By Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor
Beirut – Since early November, the Israeli army has ramped up its military assaults in Lebanon and carried out multiple massacres there, killing dozens of civilians, the majority of whom were women, children, and the elderly.
The Israeli occupation army conducted over 35 raids on the Baalbek-Hermel district on Friday 1 November, killing 53 people and injuring at least 83 others.
At least 15 more people were killed and injured in an Israeli army raid on an abandoned building in the Semaan Gallery neighbourhood, which is located at the eastern entrance to a southern suburb of Beirut, on Saturday 2 November.
Three additional people were killed and nine others—including a child who was rescued from beneath the debris by ambulance crews—were injured when the Israeli army attacked an apartment in a residential building in the Saida neighbourhood on Sunday 3 November. On the same day, the Lebanese Red Cross recovered the bodies of 20 Lebanese and one Syrian from rubble in the Wata al-Khiam area; the victims had been buried under the debris for days.
The Israeli army then booby-trapped and blew up several homes in the town of Mays al-Jabal on Monday 4 November, and destroyed entire neighbourhoods in the town of Maaroub, nearly 20 kilometres inside the Lebanese border in the Tyre district.
Families have lost contact with five elderly people in their 80s who require medical attention and medication due to Israeli incursions into southern Lebanese villages, booby-trapping, and bombing of neighbourhoods and homes. These individuals are Ghadina Al-Suwaid, from the town of Al-Dahra, and Mohammad Shartouni, Nimr Hamadi, Sabah Rizk, and Hassan Qablan, all from the town of Mays Al-Jabal.
A woman was killed and 15 others were injured when Israeli forces bombarded the area of Al-Jiyeh on Tuesday 5 November. Students were evacuated from the Mar Charbel School as a result of the material damage caused by the bombardment, which occurred during school hours. In Wata al-Khiam and Bayut al-Sayad, 19 bodies were recovered from the debris of two earlier massacres that occurred on the same day. In southern Lebanon, also on 5 November, 40,000 housing units in 37 towns were completely destroyed. Twenty people were killed and at least 18 others were injured when the Israeli army committed a massacre at a residential building in the town of Barja that same day.
The Israeli army continued to attack southern villages in Lebanon on Wednesday 6 November, focusing on homes and stores in the Tyre district. They also carried out more massacres in the Bekaa Valley region, conducting more than 20 raids on the Baalbek-Hermel area, which killed at least 50 people and wounded 63 more. The Israeli army also killed 24 people by attacking the cities of Baalbek and Hermel, as well as the towns of Ain and Al-Mishrifeh. One of these raids on Baalbek caused damage to the archaeologically significant neighbourhood of Al-Manshiyeh.
Israeli raids also targeted Tyre’s archaeologically significant neighbourhood on Thursday 7 November, prompting the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to convene a meeting to discuss bolstering temporary protection for cultural heritage sites in Lebanon. On the same day, an Israeli drone targeted a car at the Awali checkpoint in Sidon, just as a UNIFIL convoy was passing by. As a result, three civilians were killed and three Lebanese army soldiers and four UNIFIL personnel were injured.
Two Israeli army bulldozers and an excavator demolished a UNIFIL building that same day (7 November) in Ras al-Naqoura and took out two of the blue barrels used as physical markers to indicate the “Blue Line”, which delineates the UN-established withdrawal line between Israel and Lebanon—established to confirm the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon in the year 2000.
Nine more people were killed, and at least 46 were injured, when the Israeli army targeted three buildings in Tyre on Friday 8 November. Israel also directly targeted an ambulance centre in Naqoura on Friday and Saturday (8-9 November), as well as paramedic gathering places in Deir Qanoun Ras al-Ain and Ain Baal in Tyre. Between the start of October 2023 and 9 November, Israel killed 187 paramedics in Lebanon.
Israeli raids on Sunday 10 November killed over 20 people and injured at least 14 more in the towns of al-Kanisa, Hadath Baalbek, al-Jamaliya, al-Nabi Sheet, and Majdaloun. Israeli raids also reached the Jbeil district, where the occupation army killed a large number of people, mostly women and children, by attacking a two-storey house in the town of Almat that was being used by 30 displaced people as a shelter. An additional Israeli attack occurred against a first aid facility in the Sidon district during a raid on the town of Adloun; the occupation army targeted a facility run by the Islamic Health Authority, killing three paramedics and increasing the death toll to 190.
