Comment by pdabbadabba 2 days ago
> Do you think the IDF considered whether civilians would be harmed, or have a good possibility of being harmed?
Presumably that would be why they didn't use bigger explosives. Or -- taking a step back -- why they used this tactic rather than dropping bombs from the air.
Eh, deniability and international response is another reason not to drop bombs from the air.
I'm not sure deniability is something Israel is prioritizing here. They know that the world will immediately know that nobody but Israel would/could have done this.
But avoiding civilian harm and managing the international response are definitely interrelated goals here, to say the least.
Deniability doesn't mean "no one thinks they know you did it." There need only be seeds of doubt (even if it's only motivated doubting) to prevent consensus from forming.
Even the tiniest seeds of doubt can be sufficient to prevent certain parties from being obligated to go to war.
There's only so much explosive you can fit inside a small handheld device that still needs to function and power itself.