Allegations of war crimes in the 2006 Lebanon War
Encyclopedia
Various groups and individuals, including Amnesty International
, Human Rights Watch
, and United Nations
officials, accused both Israel and Hezbollah of violating international humanitarian law
during the 2006 Lebanon War, and warned of possible war crimes. These allegations included intentional attacks on civilian populations
or infrastructure
, disproportionate or indiscriminate attacks, the use of human shield
s, and the use of prohibited weapons.
Under international humanitarian law, warring parties are obliged to distinguish between combatants and civilians
, ensure that attacks on legitimate military targets are proportional
, and guarantee that the military advantage of such attacks outweigh the possible harm done to civilians
. Violations of these laws are considered war crimes.
According to various media, between 1,000 and 1,200 Lebanese civilians are reported dead. Additionally, there were between 1500 and 2500 people wounded, and over 1,000,000 were temporarily made refugees, with an unknown number of missing civilians in the south of Lebanon.
Israel said that it tried to avoid civilians, and had distributed leaflets calling on civilian residents to evacuate, but that Hezbollah stored weapons in and fired from civilian areas and transferred weapons using ambulances, making those areas legitimate targets, and used civilians as human shields.
s, and several reports have said that Hezbollah fired rockets from residential areas to draw Israeli fire on those areas, which maximised civilian casualties. The IDF released pictures and videos it said demonstrated Hezbollah's use of mosques and homes for rocket storage and launching. The IDF claimed that Hezbollah had set up roadblocks to prevent residents from leaving the warzone, while Amnesty International reported that "around 100,000 civilians were trapped in southern Lebanon, afraid to flee following Israeli threats to target all moving vehicles," and after statements by Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon
that "all those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah."
In U.S documents leaked online, it was alleged that Hezbollah used ambulances to transfer weapons during the war.
Amnesty International investigated Israeli complaints of the use of human shields by Hezbollah, but found no evidence for the claims. They concluded that "it [was] not apparent that civilians were present and used as 'human shields'." A statement issued by Human Rights Watch
supported Amnesty's conclusion and "found no cases in which Hezbollah deliberately used civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory IDF attack."
Human Rights Watch stated that "while it may be unlawful... to place forces, weapons and ammunition within or near densely populated areas, it is only shielding when there is a specific intent to use the civilians to deter an attack." After his mission to coordinate aid efforts in Lebanon, U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland
stated that "Hizbullah must stop this cowardly blending... among women and children," and that "I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men."
A September 6, 2007 Human Rights Watch report found that most of the civilian deaths in Lebanon resulted from "indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes," and found that Israeli aircraft targeted vehicles carrying fleeing civilians. The report stated that the investigation "refutes the argument made by Israeli officials that most of the Lebanese civilian casualties were due to Hezbollah routinely hiding among civilians." In a statement issued before the report's release, the human rights organization said there was no basis to the Israeli government's claim that civilian casualties resulted from Hezbollah guerrillas using civilians as shields. Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch executive director, said there were only "rare" cases of Hezbollah operating in civilian villages. "To the contrary, once the war started, most Hezbollah military officials and even many political officials left the villages," he said. "Most Hezbollah military activity was conducted from prepared positions outside Lebanese villages in the hills and valleys around."
Upon his visit to Lebanon, United Nations
Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
Jan Egeland
accused Hezbollah of "cowardly blending ... among women and children. I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men." Some journalists, human rights organizations, and Hezbollah itself dispute the charge, claiming that the group's contact with and proximity to Lebanese civilian centers is routinely minimized as a precaution against infiltration. A Human Rights Watch
report released on 3 August said:
Human Rights Watch later printed an editorial
reiterating these concerns in the context of strong criticism of the conduct of both sides in the conflict on 5 October.
An Amnesty International
report released on 21 November 2006, found that there wasn't "conclusive evidence" of the use of "human shields":
There have been other reports of Hezbollah using civilians as human shields. On 12 July, the very same day that Hezbollah sparked the war by kidnapping the two Israeli soldiers, the Israeli government publicized photographic and video evidence of Hezbollah's human shield tactics. The Sunday Herald Sun
printed pictures that were smuggled out of Lebanon. One showing militants in a Lebanese town riding a truck equipped with an anti-aircraft gun, another showing a militant carrying an AK-47 rifle. The photographer, a Melbourne man who refused to give his name, stated that he was less than 400 meters from the block when it was obliterated. He said that "Hezbollah came in to launch their rockets, then within minutes the area was blasted by Israeli jets ... Until the Hezbollah fighters arrived, it had not been touched by the Israelis. Then it was totally devastated. It was carnage. Two innocent people died in that incident, but it was so lucky it was not more." The New Yorker
reported how a Sidon
mosque was used as a Hezbollah weapons cache before it was bombed by Israel.
On 5 December 2006, the IDF declassified photographic and video recorded evidence of Hezbollah's human shield tactics. Ynetnews
reported:
Israeli military spokesman, Capt. Jacob Dallal, further noted that much of the weaponry threatening Israel was deliberately being stored among civilians: "A lot of the rockets are stored in people’s homes in urban areas, fired from within villages and brought in from the Damascus-Beirut highway." The IDF
also claims that Hezbollah militants are preventing or impeding the evacuation of civilians from southern Lebanon despite warnings by Israel to do so, thereby keeping civilians inside the military theatre and exposing them to danger.
During a raid in Baalbeck, Israeli forces found what IDF commanders described to the media as "a hospital building that served as a Hezbollah office complex." Israeli soldiers gathered weapons, documents, and other useful intelligence information from the hospital. According to Al Arabia's website, Hezbollah fighters wear uniforms in battle but "dress normally" when among civilians. Hence, fallen Hezbollah fighters in civilian areas are likely to be accounted as civilians casualties.
A recent editorial in the The Washington Times
detailed preparations taken by Hezbollah in advance of the July war to hide weaponry in private civilian homes.
On 6 September 2007, the Associated Press reported on a new Human Rights Watch report found that most of the civilian deaths in Lebanon resulted from "indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes," and found that Israeli aircraft targeted vehicles carrying fleeing civilians. The report stated that Hezbollah "did at times fire rockets from, and store weapons in, populated areas and deploy its forces among the civilian population." In a statement issued before the report's release, the human rights organization said there was no basis to the Israeli government's claim that civilian casualties resulted from Hezbollah guerrillas using civilians as shields. Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch executive director, said there were only "rare" cases of Hezbollah operating in civilian villages. "To the contrary, once the war started, most Hezbollah military officials and even many political officials left the villages," he said, "Most Hezbollah military activity was conducted from prepared positions outside Lebanese villages in the hills and valleys around." Roth also stated that "Hezbollah guerrillas did not wear uniforms, making it hard to pick them out from civilians." Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mark Regev denied the accuracy of the Human Rights Watch report.
Artillery
and missile
s fired into civilian
areas in Lebanon
and Israel
by both the Israel Defence Forces and Hezbollah were a major component of the 2006 Lebanon war. The Hezbollah attack that initiated the conflict
involved the firing of rockets on the Israeli towns of Even Menachem and Mattat
, injuring 5 civilians. Four civilians were killed over the next two days.
Intended targeting aside, approximately one-quarter of the Israelis killed by Hezbollah and the vast majority of the Lebanese
killed by Israeli forces were widely reported to be civilians. The Boston
-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
, a media watchdog group focused on monitoring any coverage it considers unfair to Israel, suggested that nearly half, or even most, of Lebanese casualties were combatants. Israel, Lebanon, and the international community
have all expressed grave concern over the damage to civilian life and property that has resulted from the current conflict. Israel mostly blames Hezbollah, although expressing regret for collateral damage
to civilians caused by return fire on Hezbollah positions. Hezbollah blames Israel entirely, downplaying strikes which have killed Israeli civilians as exaggerated or justifiable. Allies of each have expressed similar views.
Hezbollah fired rockets, sometimes at a rate of more than 150 per day, at civilian targets throughout the conflict. Every major city in northern Israel was hit, including Haifa
, Nazareth
, Tiberias, Nahariya
, Safed
, Afula
, Kiryat Shmona, Karmiel
, and Maalot, along with dozens of kibbutz
im, moshav
im, and Druze and Arab
villages. Hezbollah rocket attacks were responsible for all 43 civilian Israeli fatalities in the conflict, including four heart attacks during rocket attacks, in addition to at least 12 military fatalities. Because of the bombings by Hezbollah of Israel's northern cities, there was a large displaced
Israeli citizen population within Israel. "Israeli officials have estimated the number of displaced northern Israelis at 300,000 since the fighting began" on 12 July. Many of the displaced Israelis stayed in Israel's southern most city, Eilat, where hotels were overbooked. Some were constrained to camp out on the beach instead. Other families stayed in university dormitories in larger cities such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem or in guests houses in kibbutzim south of Haifa. On 2 August 2006, it was reported that an estimated 200 to 300 rockets were aimed at fifteen targets inside Israel.
Hezbollah also used cluster weapons which can indiscriminately kill civilians. This was the first use of a Chinese made cluster bomb weapon.
Some Hezbollah statements suggest intentions of deliberately targeting civilians. On 24 July Hossein Safiadeen, Hezbollah envoy to Iran, told a conference that included the Tehran-based representative of the Palestinian group Hamas
and the ambassador
s from Lebanon
, Syria
and the Palestinian Authority "We are going to make Israel not safe for Israelis". He further outlined his organization's strategy of terrorizing
Israeli civilians into leaving their country: "We will expand attacks," he said: "The people who came to Israel, (they) moved there to live, not to die. If we continue to attack, they will leave."
population. Nasrallah
has apologized for the first two Arab fatalities, two brothers aged 3 and 5 in the mixed city of Nazareth
.
Human Rights Watch
stated on 18 July that
Civilian infrastructure damaged by rocket attacks included a post office and two Israeli hospitals, according to the director general of the Israeli Ministry of Health, professor Avi Israeli. Furthermore, at least one raid by Israeli troops on a launching site in Lebanon had found Nahariya's Ben Zvi general hospital on the operators' target list, complete with accurate bearing and range details. Rockets have also hit many civilian homes, and a cemetery, an event in which 10 Israelis were killed. In Acre
, a Hezbollah rocket destroyed "the only school in the city that serves both Jewish and Arab pupils -- the el-Mahaba ("love" in Arabic) kindergarten for mentally and emotionally handicapped kids."
As for the Arab citizens of Israel
in Haifa
, Nasrallah
said on Al-Manar
television, “I have a special message to the Arabs of Haifa, to your martyrs and to your wounded. I call you to leave this city. I hope you do this.…Please leave so we don't shed your blood, which is our blood.” Some analysts have drawn a comparison between these warnings and the alleged Arab leaders' endorsement for flight in 1948.
Strikes on Lebanon's civilian population and infrastructure
include Rafik Hariri International Airport, ports, a lighthouse, grain silos, bridges, roads, factories, ambulances and relief trucks, mobile telephone and television stations, fuel containers and service stations, and the country's largest dairy farm Liban Lait
.
An "initial assessment" Amnesty International
report on Israeli attacks on civilian infrastructure states that "the evidence strongly suggests that the extensive destruction of public works, power systems, civilian homes and industry was deliberate and an integral part of the military strategy, rather than "collateral damage" – incidental damage to civilians or civilian property resulting from targeting military objectives." UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
Jan Egeland
called Israel's offensive "disproportionate" and declared that the "horrific" leveling of "block after block" of buildings in Beirut "makes it a violation of humanitarian law." Mr Egeland added that one third of the Lebanese dead were children. Around 900,000 Lebanese were displaced during the fighting.
