Israel - Lebanon Conflict    

This page pulls together all the work done by Human Rights Watch on the the July-August 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, including reports, news releases, a Q and A on the hostilities, and opinion articles. Human Rights Watch has an important role to play in meticulously documenting the actions of all parties to the conflict and evaluating them with objectivity under the requirements of international humanitarian law (the laws of war). Human Rights Watch began its investigations shortly after the fighting broke out on July 12, 2006 and continued its research through the following year. Researchers in Lebanon and Israel documented the conduct of all parties to the conflict.

(Jerusalem, September 6, 2007) – Israel’s indiscriminate airstrikes, not Hezbollah’s shielding as claimed by Israeli officials, caused most of the approximately 900 civilian deaths in Lebanon during the July-August 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.  Read More

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(Beirut, August 29, 2007) – A new 128-page report criticizing Hezbollah for its conduct during the 2006 war with Israel, in particular Hezbollah’s practice of deliberately and indiscriminately firing rockets toward Israeli civilian areas.  Read More

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(Beirut, August 29, 2007) – Human Rights Watch today canceled a news conference planned for Thursday, August 30, 2007 in Beirut, citing reports by Hezbollah-controlled media about planned demonstrations to prevent the scheduled event at the Crowne Plaza hotel, and the hotel’s decision to disallow the news conference. Read More

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(Beirut, August 29, 2007) – During the 2006 war, Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets indiscriminately and at times deliberately at civilian areas in northern Israel, killing at least 39 civilians, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Read More

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(Beirut, July 28, 2006) - Since July 12, when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers, Israel and Hezbollah have engaged in consistent and intense hostilities in which civilians in Lebanon and Israel have overwhelmingly been the victims. Read More

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(New York, July 30, 2007) – A year ago today [July 30], in one of the worst incidents of its kind during the Israel-Hezbollah war, an Israeli attack on the southern Lebanese town of Qana killed 27 civilians. Since then, there has been remarkably little serious scrutiny of why Lebanese civilians died, in Qana or elsewhere. Israelis have done much soul-searching about the decision to launch a large-scale military campaign in response to Hezbollah's border attacks, and much questioning of the military strategy for the war. But when it comes to the question of civilian casualties, the debate has been remarkably superficial. Read More

Published in the Huffington Post

(New York, July 12, 2007) One year after the Israel-Hezbollah war began, serious violations of the laws of war by both sides in the conflict remain unpunished, Human Rights Watch said today. Read More

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(New York, July 5, 2007) One year after the Israel-Hezbollah war began, serious violations of the laws of war by both sides in the conflict remain unpunished, Human Rights Watch said today. Read More

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(Geneva, June 21, 2007 ) The United Nations Human Rights Council was former Secretary General Kofi Annan’s dream child: a new, stronger institution to replace the much-maligned Commission on Human Rights, where human rights would be treated as the UN’s “third pillar” along with security and development. Read More

Published in Published in International Herald Tribune

(Washington, DC, January 29, 2007) Preliminary US government findings that Israel violated agreements with the United States by its use of cluster munitions in Lebanon last summer should lead to an immediate cutoff of all US cluster munitions sales to Israel, Human Rights Watch said today. Read More

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Preliminary US government findings that Israel violated agreements with the United States by its use of cluster munitions in Lebanon last summer should lead to an immediate cutoff of all US cluster munitions sales to Israel. (Run time: 4:14)

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(Jerusalem, November 10, 2006) - The Israel Defense Forces’ internal inquiry into its artillery shelling of Beit Hanoun, which killed 19 Palestinian civilians and left dozens injured in northern Gaza, failed to address the key questions of whether the attack was a violation of international law and who should be held accountable for the lethal fire, Human Rights Watch said today. The Israeli government should immediately conduct a comprehensive independent investigation to establish these issues. Read More

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(Jerusalem, October 18, 2006) – Hezbollah fired cluster munitions into civilian areas in northern Israel during the recent conflict, Human Rights Watch reported today. This is the first time that Hezbollah’s use of these controversial weapons has been confirmed. Read More

During the Israel-Hezbollah war, Israel was accused by Human Rights Watch and numerous local and international media outlets of attacking two Lebanese Red Cross ambulances in Qana on July 23, 2006. Following these accusations, some websites claimed that the attack on the ambulances “never happened” and was a Hezbollah-orchestrated “hoax,” a charge picked up by conservative commentators such as Oliver North. These claims attracted renewed attention when the Australian foreign minister stated that “it is beyond serious dispute that this episode has all the makings of a hoax.” Read More

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(New York , October 5, 2006) –Both Hezbollah’s strength and popularity make it all the more important that it be held accountable for its conduct during the war. Although both the UN’s Human Rights Council and the Lebanese government have called for Israel to be held accountable for its crimes, they have not done so for Hezbollah. This failure sends Hezbollah a message that it can act with impunity while undermining the protection of civilians caught in fighting involving armed groups around the world. Read More

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On July 24, 2006, Human Rights Watch was the first to confirm Israel’s use of cluster munitions in Lebanon, when it broke the news that a July 19 attack on the village of Blida left one civilian dead and 12 wounded. Human Rights Watch tracked the use of cluster munitions throughout the conflict, and successfully urged the United States not to ship new cluster munitions to Israel. Since the end of the fighting, Human Rights Watch has investigated the humanitarian impact of dangerous unexploded submunitions on civilians in southern Lebanon. See Human Rights Watch's latest Fast Facts on Israel's Use of Cluster Munitions in Southern Lebanon. Read More

