Israeli airstrikes on residential buildings, displaced people and healthcare workers in Lebanon raise concerns under international law and may amount to war crimes, the United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday.
The Israeli military has been carrying out airstrikes in Lebanon since the Iran-backed Shi’ite Muslim group Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel from Lebanon early in the expanding war in the Middle East.
Israel’s retaliatory strikes have killed at least 886 people in Lebanon and forced more than 1 million from their homes, according to Lebanese authorities.
“Israeli airstrikes have destroyed entire residential buildings in dense urban environments with multiple members of the same family, including women and children, often killed together,” UN human rights office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva.
The Israeli military was not immediately available for comment on his remarks.
The UN human rights office called for an investigation into deadly strikes on displaced people sheltering in tents along Beirut’s seafront and on a healthcare centre in the town of Bint Jbeil.
“International law is very clear that deliberately attacking civilians or civilian object amounts to war crime.”
Israel’s military has said it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure, and frames a ground operation it has launched in Lebanon as a defensive effort to protect northern Israel from Hezbollah attacks. Hezbollah says its attacks are intended to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader during the war.
Israel says no return until its own citizens are safe
Israel on Monday warned that displaced Lebanese driven from their homes by its military campaign would not be able to return until the safety of Israelis living near the border was ensured, as Israeli troops pushed into new parts of southern Lebanon.
In a briefing, Israeli military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters that soldiers were now conducting ground operations in “new locations”, describing the latest offensive as “limited and targeted”.
The extended operation began days after Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military had been ordered to expand its campaign. He later warned that the country could face territorial losses and damage to its infrastructure unless Hezbollah was disarmed.
Israel’s military, which has occupied five positions in southern Lebanon since a November 2024 ceasefire with Hezbollah, sent additional forces into the country after Hezbollah fired a salvo of rockets on March 2, dragging Lebanon into an expanding regional war.
Hezbollah said its attack was in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader on February 28, while Israel has responded with an intense bombing campaign.
Visiting troops near the border, Israel’s military chief Eyal Zamir said the strikes on Iran were affecting Hezbollah’s ability to arm and fund itself. He said more than 400 of the group’s fighters have been killed since March 2.
“Over the past two weeks, we launched a limited, targeted ground operation in southern Lebanon with the objective of pushing the threat away from the border and ensuring long-term security for the residents of northern Israel,” Zamir said.
Hezbollah rarely discloses its casualty figures.
More than 880 people in Lebanon have been killed by Israeli attacks, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, whose figures do not distinguish between fighters and civilians.
More than 1 million people have been driven from their homes, many from the south as well as from areas near the capital, Beirut, and more than 130,000 are living in collective shelters, according to Lebanese authorities. Last week the United Nations launched a $308 million appeal to help Lebanon cope with the fallout of the war.
Displacement increasing rapidly
About one fifth of people in Lebanon have been registered as displaced following large-scale Israeli-issued evacuation orders across southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Israel’s extension of the orders to include the region between the Litani and Zaharani rivers may amount to forced displacement, which is prohibited under international humanitarian law, Al-Kheetan said.
The UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator in Lebanon, Imran Riza, said civilians were paying a heavy price.
“Displacement is increasing incredibly quickly. Right now, hundreds of thousands of people left their homes, many leaving with very little, just the clothes they were wearing,” he said.
Aid deliveries have been constrained by global donor cuts to funding and supply chain disruption, he said.
An air bridge used by Gulf countries to send in humanitarian aid during a 2023-2024 war is not operating because of airspace restrictions during the current wider conflict. There have been only three aid flights to Lebanon in the past week, Riza said.
Israeli troops advance west
Over the weekend, Israeli troops encircled the key southern Lebanese town of Khiyam and were advancing west toward the Litani River, a move that could leave large swathes of southern Lebanon under Israeli control, Lebanese security sources told Reuters.
Israeli troops battled Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon throughout the day on Monday, and advanced towards Bint Jbeil, a Lebanese village and Hezbollah stronghold located about 4 km from the border with Israel, the sources said.
Two Israeli officials said on Sunday that Israel and Lebanon were expected to hold talks in the coming days aimed at securing a durable ceasefire which would see Hezbollah disarmed.
A Lebanese source familiar with the matter said it didn’t seem talks with Israel would be taking place soon, though they would happen eventually.
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told reporters that a “few players were trying to mediate and host talks”, adding: “I believe the next step will be talks but first we have to degrade the capability of Hezbollah.”
Under the November 2024 ceasefire, Hezbollah was to pull back from southern Lebanon as the Lebanese military took over.
Israel said Lebanon never upheld its part of the deal, continuing near-daily air strikes against what it said were Hezbollah positions and weapons.
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