There have been numerous reports of attacks on fleeing civilians. The BBC
reported that families evacuating the village of Marwahin
in Southern Lebanon
were struck on an open road by an Israeli missile attack; killing 17, many of them women and children. Human Rights Watch
called for an investigation into this incident. On 23 July 2006 three families fleeing Tyre at the command of the IDF were attacked by rockets fired from Israeli helicopters; they claimed to be prominently waving a white flag
from their automobiles, however the Israelis had repeatedly warned civilians not to use vans due to their ability to carry Hezbollah rockets.
An Israeli official stated that
said Israel had no intention to harm Lebanese civilians, but warned that civilians who live near Hezbollah weapon caches were in danger: "Because we know that some of their rocket caches, which are fired at Israel, are hidden in private apartments, I call on these residents to leave their homes. He who lives near a rocket is likely to get hurt." Hezbollah had placed large amounts of weaponry into sealed rooms in private home prior to the outbreak of the conflict, placing the Lebanese citizenry at risk of attack.
The civilian casualties
have been characterised by some as the result of poor intelligence
. In mid-June, the Lebanese Security Service allegedly arrested as many as 80 Lebanese citizens which they accused of working for Mossad
. The loss of such a significant number of assets
would have allowed Hezbollah time to redeploy to new locations prior to the conflict without Israel's knowledge.
On 30 July 2006, Israel
hit a residential building in Qana
that housed refugees, which Israel said was near Hezbollah rocket launching sites; 28 people died, including 16 children; the death toll initially reported was 57 people including 34 children. The deadly air strike
, which followed reports of Israeli attacks on two clearly marked Red Cross ambulances in Qana
one week before on 24 July and Israel's 1996 shelling
, sparked angry denunciations in Lebanon and abroad. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora
revoked US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
's invitation to Lebanon and said, "Out of respect for the souls of our innocent martyrs and the remains of our children buried under the rubble of Qana, we scream out to our fellow Lebanese and to other Arab
brothers and to the whole world
to stand united in the face of the Israeli war criminals."
An IDF source said that aerial attacks were ruled out in favor of ground troops in the fighting with Hezbollah in the Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil
, for fear of harming the few hundred civilians thought to remain. Nine Israeli soldiers were killed in the operation.
On 14 July, IDF Army Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz
declared that, "nothing is safe [in Lebanon], as simple as that."
On 19 July, during a speech at a pro-Israel rally in New York
, Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman
, said: “To those countries who claim that we are using disproportionate force, I have only this to say: You’re damn right we are. Because if your cities were shelled the way ours were, if your citizens were terrorized the way ours are, you would use much more force than we are using”. He has also said, “One who goes to sleep with rockets shouldn't be surprised if he doesn’t wake up in the morning.”
On 24 July, it was reported that Army Chief of Staff Halutz, according to a "senior officer", had issued orders to destroy 10 multi-story buildings in southern Beirut for every rocket fired on Haifa
. The same day the IAF/IDF confirmed it had destroyed ten buildings in Beirut, including what it described as "a vital target", but the nature of the target was not revealed. In response to the press reports, the IDF Spokesperson's Office
first released a statement saying that reporters had misquoted "the senior officer", but later issued a new statement saying that the officer in question had made a mistake and was wrong in claiming that Halutz had issued such a "retaliation" directive.
On 26 July, during a security cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert
, the Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon
is reported by The Daily Telegraph
to have said that any civilians remaining in southern Lebanon after having received warning leaflets should be considered "terrorists".
Eli Yishai
, Israel's Vice Prime Minister and member of Israel's Security Cabinet, explained: "If Hezbollah fires Katyushas, we have to deliver a severe blow to Lebanon's infrastructure, black out Beirut, cut off electricity, turn off the water, destroy bridges, halt industry and flatten entire villages. If there is horrible damage in Lebanon, they will say, 'The Jews
are crazy'" He also said: "If one has to choose between hurting the Israeli home front or the Lebanese home front, I prefer that the Lebanese get hurt. It hurts me to see civilians hurt by our air force
, but there is no choice. We cannot be bleeding hearts while our citizens are being hurt. If Lebanese citizens pay the price, they will rise up against Hezbollah."
On 27 July, Professor Asa Kasher
, author of the IDF's Code of Conduct, said that the IDF may be "morally justified" to "obliterate areas with high concentrations of terrorists, even if civilian casualties result."
On 6 August, in reference to European Union
criticism of civilian casualties resulting from IDF activity in Lebanon, Prime Minister Olmert said, "Where do they [European Countries] get the right to preach to Israel? European countries attacked Kosovo
and killed 10,000 civilians. 10,000! And none of these countries had to suffer before that from a single rocket. I'm not saying it was wrong to intervene in Kosovo. But please: Don't preach to us about the treatment of civilians." According to Human Rights Watch, 500 civilians were killed during the Kosovo War
in attacks confirmed to have been carried out by NATO forces. However, the Yugoslav government claimed that the bombings resulted in between 1,200 and 5,700 civilian casualties, and some sources put the death toll as high as 18,000.
An anonymous IDF rocket battery commander commented on the extent of the use of cluster bomb
s by saying "what we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs." An official IDF spokesman said, "International law
does not include a sweeping prohibition of the use of cluster bombs. The convention on conventional weaponry does not declare a prohibition on phosphorus weapons, rather, on principles regulating the use of such weapons". The US government declared its intent to investigate whether Israel's use of US-made cluster bombs in southern Lebanon had violated secret agreements that restrict when it can employ such weapons. As of 6 September 2006, at least 13 people were killed and dozens injured after the ceasefire in Lebanon by unexploded ordnance
. Most of the deaths resulted from the submunitions of cluster bombs. The United Nations
had found 100,000 unexploded cluster bomblets at 359 sites by that time.
The Israeli Air Force
issued warnings to civilians prior to military actions by way of leaflet droppings to evacuate areas in which it was intending to strike against Hezbollah strongholds. These leaflets warned residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate an area approximately 32 km wide, giving civilian populations time to evacuate despite providing an early warning to the intended target, Hezbollah militants. The New York Times noted that "Israel has been careful to drop leaflets warning civilians in southern Beirut and southern Lebanon where it knows that Hezbollah keeps stores of rockets and launchers in apartment houses, garages and homes." Also, general leaflets explaining Israel's desire not to bring harm to the Lebanese populace were dropped, asking civilians to "[r]efrain from being located in places in relation to Hezbollah."
However, the Israeli drops of leaflets before bombings have come under criticism for being used as an excuse to kill citizens who didn't leave. According to Human Rights Watch
, "in Qana and other villages in southern Lebanon, thousands of residents have been unable to leave the area because they are sick, wounded, do not have the means to leave or they fear Israeli attacks on vehicles".
The International Committee of the Red Cross
said in a 30 July statement on the IDF's attack on Qana, "Issuing advance warning to the civilian population of impending attacks in no way relieves a warring party of its obligations under the rules and principles of international humanitarian law. In particular, the principles of distinction and proportionality must be respected at all times".
In an opinion column in the International Herald Tribune
online, Peter Bouckaert, Senior Emergencies Researcher for Human Rights Watch, went even further in denouncing the Israeli policy, writing that "In Lebanon ... [t]ime after time, Israel has hit civilian homes and cars in the southern border zone, killing dozens of people with no evidence of any military objective."
On 6 August 2008, Yonatan Shapiro, a former Blackhawk helicopter pilot dismissed from reserve duty after signing a 'refusnik' letter in 2004, said that some Israeli fighter pilots had deliberately missed targets in order to avoid harming civilians, as disquiet grew in the military about flawed intelligence.
On 18 July the IDF attacked a convoy of ambulances and trucks operated by the United Arab Emirates Red Crescent (UAERC) on the road between Damascus and Beirut. One truck was destroyed, two were damaged and four passenger vehicles were damaged, causing injuries.
According to CNN
's Paula Zahn on 24 July, the Red Cross said that "an Israeli missile hit two clearly marked Red Cross ambulances that were parked inside the Lebanese town of Qana
evacuating civilians—the wounded included a 60-year-old woman and 12-year-old boy who's now in a coma." The ambulances were hit around 11:15 pm while wounded patients were being transferred from one ambulance to another. The ICRC recorded nine people including six Red Cross volunteers wounded in the attack. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer
made the allegation that these attacks were staged one month later, but was rebuked by the Red Cross for relying on an unverified internet blog in making his accusation. Israel has since said it "cannot tell for sure" if it hit the ambulances.
It was reported on 26 July that "at least 10 Lebanese ambulances bearing the emblem of the international red cross
have [...] become targets in Israeli air strikes", resulting in the injury of six emergency workers. Additionally, an ambulance marked as belonging to the Shiite Amal
militia was struck by Israeli aircraft fire near Tyre.
On 11 August it was reported that the IDF had wounded several aid workers during an airstrike that hit a Lebanese Red Cross ambulance in Tibnin, southeast of Tyre. It was also reported by Associated Press
that an ambulance dispatched to deal with the casualties from the airstrikes against a civilian convoy originating in Marjayoun
was also attacked. The Red Cross also confirmed that a Red Cross worker had been killed in the attack on the convoy.
U.S. documents leaked online claimed to reveal that Hezbollah used ambulances to transport weapons during the war.
The number of homes destroyed by the IDF was estimated by Hezbollah to be over 15,000 completely destroyed and many more damaged. Other estimates were of 10,000 homes in need rebuilding or repairing.
has said that the rocket attacks in civilian areas are at best indiscriminate, and at worst deliberate targeting due to their anti-personnel nature, which suggest a will to maximally harm civilians: "Some of the rockets launched against Haifa over the past two days contained hundreds of metal ball bearings that are of limited use against military targets but cause great harm to civilians and civilian property. The ball bearings lodge in the body and cause serious harm." Hezbollah "used Chinese-manufactured 122 mm rockets, carrying 39 sub-munitions that scattered hundreds of ball bearings, against Israel" in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
. Many of these ball bearing rockets remain unexploded in the north of Israel.
has said that there is evidence that has Israel used cluster bomb
s too close to civilians and described them as "unacceptably inaccurate and unreliable weapons when used around civilians" and that "they should never be used in populated areas." Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of using cluster munitions in an attack on Bilda, a Lebanese village, on 19 July which killed 1 civilian and injured 12, including seven children. The Israeli "army defended ... the use of cluster munitions in its offensive with Lebanon
, saying that using such munitions was 'legal under international law
' and the army employed
them 'in accordance with international standards.'" Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mark Regev
added, "[I]f NATO countries stock these weapons and have used them in recent conflicts — in Yugoslavia
, Afghanistan
and Iraq
— the world has no reason to point a finger at Israel."
On 20 November 2006, the IDF Spokesman's Office said
On 5 September, Israel's Ministry on Foreign Affairs reported:
On 1 December 2006, some three months later, Kofi Annan
reported to the Security Council:
Unexploded cluster bombs dropped by Israeli warplanes or duds fired by artillery remain in much of South Lebanon, and have killed 12 people and wounded 39, according to Chris Clarke, head of the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center attached to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
These unexploded cluster munitions have created "mini-minefields" and the casualties include three Lebanese bomb disposal experts. The U.N. Mine Action Co-ordination Centre in Tyre claims cluster bombs were dropped by Israel in 267 separate locations in South Lebanon and are still killing returning refugees. The United States has opened an inquiry into Israel's use of cluster bombs, which are supplied by the United States. According to The New York Times
this is to determine whether Israel had infringed secret rules that restrict where cluster bombs could be used.
