I’m violating my own rules here, but the media are not keeping up with developments, so I’m having to wing it.
These are chemical containers being unloaded from both helicopters. The commenters on Reddit are far more qualified than I am to extrapolate, but at the base level, the government flying them into the middle of a city is … troubling.
A law, to be law, needs to be enforceable, otherwise it’s just a suggestion. International law is only enforceable through voluntary compliance, coercion, or war. Yes, during peace time many countries pick the voluntary way, others need coercion… and some ignore everything.
Curfews and martial law, are war-time measures. Check how they work in countries openly at war. If you get them in a country “at peace”… well, I have bad news, but it isn’t really at peace.
When you get a government fighting its own population, that isn’t simply oppression, that’s civil war.