India, April 24 -- A characteristic of contemporary wars is that the ethics of fighting are increasingly receding to the background. During the initial days of the ongoing war in West Asia, the world was shocked by a US missile strike on a school in Iran that killed more than 150 children. Earlier in Gaza, operations by Israel Defence Forces, while targeting Hamas terrorists, often caused disproportionate casualties, mostly innocent civilians. These casualties largely occurred as a result of mistaken identity by AI-driven smart munitions. How many of the close-to-72,000 killed in Gaza so far fell prey to such reasons is hard to say with certainty, but whatever the toll, it would surely be disturbing.

The principles of discrimination and ...