On 6 October 2006, several weeks after the ceasefire, the New York Times reported that "Since the war between Israel and Hezbollah ended in August, nearly three people have been wounded or killed each day by cluster bombs Israel dropped in the waning days of the war, and officials now say it will take more than a year to clear the region of them. United Nations officials estimate that southern Lebanon is littered with one million unexploded bomblets, far outnumbering the 650,000 people living in the region".
An October 2006 report by Landmine Action, "Foreseeable Harm," found that
On 1 December 2006, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
submitted a report to the Security Council president stating that, as of 20 November 2006, 822 cluster bomb strike sites had been recorded, with 60,000 cluster bomblets having been cleared by the UN Mine Action Coordination Center
. On 28 January 2007, the State Department said that Israel may have violated agreements with the United States when it fired American supplied cluster munitions into civilian areas of southern Lebanon.
claimed that Israeli forces dropped “phosphorus incendiary bombs
, which are a blatant violation of international laws…against Lebanese civilians.” Information Minister Ghazi Aridi also said, "Israel is using internationally prohibited weapons against civilians." As-Safir
newspaper also ran a story about alleged use of unknown chemical weapons, citing a member of the "French Association of Cardiovascular Surgeons". Jawad Najem, a surgeon at a Tyre hospital, claims that he has treated patients with phosphorus burns. Other doctors in Southern Lebanon also suspect they are seeing phosphorus burns. On 24 July Lebanese President Émile Lahoud
stated on France's RFI radio:"According to the Geneva Convention, when they use phosphorus bombs and laser bombs, is that allowed against civilians and children?" An IDF spokeswomen replied to the Lahoud's statement by saying, "Everything the Israeli Defense Forces are using is legitimate"
After conducting an investigation of the claims, Israel has "denied that charge and in a statement, the Israeli military said that all of its weapons and ammunition comply with the international law. For the record, under international law, white phosphorus is permitted." Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN
senior medical correspondent, said:
Amnesty International
also warned against "reports that Israel has used incendiary weapons, such as white phosphorus shells" It precised that:
On 22 October, Israeli minister Jacob Edery said that the IDF had employed phosphorus munitions within the confines of international law, and stated that it was used in attacks against military targets in open ground.
munitions, due to health risks. The effect of the radioactive dust created on impact is debated, though the weapon itself is considered "toxic and constitutes a health risk independent of any residual radioactivity" due to the nature of heavy metals
.
Depleted uranium weapons have been cited in some studies as contributing factors in Gulf War syndrome
and increases in birth defects amongst residents within contaminated areas - the issue of DU use has also been raised by the Lebanese Government in the past, although the effect is widely debated, and the World Health Organization
has concluded that "under most circumstances, use of DU will make a negligible contribution to the overall natural background levels of uranium."
The accusations prompted criticism by HonestReporting
for coming to conclusions prematurely, and resulted in an investigation by the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP). On November 8, 2006, UNEP concluded that Israel
had not used any form of Uranium
-based weapons. Israelis and Israel
advocates cite the article as an instance of "shoddy journalism", arising allegedly as a result of media sensationalism.
Kofi Annan
criticized Israel for using cluster bombs, while Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
Jan Egeland
accused Israel of "completely immoral" use of the munitions in the country. Amnesty International stated on 30 August 2006 that it was "outrageous" that Israel had not yet provided maps indicating where cluster bombs were used, reiterating that their use "in the heart of where people live clearly violates the prohibition on indiscriminate attacks" and was therefore "a grave violation of international humanitarian law". On 1 September 2006 IDF said it would provide UNIFIL with maps of South Lebanon that indicated where bombs or other devices that did not explode may be found.
UN's Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
Jan Egeland
criticized Hezbollah for its alleged use of Lebanese civilians as "human shields", stating: “Consistently, from the Hezbollah heartland, my message was that Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending…among women and children.…I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men.”
He called Hezbollah rocket attacks into northern Israel and Israeli aerial bombing in Lebanon violations of humanitarian law. He accused Hezbollah of “cowardly blending…among women and children” and condemned their rumored pride at "having many more children and women dead than armed men."
UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights
Louise Arbour
expressed "grave concern over the continued killing and maiming of civilians in Lebanon, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territory." She suggested that the actions of Israel and Hezbollah may constitute war crime
s. Arbour called for Israel to obey the "principle of proportionality" and said, "Indiscriminate shelling of cities constitutes a foreseeable and unacceptable targeting of civilians.…Similarly, the bombardment of sites with alleged military significance, but resulting invariably in the killing of innocent civilians, is unjustifiable."
condemned both Israel and Hezbollah and called for UN intervention, stating early on that the region "has seen a horrendous escalation in attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure. Yet the G8
leaders have failed conspicuously to uphold their moral and legal obligation to address such blatant breaches of international humanitarian law, which in some cases have amounted to war crimes". Amnesty International later accused Israel of war crimes due to its assault on Lebanese civilian infrastructure.
Amnesty International has also accused Hezbollah of war crimes due to “deliberately failing to distinguish between civilian and military targets, and of wrongfully seeking to justify its barrage by claiming to be retaliating for Israel’s attacks on Lebanese civilians.” On 21 November 2006, Amnesty International released a report stating that there was not "conclusive evidence of intent" by Hezbollah to use the civilian population as “human shields” for its military activities.
condemned the indiscriminate use of force against civilians by both Israel and Hezbollah. They blamed Israel for systematically failing to distinguish between combatants and civilians, which may constitute a war crime, and accused Hezbollah of committing war crimes by the deliberate and indiscriminate killing of civilians by firing rockets into populated areas. The organization also strongly criticized Israel for using cluster bomb
s too close to civilians because of their inaccuracy and unreliability, and Hezbollah for filling its rockets with ball bearing
s, which "suggests a desire to maximize harm to civilians."
Condoleezza Rice
described the war on Lebanon as part of "birth pangs of a new Middle East" and urged Israel to ignore calls for a ceasefire because it would be a "false promise if it simply returns us to the status quo."
, British Foreign Office minister, said in an interview with CNN
, "I hope that the Americans understand what's happening to Lebanon: the destruction of the infrastructure, the death of so many children, and so many people. These have not been surgical strikes, and it's very, very difficult I think to understand the kind of military tactics that have been used. You know if they're chasing Hezbollah, well go for Hezbollah. You don't go for the entire Lebanese nation, and that's the difference."
who passed it to the New York Times, which had it published. It says that Hezbollah operated from civilian areas to deter the IDF and gain a propaganda advantage. The report also says that Hezbollah has been preparing for such an engagement for years, embedding its fighters and their weapons in the Shiite villages of southern Lebanon. Some cases the report documents include:
Other than two villages, Erlich said that over all, Hezbollah did not coerce Lebanese villagers from leaving. He says instead that “Hezbollah was operating inside a supportive population, and cynically used them to further its own goals.”
In Lebanon, a Hezbollah official denied the study’s allegations, saying its military units were based outside towns and villages and had come into populated areas only when circumstances required it. “We tried to avoid having to fight among civilian areas, but when Israeli troops entered villages, we were automatically forced to fight them from inside these villages to defend it,” said the official.
's statement that Israel
is breaking international law
, Alan Dershowitz
, a professor at Harvard Law School
, wrote:
David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey wrote for the Washington Post:
, a correspondent for The Independent
, said "Hezbollah is killing more Israeli soldiers than civilians and the Israelis are killing far more Lebanese civilians than they are guerrillas."
Jonathan Cook
addressed Jan Egeland's criticism, saying that Hezbollah doesn't force itself on civilians, but rather mingles with supportive Shiite populations adding:
Mitch Prothero countered both Dershowitz's argument and that of Rivkin, Casey, Fisk, and Cook in an article published by Salon.com
and widely cited elsewhere:
Warning: Extremely graphic wartime imagery
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, and United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
officials, accused both Israel and Hezbollah of violating international humanitarian law
International humanitarian law
International humanitarian law , often referred to as the laws of war, the laws and customs of war or the law of armed conflict, is the legal corpus that comprises "the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Conventions, as well as subsequent treaties, case law, and customary international law." It...
during the 2006 Lebanon War, and warned of possible war crimes. These allegations included intentional attacks on civilian populations
Civilian
A civilian under international humanitarian law is a person who is not a member of his or her country's armed forces or other militia. Civilians are distinct from combatants. They are afforded a degree of legal protection from the effects of war and military occupation...
or infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
, disproportionate or indiscriminate attacks, the use of human shield
Human shield
Human shield is a military and political term describing the deliberate placement of civilians in or around combat targets to deter an enemy from attacking those targets. It may also refer to the use of civilians to literally shield combatants during attacks, by forcing the civilians to march in...
s, and the use of prohibited weapons.
Under international humanitarian law, warring parties are obliged to distinguish between combatants and civilians
Distinction (law)
Distinction is a principle under international humanitarian law governing the legal use of force in an armed conflict, whereby belligerents must distinguish between combatants and civilians...
, ensure that attacks on legitimate military targets are proportional
Proportionality (law)
Proportionality is a principle in law which covers two distinct concepts. Within municipal law it is used to convey the idea that the punishment of an offender should fit the crime...
, and guarantee that the military advantage of such attacks outweigh the possible harm done to civilians
Military necessity
Military necessity, along with distinction, and proportionality, are three important principles of international humanitarian law governing the legal use of force in an armed conflict.-Attacks:...
. Violations of these laws are considered war crimes.
According to various media, between 1,000 and 1,200 Lebanese civilians are reported dead. Additionally, there were between 1500 and 2500 people wounded, and over 1,000,000 were temporarily made refugees, with an unknown number of missing civilians in the south of Lebanon.
Israel said that it tried to avoid civilians, and had distributed leaflets calling on civilian residents to evacuate, but that Hezbollah stored weapons in and fired from civilian areas and transferred weapons using ambulances, making those areas legitimate targets, and used civilians as human shields.
Use of human shields
Israeli officials accused Hezbollah of intentionally using the civilian population as human shieldHuman shield
Human shield is a military and political term describing the deliberate placement of civilians in or around combat targets to deter an enemy from attacking those targets. It may also refer to the use of civilians to literally shield combatants during attacks, by forcing the civilians to march in...
s, and several reports have said that Hezbollah fired rockets from residential areas to draw Israeli fire on those areas, which maximised civilian casualties. The IDF released pictures and videos it said demonstrated Hezbollah's use of mosques and homes for rocket storage and launching. The IDF claimed that Hezbollah had set up roadblocks to prevent residents from leaving the warzone, while Amnesty International reported that "around 100,000 civilians were trapped in southern Lebanon, afraid to flee following Israeli threats to target all moving vehicles," and after statements by Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon
Haim Ramon
Haim Ramon is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset between 1983 and 2009, and as both Vice Prime Minister and Minister in the Prime Minister's Office with responsibility for state policy.-Biography:...
that "all those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah."
In U.S documents leaked online, it was alleged that Hezbollah used ambulances to transfer weapons during the war.
Amnesty International investigated Israeli complaints of the use of human shields by Hezbollah, but found no evidence for the claims. They concluded that "it [was] not apparent that civilians were present and used as 'human shields'." A statement issued by Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
supported Amnesty's conclusion and "found no cases in which Hezbollah deliberately used civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory IDF attack."
Human Rights Watch stated that "while it may be unlawful... to place forces, weapons and ammunition within or near densely populated areas, it is only shielding when there is a specific intent to use the civilians to deter an attack." After his mission to coordinate aid efforts in Lebanon, U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland
Jan Egeland
Jan Egeland was the United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from June 2003 to December 2006. Egeland was appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and succeeded Kenzo Oshima...
stated that "Hizbullah must stop this cowardly blending... among women and children," and that "I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men."