Throughout this week, the Israeli army has launched several raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut, issuing evacuation warnings just 30 minutes to two hours before striking. As a result, many buildings in these suburbs have been destroyed.
Several civilians, mostly women and children, were killed on Monday 11 November in fresh massacres carried out by the Israeli army in Al-Saksakiyeh, Akkar, and Baalbek. Although 81 dead and 60 wounded individuals have been found, the exact number of victims is still unknown because some of the dead have been reduced to pieces. According to the initial toll, 25 people were killed and seven wounded in the Alamat massacre; eight people were killed and five wounded in the Baal Shamiya massacre on Tuesday 11 November, while 20 people were killed and 12 wounded in the John massacre that same day; eight people were killed and 17 wounded in the Dohat Aramoun massacre on Wednesday 13 November; and 20 people killed and 19 wounded in the Deir Qanoun Ain al-Ras massacre.
In addition, the Israeli army killed 19 paramedics in the Doris and Arabsalim massacres, between Thursday and Friday (14-15 November). The occupation army targeted a paramedic gathering place in Nabatieh and a civil defense centre in Baalbek while 20 paramedics were inside. Two more paramedics were then killed in two separate Israeli attacks on Saturday 16 November, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. The first of these attacks occurred in Tyre’s town of Burj Rahhal, while paramedics were rescuing an injured person, and the second occurred in the town of Kfar Tibnit, when an Israeli vehicle targeted a Health Authority vehicle, injuring four additional paramedics as well.
On the same day (16 November), Israeli forces killed a family of six, including four children, in a raid on the town of Al-Khariba. Another Israeli raid on a home in the town of Arabsalim killed seven members of the same family.
The Israeli army then attacked three Health Authority centres on Sunday 17 November in Houmin al-Tahta, Hanaweya, and Al-Bazouriyeh, killing two paramedics and injuring two more. On the very same day, two members were killed and two others were injured when the Israeli army attacked a Lebanese army centre in the town of Al-Mari in Hasbaya. An additional Israeli attack on the Tyre district villages that same day claimed 11 lives and injured 48 people, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
The Israeli army then launched three raids on Ras al-Nabaa, Mar Elias, and Zakat al-Blat, in the centre of the capital city of Beirut, without prior warning on Sunday and Monday (17-18 November), killing at least 10 people and injuring over 35 more.
Over the past two days, the densely populated Beirut neighbourhoods of Shiyah and Ghobeiry have been violently targeted by the occupation army, resulting in a large number of forcibly displaced people.
Respect and commitment should be shown with regard to international humanitarian law, which stipulates that killing civilians is a war crime—even when it is done under the guise of targeting military leaders—and which requires warring parties to always distinguish between civilians and combatants during armed conflicts.
Even if Israel’s claims of targeting military leaders are accurate, it is unacceptable to target them while they are among civilians and in civilian areas without considering any of the principles of international humanitarian law. Therefore, Israeli is committing serious violations of international humanitarian law.
While international humanitarian law permits the targeting of combatants who are directly involved in hostilities, as well as within certain limits under the principles of military necessity and proportionality, i.e. taking the necessary precautions during the implementation of each military operation, the law (which Israel has adopted, and is bound to) forbids political assassinations.
An attack that “is expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life or injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, and is excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated” is prohibited by the principle of proportionality, even when it comes to military targets. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor emphasises that such attacks are considered full-fledged war crimes.
A UN investigation committee must be established to look into the transgressions and international crimes that have been committed in Lebanon since 8 October 2024.
In order to bring about justice for the victims and stop additional civilian casualties, the international community must fulfill its obligations to monitor and enforce international humanitarian law, stop violations that constitute war crimes, punish those responsible, and stop impunity.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is a Geneva-based independent organization with regional offices across the MENA region and Europe
21 November 2024
Source: countercurrents.org