OK then if semantics are what's bothering you then quote from the international laws you said forbade it.
OK then if semantics are what’s bothering you then quote from the international laws you said forbade it.
I didn’t say “laws”. There weren’t formal agreements between countries a la the Geneva Conventions forbidding it at the time. There was instead custom which had arisen among western nations to not deliberately target civilians. That was later codified in the Geneva Conventions.