A September 6, 2007 Human Rights Watch report found that most of the civilian deaths in Lebanon resulted from "indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes," and found that Israeli aircraft targeted vehicles carrying fleeing civilians. The report stated that the investigation "refutes the argument made by Israeli officials that most of the Lebanese civilian casualties were due to Hezbollah routinely hiding among civilians." In a statement issued before the report's release, the human rights organization said there was no basis to the Israeli government's claim that civilian casualties resulted from Hezbollah guerrillas using civilians as shields. Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch executive director, said there were only "rare" cases of Hezbollah operating in civilian villages. "To the contrary, once the war started, most Hezbollah military officials and even many political officials left the villages," he said. "Most Hezbollah military activity was conducted from prepared positions outside Lebanese villages in the hills and valleys around."
Upon his visit to Lebanon, United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator is a high level position in the United Nations that heads the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs....
Jan Egeland
Jan Egeland
Jan Egeland was the United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from June 2003 to December 2006. Egeland was appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and succeeded Kenzo Oshima...
accused Hezbollah of "cowardly blending ... among women and children. I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men." Some journalists, human rights organizations, and Hezbollah itself dispute the charge, claiming that the group's contact with and proximity to Lebanese civilian centers is routinely minimized as a precaution against infiltration. A Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
report released on 3 August said:
"Human Rights Watch found no cases in which Hezbollah deliberately used civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory IDF attack. In none of the cases of civilian deaths documented in this report is there evidence to suggest that Hezbollah forces or weapons were in or near the area that the IDF targeted during or just prior to the attack."In the same report, Human Rights Watch wrote:
"Hezbollah occasionally did store weapons in or near civilian homes and fighters placed rocket launchers within populated areas or near U.N. observers, which are serious violations of the laws of war because they violate the duty to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties. ... In addition, Human Rights Watch continues to investigate allegations that Hezbollah is shielding its military personnel and materiel by locating them in civilian homes or areas, and it is deeply concerned by Hezbollah’s placement of certain troops and materiel near civilians, which endangers them and violates the duty to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties. Human Rights Watch uses the occasion of this report to reiterate Hezbollah’s legal duty never to deliberately use civilians to shield military objects and never to needlessly endanger civilians by conducting military operations, maintaining troops, or storing weapons in their vicinity."
Human Rights Watch later printed an editorial
Editorial
An opinion piece is an article, published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about the subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals.-Editorials:...
reiterating these concerns in the context of strong criticism of the conduct of both sides in the conflict on 5 October.
An Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
report released on 21 November 2006, found that there wasn't "conclusive evidence" of the use of "human shields":
"While the presence of Hizbullah’s fighters and short-range weapons within civilian areas is not contested, this in itself is not conclusive evidence of intent to use civilians as "human shields", any more than the presence of Israeli soldiers in a kibbutz is in itself evidence of the same war crime."
There have been other reports of Hezbollah using civilians as human shields. On 12 July, the very same day that Hezbollah sparked the war by kidnapping the two Israeli soldiers, the Israeli government publicized photographic and video evidence of Hezbollah's human shield tactics. The Sunday Herald Sun
Herald Sun
The Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...
printed pictures that were smuggled out of Lebanon. One showing militants in a Lebanese town riding a truck equipped with an anti-aircraft gun, another showing a militant carrying an AK-47 rifle. The photographer, a Melbourne man who refused to give his name, stated that he was less than 400 meters from the block when it was obliterated. He said that "Hezbollah came in to launch their rockets, then within minutes the area was blasted by Israeli jets ... Until the Hezbollah fighters arrived, it had not been touched by the Israelis. Then it was totally devastated. It was carnage. Two innocent people died in that incident, but it was so lucky it was not more." The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
reported how a Sidon
Sidon
Sidon or Saïda is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate of Lebanon, on the Mediterranean coast, about 40 km north of Tyre and 40 km south of the capital Beirut. In Genesis, Sidon is the son of Canaan the grandson of Noah...
mosque was used as a Hezbollah weapons cache before it was bombed by Israel.
On 5 December 2006, the IDF declassified photographic and video recorded evidence of Hezbollah's human shield tactics. Ynetnews
Ynetnews
Ynetnews is the online English language Israeli news website of Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s most-read newspaper, and the Hebrew Israel news portal, Ynet...
reported:
"The IDF [had] found that Hizbullah is preventing civilians from leaving villages in southern Lebanon. Roadblocks have been set up outside some of the villages to prevent residents from leaving, while in other villages Hizbullah is preventing UN representatives from entering, who are trying to help residents leave."
Israeli military spokesman, Capt. Jacob Dallal, further noted that much of the weaponry threatening Israel was deliberately being stored among civilians: "A lot of the rockets are stored in people’s homes in urban areas, fired from within villages and brought in from the Damascus-Beirut highway." The IDF
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
also claims that Hezbollah militants are preventing or impeding the evacuation of civilians from southern Lebanon despite warnings by Israel to do so, thereby keeping civilians inside the military theatre and exposing them to danger.
During a raid in Baalbeck, Israeli forces found what IDF commanders described to the media as "a hospital building that served as a Hezbollah office complex." Israeli soldiers gathered weapons, documents, and other useful intelligence information from the hospital. According to Al Arabia's website, Hezbollah fighters wear uniforms in battle but "dress normally" when among civilians. Hence, fallen Hezbollah fighters in civilian areas are likely to be accounted as civilians casualties.
A recent editorial in the The Washington Times
The Washington Times
The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
detailed preparations taken by Hezbollah in advance of the July war to hide weaponry in private civilian homes.
On 6 September 2007, the Associated Press reported on a new Human Rights Watch report found that most of the civilian deaths in Lebanon resulted from "indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes," and found that Israeli aircraft targeted vehicles carrying fleeing civilians. The report stated that Hezbollah "did at times fire rockets from, and store weapons in, populated areas and deploy its forces among the civilian population." In a statement issued before the report's release, the human rights organization said there was no basis to the Israeli government's claim that civilian casualties resulted from Hezbollah guerrillas using civilians as shields. Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch executive director, said there were only "rare" cases of Hezbollah operating in civilian villages. "To the contrary, once the war started, most Hezbollah military officials and even many political officials left the villages," he said, "Most Hezbollah military activity was conducted from prepared positions outside Lebanese villages in the hills and valleys around." Roth also stated that "Hezbollah guerrillas did not wear uniforms, making it hard to pick them out from civilians." Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mark Regev denied the accuracy of the Human Rights Watch report.
Attacks on civilian targets
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
and missile
Missile
Though a missile may be any thrown or launched object, it colloquially almost always refers to a self-propelled guided weapon system.-Etymology:The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send"...
s fired into civilian
Civilian
A civilian under international humanitarian law is a person who is not a member of his or her country's armed forces or other militia. Civilians are distinct from combatants. They are afforded a degree of legal protection from the effects of war and military occupation...
areas in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
by both the Israel Defence Forces and Hezbollah were a major component of the 2006 Lebanon war. The Hezbollah attack that initiated the conflict
Zar'it-Shtula incident
The 2006 Hezbollah cross-border raid was a cross-border attack committed by Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants on an Israeli military patrol on 12 July 2006 on Israeli territory....
involved the firing of rockets on the Israeli towns of Even Menachem and Mattat
Mattat
Mattat is a small communal settlement in northern Israel. Located near the Lebanese Border between the cities of Ma'alot-Tarshiha and Safed, it falls under the jurisdiction of Ma'ale Yosef Regional Council...
, injuring 5 civilians. Four civilians were killed over the next two days.
Intended targeting aside, approximately one-quarter of the Israelis killed by Hezbollah and the vast majority of the Lebanese
Lebanese people
The Lebanese people are a nation and ethnic group of Levantine people originating in what is today the country of Lebanon, including those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon prior to the creation of the modern Lebanese state....
killed by Israeli forces were widely reported to be civilians. The Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America is an American non-profit pro-Israel media watchdog group. The group says it was founded in 1982 "to respond to the Washington Post's coverage of Israel's Lebanon incursion", and to respond to what it considers the media's "general...
, a media watchdog group focused on monitoring any coverage it considers unfair to Israel, suggested that nearly half, or even most, of Lebanese casualties were combatants. Israel, Lebanon, and the international community
International community
The international community is a term used in international relations to refer to all peoples, cultures and governments of the world or to a group of them. The term is used to imply the existence of common duties and obligations between them...
have all expressed grave concern over the damage to civilian life and property that has resulted from the current conflict. Israel mostly blames Hezbollah, although expressing regret for collateral damage
Collateral damage
Collateral damage is damage to people or property that is unintended or incidental to the intended outcome. The phrase is prevalently used as an euphemism for civilian casualties of a military action.-Etymology:...
to civilians caused by return fire on Hezbollah positions. Hezbollah blames Israel entirely, downplaying strikes which have killed Israeli civilians as exaggerated or justifiable. Allies of each have expressed similar views.
Targeting of civilian targets by Hezbollah
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
, Nazareth
Nazareth
Nazareth is the largest city in the North District of Israel. Known as "the Arab capital of Israel," the population is made up predominantly of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel...
, Tiberias, Nahariya
Nahariya
Nahariya is the northernmost coastal city in Israel, with an estimated population of 51,200.-History:Nahariya was founded by German Jewish immigrants from the Fifth Aliyah in the 1930s...
, Safed
Safed
Safed , is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and of Israel. Due to its high elevation, Safed experiences warm summers and cold, often snowy, winters...
, Afula
Afula
Afula is a city in the North District of Israel, often known as the "Capital of the Valley", referring to the Jezreel Valley. The city had a population of 40,500 at the end of 2009.-History:...
, Kiryat Shmona, Karmiel
Karmiel
Karmiel is a city in northern Israel. Established in 1964 as a development town, Karmiel is located in the Beit HaKerem Valley which divides upper and lower Galilee. The city is located south of the Acre-Safed road, from Safed and from Acre...
, and Maalot, along with dozens of kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
im, moshav
Moshav
Moshav is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists during the second aliyah...
im, and Druze and Arab
Arab citizens of Israel
Arab citizens of Israel refers to citizens of Israel who are not Jewish, and whose cultural and linguistic heritage or ethnic identity is Arab....
villages. Hezbollah rocket attacks were responsible for all 43 civilian Israeli fatalities in the conflict, including four heart attacks during rocket attacks, in addition to at least 12 military fatalities. Because of the bombings by Hezbollah of Israel's northern cities, there was a large displaced
Displaced person
A displaced person is a person who has been forced to leave his or her native place, a phenomenon known as forced migration.- Origin of term :...
Israeli citizen population within Israel. "Israeli officials have estimated the number of displaced northern Israelis at 300,000 since the fighting began" on 12 July. Many of the displaced Israelis stayed in Israel's southern most city, Eilat, where hotels were overbooked. Some were constrained to camp out on the beach instead. Other families stayed in university dormitories in larger cities such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem or in guests houses in kibbutzim south of Haifa. On 2 August 2006, it was reported that an estimated 200 to 300 rockets were aimed at fifteen targets inside Israel.
Hezbollah also used cluster weapons which can indiscriminately kill civilians. This was the first use of a Chinese made cluster bomb weapon.
Some Hezbollah statements suggest intentions of deliberately targeting civilians. On 24 July Hossein Safiadeen, Hezbollah envoy to Iran, told a conference that included the Tehran-based representative of the Palestinian group Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
and the ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
s from Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and the Palestinian Authority "We are going to make Israel not safe for Israelis". He further outlined his organization's strategy of terrorizing
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
Israeli civilians into leaving their country: "We will expand attacks," he said: "The people who came to Israel, (they) moved there to live, not to die. If we continue to attack, they will leave."
