[WCUSP] HRW: Israeli War Crimes in Lebanon

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

August 3, 2006
Human Rights Watch

Israeli War Crimes in  Lebanon

This report documents serious violations of  international humanitarian law 
(the laws of war) by Israel Defense Forces (IDF)  in Lebanon between July 12 
and July 27, 2006, as well as the July 30 attack in  Qana. During this period, 
the IDF killed an estimated 400 people, the vast  majority of them civilians, 
and that number climbed to over 500 by the time this  report went to print. The 
Israeli government claims it is taking all possible  measures to minimize 
civilian harm, but the cases documented here reveal a  systematic failure by the 
IDF to distinguish between combatants and  civilians.

Since the start of the conflict, Israeli forces have  consistently launched 
artillery and air attacks with limited or dubious military  gain but excessive 
civilian cost. In dozens of attacks, Israeli forces struck an  area with no 
apparent military target. In some cases, 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.

The Israeli government claims that it targets only Hezbollah,  and that 
fighters from the group are using civilians as human shields, thereby  placing them 
at risk. Human Rights Watch found no cases in which Hezbollah  deliberately 
used civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory IDF  attack. 
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. However, those cases  do 
not justify the IDF¹s extensive use of indiscriminate force which has cost so 
 many civilian lives. 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.

By consistently failing to distinguish between combatants and  civilians, 
Israel has violated one of the most fundamental tenets of the laws of  war: the 
duty to carry out attacks on only military targets. The pattern of  attacks 
during the Israeli offensive in Lebanon suggests that the failures  cannot be 
explained or dismissed as mere accidents; the extent of the pattern  and the 
seriousness of the consequences indicate the commission of war crimes. .  . .

_http://hrw.org/reports/2006/lebanon0806/2.htm#_Toc142299220_ 
(http://hrw.org/reports/2006/lebanon0806/2.htm#_Toc142299220) 
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