000 Hamas/PIJ combatants killed in Gaza. The 48:1 ratio in Lebanon precisely matches the ratio of Hamas vs IDF killed in Gaza. Key data & analysis below: 1/
IDF reports 46 soldiers killed in ground operations in Lebanon. Hezbollah killed are at least 2,200, identified individually by death notification, compiled by a number of observers like the one below. Hezbollah casualty counts do not appear disputed. 2/
The 2,200 killed in the ground operation matches the 3,000 Hezbollah the IDF says have been killed since 10/7. Several 100 were killed before the ground operation, others in the beeper attack, etc. Again, I have not seen disputes on these numbers. 3/