Hezbollah's attacks on civilian areas
Rockets fired by Hezbollah also landed and resulted in casualties in the Israeli ArabArab citizens of Israel
Arab citizens of Israel refers to citizens of Israel who are not Jewish, and whose cultural and linguistic heritage or ethnic identity is Arab....
population. Nasrallah
Nasrallah
Nasrallah is a male Arabic given name, meaning "Victory of God", and is used by Muslims and Christians alike. It may also be transliterated as Nasrollah or Nasrullah. In modern usage it may appear as a surname...
has apologized for the first two Arab fatalities, two brothers aged 3 and 5 in the mixed city of Nazareth
Nazareth
Nazareth is the largest city in the North District of Israel. Known as "the Arab capital of Israel," the population is made up predominantly of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel...
.
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
stated on 18 July that
"Hezbollah's attacks [on Haifa] were at best indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas, at worst the deliberate targeting of civilians. Either way, they were serious violations of international humanitarian law."Human Rights Watch has also noted that
"Hezbollah has launched rockets containing thousands of metal ball bearings towards Israeli towns and cities. Human Rights Watch is of the view that neither weapon should be used in or near civilian areas as a matter of international law, because the wide blast effects of these weapons cannot be directed at military targets without imposing a substantial risk of civilian harm and the weapons cannot distinguish between military targets and civilians. (...) Like cluster munitions, the use of rocket heads filled with metal ball bearings cannot be targeted precisely and are indiscriminate weapons when used in populated areas. Their use in rockets fired into populated areas appears intended to maximize harm to civilians."
Civilian infrastructure damaged by rocket attacks included a post office and two Israeli hospitals, according to the director general of the Israeli Ministry of Health, professor Avi Israeli. Furthermore, at least one raid by Israeli troops on a launching site in Lebanon had found Nahariya's Ben Zvi general hospital on the operators' target list, complete with accurate bearing and range details. Rockets have also hit many civilian homes, and a cemetery, an event in which 10 Israelis were killed. In Acre
Acre, Israel
Acre , is a city in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. Acre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country....
, a Hezbollah rocket destroyed "the only school in the city that serves both Jewish and Arab pupils -- the el-Mahaba ("love" in Arabic) kindergarten for mentally and emotionally handicapped kids."
As for the Arab citizens of Israel
Arab citizens of Israel
Arab citizens of Israel refers to citizens of Israel who are not Jewish, and whose cultural and linguistic heritage or ethnic identity is Arab....
in Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
, Nasrallah
Nasrallah
Nasrallah is a male Arabic given name, meaning "Victory of God", and is used by Muslims and Christians alike. It may also be transliterated as Nasrollah or Nasrullah. In modern usage it may appear as a surname...
said on Al-Manar
Al-Manar
Al-Manar is a Lebanese satellite television station affiliated with Hezbollah, registered as Lebanese Media Group Company, broadcasting from Beirut, Lebanon. It has an offering a "rich menu" of high production news, commentary, and entertainment. The self-proclaimed "Station of the Resistance" ,...
television, “I have a special message to the Arabs of Haifa, to your martyrs and to your wounded. I call you to leave this city. I hope you do this.…Please leave so we don't shed your blood, which is our blood.” Some analysts have drawn a comparison between these warnings and the alleged Arab leaders' endorsement for flight in 1948.
Targeting of civilian targets by Israel
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
include Rafik Hariri International Airport, ports, a lighthouse, grain silos, bridges, roads, factories, ambulances and relief trucks, mobile telephone and television stations, fuel containers and service stations, and the country's largest dairy farm Liban Lait
Liban Lait
Liban Lait is the name of the largest dairy farm in Lebanon, founded in 1997. It was attacked during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. Liban Lait has the contract to supply the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon with milk ; previously, this contract had been held by an Israeli firm...
.
An "initial assessment" Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
report on Israeli attacks on civilian infrastructure states that "the evidence strongly suggests that the extensive destruction of public works, power systems, civilian homes and industry was deliberate and an integral part of the military strategy, rather than "collateral damage" – incidental damage to civilians or civilian property resulting from targeting military objectives." UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator is a high level position in the United Nations that heads the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs....
Jan Egeland
Jan Egeland
Jan Egeland was the United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from June 2003 to December 2006. Egeland was appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and succeeded Kenzo Oshima...
called Israel's offensive "disproportionate" and declared that the "horrific" leveling of "block after block" of buildings in Beirut "makes it a violation of humanitarian law." Mr Egeland added that one third of the Lebanese dead were children. Around 900,000 Lebanese were displaced during the fighting.
There have been numerous reports of attacks on fleeing civilians. The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
reported that families evacuating the village of Marwahin
Marwahin
Marwahin is a town in Lebanon, on its border with Israel.During the 2006 Lebanon War, Marwahin was the site of ground exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah. UNIFIL forces reported seeing Hezbollah fire rockets from the vicinity of the village and during operations in Marwahin, and Israel Defense...
in Southern Lebanon
Southern Lebanon
Southern Lebanon is the geographical area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. These two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s...
were struck on an open road by an Israeli missile attack; killing 17, many of them women and children. Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
called for an investigation into this incident. On 23 July 2006 three families fleeing Tyre at the command of the IDF were attacked by rockets fired from Israeli helicopters; they claimed to be prominently waving a white flag
White flag
White flags have had different meanings throughout history and depending on the locale.-Flag of temporary truce in order to parley :...
from their automobiles, however the Israelis had repeatedly warned civilians not to use vans due to their ability to carry Hezbollah rockets.
An Israeli official stated that
"Hezbollah has a huge arsenal and has fired 1,000 missiles at us. We are acting in self-defense. We are targeting only military objectives, including transport facilities that Hezbollah can use, but you have to remember that Hezbollah often hides in civilian areas. We sent flyers and gave other warnings to civilians to leave before our attacks."Vice Premier Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres
GCMG is the ninth President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as the eighth Prime Minister of Israel and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years...
said Israel had no intention to harm Lebanese civilians, but warned that civilians who live near Hezbollah weapon caches were in danger: "Because we know that some of their rocket caches, which are fired at Israel, are hidden in private apartments, I call on these residents to leave their homes. He who lives near a rocket is likely to get hurt." Hezbollah had placed large amounts of weaponry into sealed rooms in private home prior to the outbreak of the conflict, placing the Lebanese citizenry at risk of attack.
The civilian casualties
Civilian casualties
Civilian casualties is a military term describing civilian or non-combatant persons killed, injured, or imprisoned by military action. The description of civilian casualties includes any form of military action regardless of whether civilians were targeted directly...
have been characterised by some as the result of poor intelligence
Intelligence (information gathering)
Intelligence assessment is the development of forecasts of behaviour or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on a wide range of available information sources both overt and covert. Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership...
. In mid-June, the Lebanese Security Service allegedly arrested as many as 80 Lebanese citizens which they accused of working for Mossad
Mossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
. The loss of such a significant number of assets
Asset (intelligence)
In intelligence, assets are persons within organizations or countries that are being spied upon who provide information for an outside spy.There are different categories of assets, including people...
would have allowed Hezbollah time to redeploy to new locations prior to the conflict without Israel's knowledge.
On 30 July 2006, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
hit a residential building in Qana
Qana
Qana also spelled Cana is a village in southern Lebanon located southeast of the city of Tyre and north of the border with Israel. The 10,000 residents of Qana are primarily Shiite Muslim although there is also a Christian community in the village....
that housed refugees, which Israel said was near Hezbollah rocket launching sites; 28 people died, including 16 children; the death toll initially reported was 57 people including 34 children. The deadly air strike
2006 Qana airstrike
The 2006 Qana Massacre was an attack by the Israel Air Force on a three-story building in the small community of al-Khuraybah near the South Lebanese village of Qana on July 30, 2006, during the 2006 Lebanon War in which 28 civilians were killed, of which 16 were children...
, which followed reports of Israeli attacks on two clearly marked Red Cross ambulances in Qana
Qana
Qana also spelled Cana is a village in southern Lebanon located southeast of the city of Tyre and north of the border with Israel. The 10,000 residents of Qana are primarily Shiite Muslim although there is also a Christian community in the village....
one week before on 24 July and Israel's 1996 shelling
1996 shelling of Qana
The 1996 shelling of Qana or the First Qana massacre, took place on April 18, 1996 near Qana, a village in Southern Lebanon, when artillery shells fired by the Israeli Defence Force hit a United Nations compound. Of 800 Lebanese civilians who had taken refuge in the compound, 106 were killed and...
, sparked angry denunciations in Lebanon and abroad. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora
Fouad Siniora
Fuad Siniora is a Lebanese politician, a former Prime Minister of Lebanon, a position he held from 19 July 2005 to May 25, 2008 the date of the election of the new President of Lebanon; he was renominated to the post on 28 May 2008 and held the post as Acting President between those...
revoked US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
's invitation to Lebanon and said, "Out of respect for the souls of our innocent martyrs and the remains of our children buried under the rubble of Qana, we scream out to our fellow Lebanese and to other Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
brothers and to the whole world
World
World is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth....
to stand united in the face of the Israeli war criminals."
An IDF source said that aerial attacks were ruled out in favor of ground troops in the fighting with Hezbollah in the Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil
Bint Jbeil
Bint Jbeil is the second largest town in the Nabatiye Governorate in Southern Lebanon.The town has an estimated population of 30,000. Its exact population is unknown, because Lebanon has not conducted a population census since 1932.-History:...
, for fear of harming the few hundred civilians thought to remain. Nine Israeli soldiers were killed in the operation.
Israel's position
Israeli officials claim that they try to minimize the civilian casualties by dropping leaflets that warn civilians to leave the area before attacks.On 14 July, IDF Army Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz
Dan Halutz
' is an Israeli Air Force Lt. General and former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces and commander of the Israeli Air Force. Halutz was appointed as Chief of Staff on June 1, 2005. On January 17, 2007 he announced his resignation. He has a degree in economics. He was born to a Mizrahi...
declared that, "nothing is safe [in Lebanon], as simple as that."
On 19 July, during a speech at a pro-Israel rally in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman
Dan Gillerman
Dan Gillerman was Israel's 13th Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He was appointed in July 2002 and assumed his post on January 1, 2003, serving through 2008.- Education :...
, said: “To those countries who claim that we are using disproportionate force, I have only this to say: You’re damn right we are. Because if your cities were shelled the way ours were, if your citizens were terrorized the way ours are, you would use much more force than we are using”. He has also said, “One who goes to sleep with rockets shouldn't be surprised if he doesn’t wake up in the morning.”
On 24 July, it was reported that Army Chief of Staff Halutz, according to a "senior officer", had issued orders to destroy 10 multi-story buildings in southern Beirut for every rocket fired on Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
. The same day the IAF/IDF confirmed it had destroyed ten buildings in Beirut, including what it described as "a vital target", but the nature of the target was not revealed. In response to the press reports, the IDF Spokesperson's Office
IDF Spokesperson's Unit
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit is the unit in the IDF Operations Directorate, responsible for information policy and media relations. The unit is led by the IDF Spokesperson, a brigadier general and member of the General Staff, and by the Deputy Spokesperson, a colonel. The current Spokesperson is...
first released a statement saying that reporters had misquoted "the senior officer", but later issued a new statement saying that the officer in question had made a mistake and was wrong in claiming that Halutz had issued such a "retaliation" directive.
