Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, November 2006, pages 63-64

Human Rights

War Crimes in Recent Lebanon Conflict

HUMAN RIGHTS AND international law organizations have called for inquiries into breaches of humanitarian and international laws, some potentially amounting to war crimes, in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. “If respect for rules of war is ever to be taken seriously, a proper investigation of their violation by both parties of the recent conflict is imperative,” said an Aug. 23 report released by Amnesty International (AI). Human Rights Watch (HRW) joined AI and other organizations in calling on the U.N. Security Council, Human Rights Council and the secretary-general to assemble a team of experts to conduct an open, impartial, and independent investigation into claims of law breaches.

AI’s Aug. 23 “initial assessment” on the “massive destruction of civilian infrastructure in Lebanon” makes a case for a serious investigation. The 20-page report, entitled “Israel/Lebanon: Deliberate Destruction or ‘Collateral Damage’ Israeli Attacks on Civilian Infrastructure,” analyzes testimony, evidence and media reports collected during a recent research trip to southern Lebanon.

At a discussion that night at American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) headquarters in Washington, DC, Joe Stork, Washington director of HRW’s Middle East and North Africa division, and international law expert David Khairallah discussed Israeli violations of international and humanitarian law covered in the AI brief and another paper released by HRW in August, entitled “Fatal Strikes: Israel’s Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon.”

According to the latter, “To date, the chief cause of civilian deaths from the Israeli campaign is targeted strikes on civilian homes.” Indiscriminate attacks, reprisals, excessive use of force and collective punishment all are breaches of international and humanitarian law attributed to Israel during the recent conflict. 

An estimated 1,183 Lebanese were killed during the July 12 to Aug. 14 conflict. The AI brief noted that “the Israeli air force launched more than 7,000 air attacks in Lebanon…while the navy conducted an additional 2,500 bombardments.” 

“By consistently failing to distinguish between combatants and civilians,” the HRW report charged, “Israel has violated one of the most fundamental tenets of the laws of war: The duty to carry out attacks on only military targets.” Any attack that fails to distinguish between civilian and military targets is clearly and strongly prohibited by Article 48 of Protocol 1 to the Geneva Conventions.

Among the numerous examples of Israel’s failure to make this distinction are the killings of 28 civilians in the southern Lebanese town of Qana, and of four U.N. observers killed by an Israeli precision-guided missile. As IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz warned: “Nothing is safe, [in Lebanon—it’s] as simple as that.”

Israel’s use of cluster bombs, which are indiscriminate by nature, is further evidence of its failure to “take constant care during military operations to spare the civilian population,” the AI report points out. After the initial explosion, hundreds of ‘D’-cell sized bomblets are scattered over a distance equaling roughly one to two football fields. While the use of cluster munitions in and of itself is not illegal in international law, noted HRW executive director Kenneth Roth, “because of their wide dispersal pattern, cluster munitions should never be used in populated areas.”

“Israel has caused large-scale civilian casualties by striking civilian homes, with no apparent military objective either inside the home or in the vicinity,” the HRW report asserted.

The scale of destruction to the Lebanese infrastructure, moreover, is a clear example of excessive force and collective punishment. “The Lebanese government estimates that 31 ‘vital points’ (such as airports, ports, water and sewage treatment plants, and electrical facilities) have been completely destroyed or partially destroyed,” the AI brief reported. “However, even if it could be argued that some of these objects could qualify as military objects, Israel is obligated to ensure that attacking these objects would not violate the principle of proportionality.

“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,’” the report went on to say.

According to The New York Times, IDF Chief of Staff Halutz claimed the air strikes were aimed at pressuring Lebanese officials to take responsibility for Hezbollah’s actions and at turning the civilian population against Hezbollah. This is a clear example of collective punishment, which is a violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. “In some cases,” noted the HRW report, “the timing and intensity of the attack, the absence of a military target, as well as return strikes on rescuers, suggest that Israeli forces deliberately targeted civilians.”

Furthermore, the report found “no cases in which Hezbollah deliberately used civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory IDF attack.” HRW was able to establish that Hezbollah fighters did “attempt to store weapons near civilian homes and have fired rockets from areas where civilians live.” The use of human shields is a clear violation of Article 51(7) of Protocol 1 of the Geneva Convention. In fact, under international law, even if Hezbollah were using human shields, it would not waive Israel’s obligations to distinguish civilians from militants.

Halutz threatened that Israel would target infrastructure and “turn back the clock in Lebanon by 20 years” if Hezbollah did not free the two captured Israeli soldiers. However, under Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 51 (6), (8), and 52 (1) of Protocol 1 to the Geneva Conventions, reprisal attacks are prohibited. “[Israel] held Lebanon, the whole country accountable,” said Khairallah.

While both reports focused on Israel’s purported crimes, both AI and HRW were quick to remind critics that Hezbollah also should be held accountable for its actions. 

When asked if Hezbollah should be or is held to the same standards as Israel, a state, Stork responded, “Obviously it’s not [the same as a state]…from my point of view that’s not relevant. What’s important is they’re engaged in a conflict.” Article 3 of the Fourth Geneva Convention binds all parties in a conflict to international law.

Hezbollah is also charged with indiscriminate attacks and reprisal. Unlike those used by Israel, the Iranian-made Katyusha rockets it launched into northern Israel were not precision rockets. “Without guidance systems for accurate targeting,” the HRW report pointed out, “the rockets are inherently indiscriminate when directed toward civilian areas, especially cities.”

“It is clear by the sheer number of rockets with steel ball bearings that [Hezbollah] intentionally tried to kill civilians,” said Marty Rosenbluth, AI USA’s country specialist for Israel, the Occupied Territories, and the Palestinian Authority. Dubbed “shredders,” in Israel, the Katyusha rockets were reported to have caused most Israeli civilian casualties even though fewer than 10 percent of Katyusha rockets were loaded with them. After impact, the steel balls can scatter up to a few football fields away.

Hezbollah also is charged with holding the two Israeli soldiers hostage. “Capturing the Israeli soldiers, in itself, was not a problem from the humanitarian law perspective,” noted Stork. The problem, he said, was with Hezbollah’s subsequent declaration that it captured the two military men to negotiate a prisoner exchange. Article 34 of the Fourth Geneva Convention clearly states that “the taking of hostages is prohibited.”  

A full assessment of Hezbollah violations of international and humanitarian law was released by Amnesty International in mid-September. “Over the many years of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, both sides have repeatedly committed grave violations of international humanitarian law without any accountability,” the AI brief concluded. This time, human rights and international law organizations are working hard to see that those who committed violations and war crimes are brought to justice.

The complete AI and HRW reports are available on the organizations’ respective Web sites, <www.amnestyusa.org> and <www.hrw.org>.

—Amie Draves

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