Sort of noteworthy that in a field typically full of complex hypotheticals and heavy on fact-specific circumstances, I've really not seen any serious IHL/LOAC voices argue these strikes are anything but virtually certainly unlawful

Disturbingly similar fact pattern to Heinz-Wilhelm Eck, a German U-boat commander, who was tried, convicted, and executed after the war for ordering his crew to shoot the survivors of a Greek merchantman sunk by U-852.

If Isaac Chotiner ever said this to me, I would move to the woods.