On 26 July, during a security cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Israel
The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful political figure in Israel . The prime minister is the country's chief executive. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem...
Ehud Olmert
Ehud Olmert
Ehud Olmert is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, as a Cabinet Minister from 1988 to 1992 and from 2003 to 2006, and as Mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003....
, the Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon
Haim Ramon
Haim Ramon is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset between 1983 and 2009, and as both Vice Prime Minister and Minister in the Prime Minister's Office with responsibility for state policy.-Biography:...
is reported by The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
to have said that any civilians remaining in southern Lebanon after having received warning leaflets should be considered "terrorists".
Eli Yishai
Eli Yishai
Eliyahu "Eli" Yishai is an Israeli politician and head of the Shas party. He currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Shas, and as both one of four Deputy Prime Ministers and Minister of Internal Affairs.- Political life :...
, Israel's Vice Prime Minister and member of Israel's Security Cabinet, explained: "If Hezbollah fires Katyushas, we have to deliver a severe blow to Lebanon's infrastructure, black out Beirut, cut off electricity, turn off the water, destroy bridges, halt industry and flatten entire villages. If there is horrible damage in Lebanon, they will say, 'The Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
are crazy'" He also said: "If one has to choose between hurting the Israeli home front or the Lebanese home front, I prefer that the Lebanese get hurt. It hurts me to see civilians hurt by our air force
Israeli Air Force
The Israeli Air Force is the air force of the State of Israel and the aerial arm of the Israel Defense Forces. It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence...
, but there is no choice. We cannot be bleeding hearts while our citizens are being hurt. If Lebanese citizens pay the price, they will rise up against Hezbollah."
On 27 July, Professor Asa Kasher
Asa Kasher
Asa Kasher is an Israeli philosopher and linguist working at Tel Aviv University, Israel.-Biography:He is noted for authorship of Israel Defense Forces's Code of Conduct...
, author of the IDF's Code of Conduct, said that the IDF may be "morally justified" to "obliterate areas with high concentrations of terrorists, even if civilian casualties result."
On 6 August, in reference to European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
criticism of civilian casualties resulting from IDF activity in Lebanon, Prime Minister Olmert said, "Where do they [European Countries] get the right to preach to Israel? European countries attacked Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
and killed 10,000 civilians. 10,000! And none of these countries had to suffer before that from a single rocket. I'm not saying it was wrong to intervene in Kosovo. But please: Don't preach to us about the treatment of civilians." According to Human Rights Watch, 500 civilians were killed during the Kosovo War
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
in attacks confirmed to have been carried out by NATO forces. However, the Yugoslav government claimed that the bombings resulted in between 1,200 and 5,700 civilian casualties, and some sources put the death toll as high as 18,000.
An anonymous IDF rocket battery commander commented on the extent of the use of cluster bomb
Cluster bomb
A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller sub-munitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill enemy personnel and destroy vehicles...
s by saying "what we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs." An official IDF spokesman said, "International law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
does not include a sweeping prohibition of the use of cluster bombs. The convention on conventional weaponry does not declare a prohibition on phosphorus weapons, rather, on principles regulating the use of such weapons". The US government declared its intent to investigate whether Israel's use of US-made cluster bombs in southern Lebanon had violated secret agreements that restrict when it can employ such weapons. As of 6 September 2006, at least 13 people were killed and dozens injured after the ceasefire in Lebanon by unexploded ordnance
Unexploded ordnance
Unexploded ordnance are explosive weapons that did not explode when they were employed and still pose a risk of detonation, potentially many decades after they were used or discarded.While "UXO" is widely and informally used, munitions and explosives of...
. Most of the deaths resulted from the submunitions of cluster bombs. The United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
had found 100,000 unexploded cluster bomblets at 359 sites by that time.
Advance warnings
Israeli Air Force
The Israeli Air Force is the air force of the State of Israel and the aerial arm of the Israel Defense Forces. It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence...
issued warnings to civilians prior to military actions by way of leaflet droppings to evacuate areas in which it was intending to strike against Hezbollah strongholds. These leaflets warned residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate an area approximately 32 km wide, giving civilian populations time to evacuate despite providing an early warning to the intended target, Hezbollah militants. The New York Times noted that "Israel has been careful to drop leaflets warning civilians in southern Beirut and southern Lebanon where it knows that Hezbollah keeps stores of rockets and launchers in apartment houses, garages and homes." Also, general leaflets explaining Israel's desire not to bring harm to the Lebanese populace were dropped, asking civilians to "[r]efrain from being located in places in relation to Hezbollah."
However, the Israeli drops of leaflets before bombings have come under criticism for being used as an excuse to kill citizens who didn't leave. According to Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, "in Qana and other villages in southern Lebanon, thousands of residents have been unable to leave the area because they are sick, wounded, do not have the means to leave or they fear Israeli attacks on vehicles".
The International Committee of the Red Cross
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...
said in a 30 July statement on the IDF's attack on Qana, "Issuing advance warning to the civilian population of impending attacks in no way relieves a warring party of its obligations under the rules and principles of international humanitarian law. In particular, the principles of distinction and proportionality must be respected at all times".
In an opinion column in the International Herald Tribune
International Herald Tribune
The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
online, Peter Bouckaert, Senior Emergencies Researcher for Human Rights Watch, went even further in denouncing the Israeli policy, writing that "In Lebanon ... [t]ime after time, Israel has hit civilian homes and cars in the southern border zone, killing dozens of people with no evidence of any military objective."
On 6 August 2008, Yonatan Shapiro, a former Blackhawk helicopter pilot dismissed from reserve duty after signing a 'refusnik' letter in 2004, said that some Israeli fighter pilots had deliberately missed targets in order to avoid harming civilians, as disquiet grew in the military about flawed intelligence.
Attacks on ambulances and convoys
On 13 July three Red Cross volunteers were wounded when an ambulance was hit.On 18 July the IDF attacked a convoy of ambulances and trucks operated by the United Arab Emirates Red Crescent (UAERC) on the road between Damascus and Beirut. One truck was destroyed, two were damaged and four passenger vehicles were damaged, causing injuries.
According to CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
's Paula Zahn on 24 July, the Red Cross said that "an Israeli missile hit two clearly marked Red Cross ambulances that were parked inside the Lebanese town of Qana
Qana
Qana also spelled Cana is a village in southern Lebanon located southeast of the city of Tyre and north of the border with Israel. The 10,000 residents of Qana are primarily Shiite Muslim although there is also a Christian community in the village....
evacuating civilians—the wounded included a 60-year-old woman and 12-year-old boy who's now in a coma." The ambulances were hit around 11:15 pm while wounded patients were being transferred from one ambulance to another. The ICRC recorded nine people including six Red Cross volunteers wounded in the attack. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer
Alexander Downer
Alexander John Gosse Downer is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was Foreign Minister of Australia from March 1996 to December 2007, the longest-serving in Australian history...
made the allegation that these attacks were staged one month later, but was rebuked by the Red Cross for relying on an unverified internet blog in making his accusation. Israel has since said it "cannot tell for sure" if it hit the ambulances.
It was reported on 26 July that "at least 10 Lebanese ambulances bearing the emblem of the international red cross
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an international humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide which was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human...
have [...] become targets in Israeli air strikes", resulting in the injury of six emergency workers. Additionally, an ambulance marked as belonging to the Shiite Amal
Amal Movement
Amal Movement is short for the Lebanese Resistance Detachments the acronym for which, in Arabic, is "amal", meaning "hope."Amal was founded in 1975 as the militia wing of the Movement of the Disinherited, a Shi'a political movement founded by Musa...
militia was struck by Israeli aircraft fire near Tyre.
On 11 August it was reported that the IDF had wounded several aid workers during an airstrike that hit a Lebanese Red Cross ambulance in Tibnin, southeast of Tyre. It was also reported by Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
that an ambulance dispatched to deal with the casualties from the airstrikes against a civilian convoy originating in Marjayoun
2006 Marjayoun convoy
The 2006 Marjayoun convoy was a convoy of approximately 759 vehicles containing Lebanese police, army, civilians, and one Associated Press journalist, which was attacked by the Israeli Air Force as it travelled away from the area of Marjayoun on August 11, 2006...
was also attacked. The Red Cross also confirmed that a Red Cross worker had been killed in the attack on the convoy.
U.S. documents leaked online claimed to reveal that Hezbollah used ambulances to transport weapons during the war.
Attacks on homes
This is not a comprehensive listing:- On 1 August it was reported that around 250 properties had been hit by IDF air strikes in the BaalbekBaalbekBaalbek is a town in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, altitude , situated east of the Litani River. It is famous for its exquisitely detailed yet monumentally scaled temple ruins of the Roman period, when Baalbek, then known as Heliopolis, was one of the largest sanctuaries in the Empire...
area. The BBC described many of the homes as having "no apparent connection with Hezbollah," although the Associated PressAssociated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
described the targets as "suspected Hezbollah positions."
- On 2 August, during the same day that the IDF captured five Hezbollah guerrillas in the Baalbek area, at least 12 people were killed in an air strike on the nearby village of Jammaliyeh. An IDF missile hit the home of the village's mayor, Hussein Jamaleddin, killing his son Ali, and six other relatives. The mayor, a reported political opponent of Hezbollah, survived the attack and witnesses said the building had apparently been attacked "randomly".
- On 6 August it was reported that a total of "2,000 bombs" had been dropped on the town of AitarounAitarounAitaroun is a Lebanese village located in the caza of Bint-Jbeil at 33.1156° North, 35.4722° East. It is approximately 15 km north of the Israeli border and 125 km from Beirut.- Population :...
by the IDF almost destroying it completely. - According to the Lebanese Health Minister, on 7 August at least 50 civilians were killed and eleven missing after an IAF missile "destroyed one residential building and damaged several others in the Shiyyah district of Beirut's southern suburbs." The initial toll of wounded was put at sixty.
- Also on 7 August the IAF targeted a building in Ghaziyeh. The attack killed fourteen civilians. The next day on 8 August a further attack on Ghaziyeh against a building which the IDF claimed housed a Hezbollah member took place during the funeral of the previous day's victims and killed a further one civilian. Forty minutes after this the IDF struck again and killed twelve other civilians in three separate bombings. A total of twenty-nine civilians.
The number of homes destroyed by the IDF was estimated by Hezbollah to be over 15,000 completely destroyed and many more damaged. Other estimates were of 10,000 homes in need rebuilding or repairing.
Attacks on Lebanese industry
According to a report by Lebanon's Council for Development and Reconstruction, "The government review shows that Israel has largely avoided some types of targets: major power plants, water treatment facilities, telephone systems, central government buildings and most factories. The bombing has focused on Shiite areas of southern Lebanon and the Beirut suburbs." Amnesty International have documented extensive Israeli strikes against Water treatment facilities, power plants, fuel depots, factories, supermarkets and bridges, among others.Hezbollah's use
Of Hezbollah, Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
has said that the rocket attacks in civilian areas are at best indiscriminate, and at worst deliberate targeting due to their anti-personnel nature, which suggest a will to maximally harm civilians: "Some of the rockets launched against Haifa over the past two days contained hundreds of metal ball bearings that are of limited use against military targets but cause great harm to civilians and civilian property. The ball bearings lodge in the body and cause serious harm." Hezbollah "used Chinese-manufactured 122 mm rockets, carrying 39 sub-munitions that scattered hundreds of ball bearings, against Israel" in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War #Other uses|Tammūz]]) and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War , was a 34-day military conflict in Lebanon, northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. The principal parties were Hezbollah...
. Many of these ball bearing rockets remain unexploded in the north of Israel.
