By conscription I mean they've done mandatory service and are trained military, whatever you want to call it.

The first place I think of is Switzerland because I have some friends that did their mandatory service and I know you can keep your uniform and gun. It's only men is Switzerland (women can volunteer). But if you were at war with them then what is a civilian in terms of a war crime? Children obviously should be spared.

So now with the Hamas stuff same thing (no support for their attack or any actions). I just find it interesting when they say WOMEN and children were killed. The women are the same as the men in this situation no? Not sure if IDF keep their weapons. Obviously I'm not educated on what they do so I'm not trying to present my opinion , just asking a genuine question.


I just find this interesting as I believe Canada should have mandatory service (even if you can take a route of domestic help like wildfire fighting or working in a soup kitchen). Start and apprenticeship through military or after 2 years service your education is paid. But if everyone was trained to fight (and armed?), then I guess there are no more adult civilians. I never thought about it before.

Well OP when your country resides in the middle of a war zone filled with tribal belts such as South west Asia (the middle east) it is only wise to make sure your peoples are well trained and your military is well prepared and ready.

If everyone would just respect their neighboring country and let people worship whatever God they so choose it might not be nessecsry but unfortunately we do not live in a perfect world.

So everyone who did four years in the military worldwide, is fair game?

Teenagers and children in Israel are fair game, because of conscription?

I tried to explain that children (including teens) were excluded as they haven't served/trained.

That's a good point. More of a preventative necessity for these areas.

Once again, im not justifying what hamas did and it's probably a poor example of what im asking, it's just what spurred my question. Better wording would be

"In a mutually agreed upon war does a country with mandatory military service have adult civilians?"
Or
"Is it a war crime to kill trained civilians?"


As I said, I want mandatory service here but if it meant my daughters were no longer civilians for the rest of their lives in the unlikely event of an invasion then it may alter my opinion...

So those who did four years, and left the service are also fair game?

That's my question. I just read that Israelis don't keep their guns like the Swiss can though, so maybe that's an important distinction.

Are Palestinian kids fair game since Hamas pushes them all through terrorist training camps?

Maybe. I wondered that too. It's harder to distinguish though since every adult in a mandatory military country would be trained but not necessarily every teen in a terrorist country. I'm sure Iraq/Afghanistan was tough mentally due to so many potential threats.

civilians pay taxes that maintain the army
children grow up to fight ten-fifteen years later
women give birth to the aforementioned children
cats and dogs provide a morale boost
you start looking where the line really is you might not find it at all

My thought is no given that they don't have access to firearms.

However, I see the grey area and think it would be smart to keep them armed.

So if you're conceal carry you're fair game?