this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2024
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[–] JustZ -1 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Yes. I don't know enough about the people or place to say if it's legit or not. I know I often see links to "smoking gun" videos like this that do not show what they claim to show. I think this video requires you to take a lot on faith; that it is what it's claimed to be or that the video is even from Gaza and not so.e other war somewhere. Is shows some pipes and then a building blowing up shown from far away. The account that posted it apparently is deleted or private now.

Maybe the video is legit. Israeli army says they are investigating. Maybe the water system was supplying the tunnels, which would make it a legit target.

If claims about the video are true, it certainly flies in the face of other evidence like the fact that Israel lets new water infrastructure into Gaza all the time and new water desalinization plants have opened (and haven't been destroyed) even just since the war began.

[–] snek 3 points 3 months ago

"Ahhh what is this horror? This video mounting even more evidence of Israeli war crimes?? IT CANNOT BE TRUE!"

LOL.

[–] OccamsTeapot 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

If it turns out to be legit, which I would stress - since it was posted by the IDF soldiers themselves* - seems likely: would you not agree that this is likely a war crime?

*some edits to add.

From the Times of Israel article about it:

In the video, posted by a soldier to Instagram and later circulated on X, troops can be seen rigging up the water facility, known as Canada Well, with explosives. Another clip shows the site being blown up.

The video was tagged with the caption: “Demolishing the water reservoir of Tel Sultan in honor of the Sabbath.”

The Canadian government, who built the plant, also agrees that the video shows it being destroyed: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ottawa-calls-for-probe-into-demolished-canadian-water-treatment-plant-in-gaza-1.7281666

Seems very unlikely an IDF soldier would post a video claiming to be destroying a facility, which we know exists, and the people who paid to build it would identify it was the same building, and it would turn out to not be in Gaza at all. It is almost certainly the plant discussed in these articles.

In fact, it is an act of genocide, since depriving the population of water is "Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."

Maybe the water system was supplying the tunnels, which would make it a legit target.

Isn't the main issue whether the facility was supplying the civilian population? What about proportionality?

it certainly flies in the face of other evidence like the fact that Israel lets new water infrastructure into Gaza all the time and new water desalinization plants have opened (and haven't been destroyed) even just since the war began.

We spoke about this before. Here is the link to the facts again: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68969239

Half of Gaza's water sites had been damaged or destroyed as of that report.

And here is the image of three specific examples again:

It certainly doesn't "fly in the face of other evidence," the evidence is all pointing in the same direction.

When we spoke about this previously, you speculated (based on "probability," in your words) that the facilities were maybe collateral damage during an attack on Hamas fighters. In this case, we have the video footage. No Hamas fighters. Charges specifically placed on water infrastructure. No attempt to access or destroy a tunnel. This is simply naked evidence of an intentional attack on the necessities of life for the civilian population.

[–] JustZ 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I can accept lsrsel destroying infrastructure that is used to sustain Hamas holdouts at this point in the war, as long as Israel is bringing in water and opening new infrastructure, outside the influence and control of Hamas. That seems uncontroversial. I don't know if that's what happened here.

I join Canada and Israel and calling for a full investigation and if it is found to be true, then I join in calling for the perpetrators to be hanged. That also seems uncontroversial.

Three or four people have posted counterpoints to me now, and various links, and of course the video itself. All of these sources cite the video.

The video shows some guys standing around some pipes and then an exterior shot of an explosion. That's accompanied by some text and audio. It's posted on TikTok. As far as I can tell, the claims haven't been independently verified, that is, confirmed by credible, factual reporting extrinsic to the video.

And here we are once again with a most sensational claim being shared as if it was truth despite the fact that the only two or three credible sources that even bothered to run a story about the video make clear that it hasn't been independently verified. There's one credible story from Israel about the IDF acknowledging the video and saying it will investigate. There's one credible story out of Canada from some low-level diplomat saying that they saw the video and calling for independent investigation. That also seems uncontroversial.

[–] OccamsTeapot 2 points 3 months ago

The video shows some guys standing around some pipes and then an exterior shot of an explosion. That's accompanied by some text and audio. It's posted on TikTok. As far as I can tell, the claims haven't been independently verified, that is, confirmed by credible, factual reporting extrinsic to the video.

Ok but there are two stories you say are credible just below this, and they establish clear facts.

So two questions:

Do you believe this was posted by an IDF soldier, as reported by the Times of Israel?

Do you believe the video shows the Canada Well plant, as stated by both the original poster and a representative of the Canadian government?

If the answer to both of these is yes, what remaining reason is there to doubt the video? You say the "claims" haven't been verified but no claim is needed. It is on video. Do you mean the claim that the facility was destroyed, and that the external shot was not of something else being destroyed?

I am not being obtuse here, I just really don't understand what you mean