Israel's use
Of Israel, the Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
has said that there is evidence that has Israel used cluster bomb
Cluster bomb
A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller sub-munitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill enemy personnel and destroy vehicles...
s too close to civilians and described them as "unacceptably inaccurate and unreliable weapons when used around civilians" and that "they should never be used in populated areas." Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of using cluster munitions in an attack on Bilda, a Lebanese village, on 19 July which killed 1 civilian and injured 12, including seven children. The Israeli "army defended ... the use of cluster munitions in its offensive with Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, saying that using such munitions was 'legal under international law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
' and the army employed
them 'in accordance with international standards.'" Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mark Regev
Mark Regev
Mark Regev , formerly Mark Freiberg, is an Australian-born Israeli diplomat and media spokesman. He is currently the spokesman for the Prime Minister of Israel and an advisor on foreign press and public affairs, a position he has held since his appointment by the former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert...
added, "[I]f NATO countries stock these weapons and have used them in recent conflicts — in Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
— the world has no reason to point a finger at Israel."
On 20 November 2006, the IDF Spokesman's Office said
"the use of cluster munitions against built-up areas was done only against military targets where rocket launches against Israel were identified and after taking steps to warn the civilian population.". According to Meron Rapoport, the statements contradict IDF previous claims regarding the use of cluster munitions.
On 5 September, Israel's Ministry on Foreign Affairs reported:
"Immediately after the cease-fire the IDF gave UNIFIL maps indicating the likely locations of unexploded ordnance, to aid the international attempt to clear these areas and avoid injury to the population. Furthermore, immediately after the cease-fire the IDF distributed warning notices to the residents in the areas of warfare, and recommended that they wait a few days before returning to the south until the UNIFIL forces were deployed there and the area had been cleared of unexploded ordnance."
On 1 December 2006, some three months later, Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...
reported to the Security Council:
"Israel has yet to provide UNIFIL with the detailed firing data on its use of cluster munitions that referred to in my previous report. The provision of this data, which would be in keeping with the spirit of Protocol V of the CCW that recently went into force, would significantly assist operators on the ground mitigate the threat to innocent civilians. I reiterate my expectation for the provision of this data."
Unexploded cluster bombs dropped by Israeli warplanes or duds fired by artillery remain in much of South Lebanon, and have killed 12 people and wounded 39, according to Chris Clarke, head of the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center attached to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
These unexploded cluster munitions have created "mini-minefields" and the casualties include three Lebanese bomb disposal experts. The U.N. Mine Action Co-ordination Centre in Tyre claims cluster bombs were dropped by Israel in 267 separate locations in South Lebanon and are still killing returning refugees. The United States has opened an inquiry into Israel's use of cluster bombs, which are supplied by the United States. According to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
this is to determine whether Israel had infringed secret rules that restrict where cluster bombs could be used.
On 6 October 2006, several weeks after the ceasefire, the New York Times reported that "Since the war between Israel and Hezbollah ended in August, nearly three people have been wounded or killed each day by cluster bombs Israel dropped in the waning days of the war, and officials now say it will take more than a year to clear the region of them. United Nations officials estimate that southern Lebanon is littered with one million unexploded bomblets, far outnumbering the 650,000 people living in the region".
An October 2006 report by Landmine Action, "Foreseeable Harm," found that
"Two months after the ceasefire of 14 August 2006, the contamination caused by cluster munitions was still exacting a daily toll in south Lebanon. Over this period an average of between 3 and 4 civilians had been killed or injured by unexploded submunitions every day – some 35% of these casualties were children. Civilian casualties will continue to rise as more and more people return to sift through the cluster munition infested rubble. Livelihoods have been destroyed, and desperately needed relief and rehabilitation has been impeded. Throughout southern Lebanon large areas of agricultural land are contaminated by failed but still potentially lethal ‘submunitions’. In many affected areas farmers have not been able to safely harvest what was left of this summer’s tobacco, wheat and fruit; late yielding crops such as olives will remain too dangerous to harvest by November and winter crops will be lost because farmers will be unable to plough their contaminated land to plant their grains and vegetables. Water and power supplies have been blocked and schools, roads, houses and gardens were still littered with unexploded submunitions when the field research for this report was undertaken one month after the ceasefire."
On 1 December 2006, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...
submitted a report to the Security Council president stating that, as of 20 November 2006, 822 cluster bomb strike sites had been recorded, with 60,000 cluster bomblets having been cleared by the UN Mine Action Coordination Center
Mine Action Coordination Center
A Mine Action Coordination Centre is an agency established in a region under the auspices of the United Nations to coordinate the clearing of the explosive remnants of war - including landmines and unexploded ordnance...
. On 28 January 2007, the State Department said that Israel may have violated agreements with the United States when it fired American supplied cluster munitions into civilian areas of southern Lebanon.
Use of white phosphorus weapons
On 16 July 2006, Lebanese President Émile LahoudÉmile Lahoud
General Émile Jamil Lahoud is a former President of Lebanon. Lahoud is a Maronite-Catholic, as is required for the Lebanese presidency. Under Lebanon's unwritten constitutional agreement, the National Pact, the presidency is earmarked for Maronite_Catholic, the parliament speaker's post for a Shia...
claimed that Israeli forces dropped “phosphorus incendiary bombs
White phosphorus (weapon)
White phosphorus is a material made from a common allotrope of the chemical element phosphorus that is used in smoke, tracer, illumination and incendiary munitions. Other common names include WP, and the slang term "Willie Pete," which is dated from its use in Vietnam, and is still sometimes used...
, which are a blatant violation of international laws…against Lebanese civilians.” Information Minister Ghazi Aridi also said, "Israel is using internationally prohibited weapons against civilians." As-Safir
As-Safir
As-Safir meaning The Ambassador, is a leading Arabic-language daily newspaper in Lebanon.It was first published on March 26, 1974 as an Arabic political daily....
newspaper also ran a story about alleged use of unknown chemical weapons, citing a member of the "French Association of Cardiovascular Surgeons". Jawad Najem, a surgeon at a Tyre hospital, claims that he has treated patients with phosphorus burns. Other doctors in Southern Lebanon also suspect they are seeing phosphorus burns. On 24 July Lebanese President Émile Lahoud
Émile Lahoud
General Émile Jamil Lahoud is a former President of Lebanon. Lahoud is a Maronite-Catholic, as is required for the Lebanese presidency. Under Lebanon's unwritten constitutional agreement, the National Pact, the presidency is earmarked for Maronite_Catholic, the parliament speaker's post for a Shia...
stated on France's RFI radio:"According to the Geneva Convention, when they use phosphorus bombs and laser bombs, is that allowed against civilians and children?" An IDF spokeswomen replied to the Lahoud's statement by saying, "Everything the Israeli Defense Forces are using is legitimate"
After conducting an investigation of the claims, Israel has "denied that charge and in a statement, the Israeli military said that all of its weapons and ammunition comply with the international law. For the record, under international law, white phosphorus is permitted." Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
senior medical correspondent, said:
"They have used[white phosphorus] for all sorts of different things including tracers for weapons, which is why I think it's allowed under a lot of international law. There's no test for it specifically and it's really present just about everywhere. It can be present in fertilizer as well. So it is very hard to test for. ... It's not something that people have outlawed in some way. It's present in a lot of different things."
Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
also warned against "reports that Israel has used incendiary weapons, such as white phosphorus shells" It precised that:
"Protocol III on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Incendiary Weapons of the UN Convention on the Prohibition or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons prohibits the use of such weapons against civilians. And it prohibits making any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by incendiary weapons."
On 22 October, Israeli minister Jacob Edery said that the IDF had employed phosphorus munitions within the confines of international law, and stated that it was used in attacks against military targets in open ground.
Allegations of depleted uranium use
Amnesty International has called on Israel to consider refraining from the use of weapons with depleted uraniumDepleted uranium
Depleted uranium is uranium with a lower content of the fissile isotope U-235 than natural uranium . Uses of DU take advantage of its very high density of 19.1 g/cm3...
munitions, due to health risks. The effect of the radioactive dust created on impact is debated, though the weapon itself is considered "toxic and constitutes a health risk independent of any residual radioactivity" due to the nature of heavy metals
Heavy metals
A heavy metal is a member of a loosely-defined subset of elements that exhibit metallic properties. It mainly includes the transition metals, some metalloids, lanthanides, and actinides. Many different definitions have been proposed—some based on density, some on atomic number or atomic weight,...
.
Depleted uranium weapons have been cited in some studies as contributing factors in Gulf War syndrome
Gulf War syndrome
Gulf War syndrome or Gulf War illness describes a medical condition that affected veterans and civilians who were near conflicts during or downwind of chemical weapons depot demolition, after the 1991 Gulf War. A wide range of acute and chronic symptoms have included fatigue, musculoskeletal...
and increases in birth defects amongst residents within contaminated areas - the issue of DU use has also been raised by the Lebanese Government in the past, although the effect is widely debated, and the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
has concluded that "under most circumstances, use of DU will make a negligible contribution to the overall natural background levels of uranium."
The accusations prompted criticism by HonestReporting
HonestReporting
HonestReporting is a non-governmental organization that monitors the media for what it perceives as bias against Israel. The organization has affiliates in the United States, UK, Canada, Italy, and Brazil...
for coming to conclusions prematurely, and resulted in an investigation by the United Nations Environment Programme
United Nations Environment Programme
The United Nations Environment Programme coordinates United Nations environmental activities, assisting developing countries in implementing environmentally sound policies and practices. It was founded as a result of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in June 1972 and has its...
(UNEP). On November 8, 2006, UNEP concluded that Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
had not used any form of Uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
-based weapons. Israelis and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
advocates cite the article as an instance of "shoddy journalism", arising allegedly as a result of media sensationalism.
Reactions to attacks
United Nations
UN's Secretary-GeneralUnited Nations Secretary-General
The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the head of the Secretariat of the United Nations, one of the principal organs of the United Nations. The Secretary-General also acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the United Nations....
Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...
criticized Israel for using cluster bombs, while Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator is a high level position in the United Nations that heads the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs....
Jan Egeland
Jan Egeland
Jan Egeland was the United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from June 2003 to December 2006. Egeland was appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and succeeded Kenzo Oshima...
accused Israel of "completely immoral" use of the munitions in the country. Amnesty International stated on 30 August 2006 that it was "outrageous" that Israel had not yet provided maps indicating where cluster bombs were used, reiterating that their use "in the heart of where people live clearly violates the prohibition on indiscriminate attacks" and was therefore "a grave violation of international humanitarian law". On 1 September 2006 IDF said it would provide UNIFIL with maps of South Lebanon that indicated where bombs or other devices that did not explode may be found.
UN's Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator is a high level position in the United Nations that heads the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs....
Jan Egeland
Jan Egeland
Jan Egeland was the United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from June 2003 to December 2006. Egeland was appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and succeeded Kenzo Oshima...
criticized Hezbollah for its alleged use of Lebanese civilians as "human shields", stating: “Consistently, from the Hezbollah heartland, my message was that Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending…among women and children.…I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men.”
He called Hezbollah rocket attacks into northern Israel and Israeli aerial bombing in Lebanon violations of humanitarian law. He accused Hezbollah of “cowardly blending…among women and children” and condemned their rumored pride at "having many more children and women dead than armed men."
UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is a United Nations agency that works to promote and protect the human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948...
