The nuclear scientists were killed using a special weapon whose details were barred from publication, Channel 12 says.
The 10th nuclear scientist was killed shortly after the other nine, as part of the overnight Thursday-Friday Israeli operation, which included strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile program and the Natanz nuclear site, along with the elimination of top members of the Islamic Republic’s military leadership, the network says.
The nuclear scientists were all killed while they were sleeping in their beds, with Israel deciding to carry out the assassinations simultaneously so that there wouldn’t be time to tip off those being targeted.
The scientists apparently believed they were safe from such targeting in their homes, a senior Israeli official tells Channel 12, noting that previously assassinated nuclear scientists were killed while heading to their cars after work.
Israel had been tracking Iranian nuclear scientists for years and the ten killed last week were marked for assassination in November of last year, Channel 12 says.
Just when I feel like dystopian news can't really disturb me anymore...
Leaving this totally unrelated article about Palantir and Israel here for absolutely no reason at all...
How Israel Uses AI in Gaza—And What It Might Mean for the Future of Warfare:
A program known as “The Gospel” generates suggestions for buildings and structures militants may be operating in. “Lavender” is programmed to identify suspected members of Hamas and other armed groups for assassination, from commanders all the way down to foot soldiers. “Where’s Daddy?” reportedly follows their movements by tracking their phones in order to target them—often to their homes, where their presence is regarded as confirmation of their identity. The air strike that follows might kill everyone in the target's family, if not everyone in the apartment building.
Abraham, whose report relies on conversations with six Israeli intelligence officers with first-hand experience in Gaza operations after Oct. 7, quoted targeting officers as saying they found themselves deferring to the Lavender program, despite knowing that it produces incorrect targeting suggestions in roughly 10% of cases.
Since when is it legal to kill civilian scientists in another country?
Civilian nuclear scientists working in enrichment are not protected by the Geneva convention. Technically it is legal to kill them when engaged in warfare.
Has Israel officially declared war on Iran? Apart from that, why aren't they protected by the Geneva convention?
When they're not european.
It got more legal a few years ago, I think. Not explicitly "made legal", but the legal foundations have been eroded. I.e. if you can expect to get away with something it is legal in a very real sense.
It's always been practically legal for empires like the US, Russia, China to commit any atrocities in weak countries, More and more countries are seeing how much they can get away with.
Netanyahu tested the limits over and over and saw there were really quite few legal limits. With Gaza, he saw the limits didn't actually exist at all.
I'm surprised there aren't more high level assassinations.
I'm surprised they're publicly announcing this one.
I think it's probably pretty hard to keep simultaneously assassinating 10 targets and their families under wraps, so they're trying to get ahead of accusations by pretending it's a show of military strength instead of horrifying skynet murder.
It looks especially bad when they're pointing the finger at Iran for fucking cluster bombs.
The argument being cluster bombs are a dirty move, but using simultaneous AI powered assassin drones to strike while people are sleeping makes you the good guys?
I mean... That is how this works. Cluster bombs are bad because they're less precise and cause more collateral damage. So weapons that target individuals with high precision are better
But like... Presumably, you're not just individually killing a bunch of civilians precisely
No, they're not precise at all unless you consider also killing their families and potentially an entire building full of people to be acceptable "precision."
That's why it seems like bullshit to pretend lower tech cluster bombs are an inexcusable evil compared to Palantir AI drones.
No matter where you are on the scale, you could always get better (just killing the intended target) and worse (low yield nuke somewhere near the building.)
The saddest part is when they calculate that the collateral damage is "beneficial" to their cause. That's the kind of calculation that tends to become more and more inaccurate over the long term.
But that's it exactly - cluster bombs just fling granades all over a city block at random. It's basically just collateral damage in the hopes of hitting a soft target
I mean, fuck palantir and I really don't like this tech in general, but blowing up a room or a house is way more precise. You're hitting just what you mean to hit
And that's what a lot of war crimes come down to - certain weapons are unacceptably imprecise. Which gets into the first rule of war crimes - you're not supposed to attack noncombatants
Let's not defend cluster bombs just because Israel is going to use this for justification...
Because of course they will, this whole thing started by blowing up the Iranian negotiator, they're obviously not going to start acting in good faith now
I'm not defending cluster bombs, I'm saying it's bullshit to kill multiple families in an apartment building and pretend you're the fucking good guys because you have more sophisticated tech. Especially when there was no reason to attack Iran like this in the first place.
He's been accusing Iran of being weeks away from having nuclear weapons since 2012. He almost gets voted out of leadership and when he doesn't he jumps on the opportunity to start bombing Iran and taking out these scientists (and everyone around them) who he had been targeting since November.
He and Trump are going to get us all killed to gain money and power. Fuck them and fuck anyone that wants to keep defending this ignorant bullshit, as if people can't see clear as day, exactly what these sacks of shit are doing.
Hey, friend, take a breath. Listen... This isn't how we all die. Unless you live in Iran I guess, and then maybe, depending how it plays out - but even that is not at all a sure thing. I know this is pretty bad, but you can't burn yourself out on this one
This isn't world war III. It's just another bad thing. China has signaled nothing on this and Russia is in no position to do anything. Europe has been quiet, the other Gulf states have been quiet... This could turn into another forever war, but this isn't going to spark a powder keg.
But yeah, Iran has clearly been trying to return to the fold for years now, and netanyahu has started a second conflict to hold into power. It's very obvious who the aggressors are
And yes, if you use targeted means to hit civilians and their family, obviously that's a war crime.
But war crimes don't cancel out. There's no place for whataboutism when real human lives are being snuffed out in their homes. We make a list, and hopefully soon the fascists will fall and all the war criminals will stand trial
That gave me the mental image of an Age of Empires 2 mangonel.
They are more precise than cluster bombs.
I have mixed feelings - Gaza clearly shows a "worse way" to do warfare, but that doesn't move the needle on how bad it is to say: "Welp, there's a 90% chance that somewhere in this building is somebody associated with a group that we don't like, so take it down tonight while everyone is home sleeping."
The thing is, until someone actually faces any consequences in modern times for atrocities such as these; simply saying how bad they are has become meaningless.
Saying it's bad is a step better than saying nothing, which is a step better than parroting the speeches provided by Great Leader's party promoters.
It isn't meaningless.
It is not enough in itself and being like "well i said it, now all is done from my side" is problematic.
Still it is important to call it out as a mean to pressure those with direct power to enact consequences to do so.
Since you're just larping your fav book when you do it