Louise Arbour
Louise Arbour
Louise Arbour, is the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and the Court of Appeal for Ontario and a former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda...
expressed "grave concern over the continued killing and maiming of civilians in Lebanon, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territory." She suggested that the actions of Israel and Hezbollah may constitute war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
s. Arbour called for Israel to obey the "principle of proportionality" and said, "Indiscriminate shelling of cities constitutes a foreseeable and unacceptable targeting of civilians.…Similarly, the bombardment of sites with alleged military significance, but resulting invariably in the killing of innocent civilians, is unjustifiable."
Amnesty International
Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
condemned both Israel and Hezbollah and called for UN intervention, stating early on that the region "has seen a horrendous escalation in attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure. Yet the G8
G8
The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for the governments of seven major economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1997, the group added Russia, thus becoming the G8...
leaders have failed conspicuously to uphold their moral and legal obligation to address such blatant breaches of international humanitarian law, which in some cases have amounted to war crimes". Amnesty International later accused Israel of war crimes due to its assault on Lebanese civilian infrastructure.
Amnesty International has also accused Hezbollah of war crimes due to “deliberately failing to distinguish between civilian and military targets, and of wrongfully seeking to justify its barrage by claiming to be retaliating for Israel’s attacks on Lebanese civilians.” On 21 November 2006, Amnesty International released a report stating that there was not "conclusive evidence of intent" by Hezbollah to use the civilian population as “human shields” for its military activities.
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
condemned the indiscriminate use of force against civilians by both Israel and Hezbollah. They blamed Israel for systematically failing to distinguish between combatants and civilians, which may constitute a war crime, and accused Hezbollah of committing war crimes by the deliberate and indiscriminate killing of civilians by firing rockets into populated areas. The organization also strongly criticized Israel for using cluster bomb
Cluster bomb
A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller sub-munitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill enemy personnel and destroy vehicles...
s too close to civilians because of their inaccuracy and unreliability, and Hezbollah for filling its rockets with ball bearing
Ball bearing
A ball bearing is a type of rolling-element bearing that uses balls to maintain the separation between the bearing races.The purpose of a ball bearing is to reduce rotational friction and support radial and axial loads. It achieves this by using at least two races to contain the balls and transmit...
s, which "suggests a desire to maximize harm to civilians."
United States
US Secretary of StateSecretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
described the war on Lebanon as part of "birth pangs of a new Middle East" and urged Israel to ignore calls for a ceasefire because it would be a "false promise if it simply returns us to the status quo."
United Kingdom
In response to American support and Israel's military tactics, Kim HowellsKim Howells
Kim Scott Howells is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Pontypridd from 1989 to 2010, and held a number of ministerial positions within the Government.-Biography:...
, British Foreign Office minister, said in an interview with CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, "I hope that the Americans understand what's happening to Lebanon: the destruction of the infrastructure, the death of so many children, and so many people. These have not been surgical strikes, and it's very, very difficult I think to understand the kind of military tactics that have been used. You know if they're chasing Hezbollah, well go for Hezbollah. You don't go for the entire Lebanese nation, and that's the difference."
ITIC Report
The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies, a private research group headed by Reuven Erlich, a retired IDF colonel, organized a team of military intelligence experts and compiled a report in conjunction with lawyers from the Israeli army and Foreign Ministry. The 300-page report includes declassified photographs, documents, video images and prisoner interrogations and was translated by the American Jewish CongressAmerican Jewish Congress
The American Jewish Congress describes itself as an association of Jewish Americans organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad through public policy advocacy, using diplomacy, legislation, and the courts....
who passed it to the New York Times, which had it published. It says that Hezbollah operated from civilian areas to deter the IDF and gain a propaganda advantage. The report also says that Hezbollah has been preparing for such an engagement for years, embedding its fighters and their weapons in the Shiite villages of southern Lebanon. Some cases the report documents include:
- Guerrillas stashing weapons in hundreds of private homes and mosques, having fighters transporting missiles closely follow ambulances, and firing rockets near UN monitoring posts.
- Hezbollah bases, weapons and ammunition stores hidden within civilian population centers in south Beirut, southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.
- A truck with a multi-barreled missile launcher, presumably from Hezbollah, parking in a street, sandwiched between residential buildings
- In a Lebanese village, rockets are seen being fired from a launcher on the back of a truck. The truck then drives a short distance and disappears inside a building.
- Lebanese residents' comments of the activities of Hezbollah within civilian communities
- Interrogations with Muhammad Srour, a young Hezbollah fighter, revealed:
- He had initially received training in Iran and was undergoing further training in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley when the war broke out.
- While transporting missiles, hidden in cloth, in and around a Lebanese village, he held a white flag.
- Hussein Suleiman, a Hezbollah fighter, explains how he had set up a rocket-firing position on the front porch of a house on the outskirts of a Lebanese town.
- Maher Kourani, a Hezbollah fighter, said group members had worn civilian clothes, tried never to show their weapons, and traveled in ordinary civilian cars.
Other than two villages, Erlich said that over all, Hezbollah did not coerce Lebanese villagers from leaving. He says instead that “Hezbollah was operating inside a supportive population, and cynically used them to further its own goals.”
In Lebanon, a Hezbollah official denied the study’s allegations, saying its military units were based outside towns and villages and had come into populated areas only when circumstances required it. “We tried to avoid having to fight among civilian areas, but when Israeli troops entered villages, we were automatically forced to fight them from inside these villages to defend it,” said the official.
Sympathetic toward Israel
Upon UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise ArbourLouise Arbour
Louise Arbour, is the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and the Court of Appeal for Ontario and a former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda...
's statement that Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
is breaking international law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
, Alan Dershowitz
Alan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He has spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history...
, a professor at Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
, wrote:
"Arbour's knowledge of international law is as questionable as her understanding of morality. Virtually every democratic nation has been forced to bomb cities during wartime, especially when the enemy locates crucial military targets near population centres. Under Arbour's erroneous criteria for criminal prosecution, U.S. presidents Bush, Clinton, Nixon, Johnson, Eisenhower, Truman and Roosevelt, as well as British prime ministers Blair and Churchill, and numerous French, Russian, Canadian and other heads of state would be declared war criminals for causing the 'foreseeable' deaths of civilians while bombing legitimate military targets."
David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey wrote for the Washington Post:
"Unfortunately, heavy civilian casualties are the inherent and inevitable result of the type of asymmetric warfare deliberately waged by Hezbollah .... They intentionally operate from civilian areas, both to protect their military capabilities from attack and to increase civilian deaths, which can then be trumpeted for propaganda purposes. But the presence of a large civilian population does not immunize Hezbollah ... forces from attack. Responsibility for any additional civilian casualties must be attributed to those groups, not to Israel."
Critical of Israel
Robert FiskRobert Fisk
Robert Fisk is an English writer and journalist from Maidstone, Kent. As Middle East correspondent of The Independent, he has primarily been based in Beirut for more than 30 years. He has published a number of books and has reported on the United States's war in Afghanistan and the same country's...
, a correspondent for The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, said "Hezbollah is killing more Israeli soldiers than civilians and the Israelis are killing far more Lebanese civilians than they are guerrillas."
Jonathan Cook
Jonathan Cook
Jonathan Cook is a British writer and a freelance journalist based in Nazareth, Israel, who writes about the Middle East, and more specifically, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.-Background:...
addressed Jan Egeland's criticism, saying that Hezbollah doesn't force itself on civilians, but rather mingles with supportive Shiite populations adding:
"The implication of Egeland’sJan EgelandJan Egeland was the United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from June 2003 to December 2006. Egeland was appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and succeeded Kenzo Oshima...
cowardly statement seems to be that any Lebanese fighter, or Palestinian one, resisting Israel and its powerful military should stand in an open field, his rifle raised to the sky, waiting to see who fares worse in a shoot-out with an Apache helicopter or F-16 fighter jet. Hezbollah’s reluctance to conduct the war in this manner, we are supposed to infer, is proof that they are terrorists."
Mitch Prothero countered both Dershowitz's argument and that of Rivkin, Casey, Fisk, and Cook in an article published by Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
and widely cited elsewhere:
"My own reporting and that of other journalists reveals that in fact Hezbollah fighters -- as opposed to the much more numerous Hezbollah political members, and the vastly more numerous Hezbollah sympathizers -- avoid civilians. Much smarter and better trained than the PLO and Hamas fighters, they know that if they mingle with civilians, they will sooner or later be betrayed by collaborators -- as so many Palestinian militants have been... The targeting of civilian facilities may be the result of liberal definitions within the Israeli military as to what constitutes a Hezbollah target; Hezbollah's civilian wing is Lebanon's second largest employer, and its facilities include hospitals and schools, among other non-military assets. While employees may be on the Hezbollah payroll, they are not often if ever participants in or knowledgeable about Hezbollah military activity."
See also
- Cases before the International Criminal Court#Lebanon
- 2006 Qana airstrike
- 2006 al-Qaa airstrike2006 al-Qaa airstrikeThe 2006 Qaa airstrike was an attack by the Israel Air Force on a building in the area of al-Qaa around 10 kilometers from Hermel in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon on 4 August 2006. The attack took place during the 2006 Lebanon War...
- 2006 Shiyyah airstrike2006 Shiyyah airstrikeThe Chyah Airstrike or the Chyah massacre was an attack by the Israel Air Force on the Shiyyah suburb in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on August 7, 2006, during the 2006 Lebanon War. Two missiles fired from an IDF bomber destroyed three apartment buildings in the suburb...
- 2006 Ghaziyeh airstrikes2006 Ghaziyeh airstrikesThe 2006 Ghaziyeh airstrikes were two sequential attacks by the Israel Air Force on the city of Ghaziyeh in Lebanon on August 7, and August 8, 2006. The attacks took place during the 2006 Lebanon War. In the first attack on August 7, the IAF bombed a building killing 15...
- 2006 Marjayoun convoy2006 Marjayoun convoyThe 2006 Marjayoun convoy was a convoy of approximately 759 vehicles containing Lebanese police, army, civilians, and one Associated Press journalist, which was attacked by the Israeli Air Force as it travelled away from the area of Marjayoun on August 11, 2006...
External links
- Israeli report — Hezbollah's use of Lebanese civilian areas to launch missiles at Israel.
Warning: Extremely graphic wartime imagery
- Photographs and Video Footage - Hizbullah's exploitation of Lebanese population centers and civilians.
- Photographs and Video Footage - Israel MFA Clips: Visual media, short films, presentations (Hizbullah, conflict, incitement, terror, memorials, Hamas)
- Photographs — Lebanese civilian casualties and infrastructure damage.
- Photographs — Lebanese civilian casualties at the 2006 Qana airstrike2006 Qana airstrikeThe 2006 Qana Massacre was an attack by the Israel Air Force on a three-story building in the small community of al-Khuraybah near the South Lebanese village of Qana on July 30, 2006, during the 2006 Lebanon War in which 28 civilians were killed, of which 16 were children...
. - Satellite photograph — Haret HreikHaret HreikHaret Hreik is a mixed Shia and Maronite Christian town, in the Dahieh suburbs, south of Beirut, Lebanon. Once an agricultural village, Haret Hreik lost its rural identity due to the wave of refugees from Southern Lebanon who settled in the town and made it another urban neighborhood of Dahieh...
neighborhood in the DahiehDahiehDahieh -2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict:On July 13, 2006, Israeli jets dropped leaflets over Dahieh warning residents to evacuate the area before carpet-bombing the neighborhood to rubble. However, not everyone managed to flee the town, and those who did escape became refugees within the mainland...
district of BeirutBeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, LebanonLebanonLebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, before Israeli airstrikes. - Detained Hezbollah operatives describe Hezbollah activities within civilian population centers and within civilian structures during the war