Thematic Page  

(New York, September 22, 2006) – Jonathan Cook argues ("How Human Rights Watch Lost Its Way in Lebanon," September 7, 2006) that because Hezbollah hit some military targets during its war with Israel, it never deliberately targeted civilians. It may well be that Hezbollah had access to some guided weapons that it successfully aimed at legitimate military targets. But the fact remains that Hezbollah's arsenal was overwhelmingly composed of unguided Katyusha rockets, which cannot be targeted with any degree of precision. While some of those might nonetheless have sometimes hit a military target, even a target near civilians, Hezbollah fired thousands of these unguided rockets directly into civilian areas with no way of guiding the attack toward a military target, knowing that civilian casualties would be the likely result. Read More

Commentary

(New York, September 22, 2006) – The Israeli government committee that will investigate the government’s handling of the recent war in Lebanon should also examine the decisions and policies that led to the large number of Lebanese civilian casualties, Human Rights Watch said today. In a report issued on August 3, 2006, Human Rights Watch documented Israeli forces’ systematic failure to distinguish between combatants and civilians as required by international humanitarian law. Subsequent Human Rights Watch reporting demonstrated a similar pattern in Israel’s use of cluster munitions. Read More

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BBC: Mock War Crimes Trial for Israel/Hezbollah  

Kenneth Roth Cross Examines Both Sides. (© 2006 BBC: The World Tonight)

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(New York, August 30, 2006) The critics of reports such as "Fatal Strikes: Israel's Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon", have been ferocious. They have not merely deployed the common defense of accusing the accusers of getting the facts wrong. They have gone much further and accused the accusers of bad intent. Read More

Published in the Washington Post

(New York, August 20, 2006) Why did so many Lebanese civilians lose their lives to Israeli bombing? The government line is that the IDF was doing the best it could, but these deaths were the result of Hizbullah hiding its rockets and fighters among civilians. But that assertion doesn't stand up to the facts. Read More

Published in the Jerusalem Post

(Nabatiyeh, August 17, 2006) – United Nations deminers beginning emergency survey and clearance work in the south of Lebanon have identified 10 locations where Israel used artillery-delivered cluster munitions during the recent hostilities, Human Rights Watch reported today. Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon have inspected two of those sites in the village of Kfar Roummane. Read More

Cluster Munition Questions and Answers: The M26 Rocket

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(Beirut, August 16, 2006) – Massive amounts of unexploded ordnance (UXO) resulting from 33 days of heavy fighting in Lebanon threaten civilian life and limb, Human Rights Watch said today. These deadly remnants of war, including large air-dropped bombs, artillery shells, missiles and cluster submunitions, pose a danger to displaced civilians returning to southern Lebanon and relief organizations working to distribute humanitarian aid. Read More

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(Washington, D.C., August 11, 2006) – The United States should reject any request by Israel to transfer cluster munitions for use against targets in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch wrote in a letter to National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley today. Civilians in Lebanon have already died from Israel's use of similar weapons, which blanket a wide area with deadly submunitions. Read More

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(Geneva, August 11, 2006) – By adopting a politicized resolution that looks only at Israeli abuses in the current conflict, the Human Rights Council undermined its credibility and wasted an opportunity to protect civilians in the region, Human Rights Watch said today. The council decided to establish a commission of experts to investigate deadly attacks by Israel, but took no action with regard to Hezbollah’s murderous abuses. The council concluded a special session today in Geneva. Read More

(Geneva, August 11, 2006) – The draft resolution before the U.N. Human Rights Council on the situation in Lebanon is a politicized and one-sided initiative that will do nothing to protect the victims of violence in this conflict, Human Rights Watch said today. To make a difference, the council must condemn violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by both Israel and Hezbollah, and call for the U.N. Secretary-General to establish an international investigation of those abuses. The council convenes a special session today in Geneva to address the conflict. Read More

(New York, August 10, 2006) – The continuing toll of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is enormous and warrants the attention of this special session of the Human Rights Council: hundreds of civilians, many of them children, have been killed, essential infrastructure has been destroyed, and millions of lives have been disrupted. Serious violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) have been committed by both Israel and Hezbollah. Read More

(New York, August 8, 2006) – The United Nations should immediately launch an international investigation into civilian deaths in Lebanon and northern Israel, Human Rights Watch said today. In a letter to the U.N. Security Council today, Secretary-General Kofi Annan concluded that the effects of the conflict on civilians in Lebanon and Israel require a comprehensive investigation. Read More

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(New York, August 5, 2006) - Hezbollah must immediately stop firing rockets into civilian areas in Israel, Human Rights Watch said today. Entering the fourth week of attacks, such rockets have claimed 30 civilian lives, including six children, and wounded hundreds more. Read More

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(New York, August 4, 2006) - The awful bloodshed and intense emotions of war are not conducive to careful moral reasoning. With Hezbollah rockets raining down on northern Israel, an honest reckoning of the conduct of Israeli forces in Lebanon is difficult. Facile arguments and serious misconceptions, like those listed below, are too easily accepted. But given the stakes, it is especially important to cut through these misunderstandings. Read More

(Beirut, August 3, 2006) - 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. Full Report

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(Beirut, August 3, 2006) – Israeli forces have systematically failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said in report released today. The pattern of attacks in more than 20 cases investigated by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon indicates that the failures cannot be dismissed as mere accidents and cannot be blamed on wrongful Hezbollah practices. In some cases, these attacks constitute war crimes. Read More

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(Tyre, Lebanon, August 3, 2006) - The voice of Mohammed Shalhoub, 61, a farmer from Qana, still quivers with shock and exhaustion. He was in a basement shelter with more than 60 relatives when two Israeli bombs hit, killing at least 28, including 16 children. As I interview him in hospital, relatives arrive with more news of the victims. A woman starts screaming as she looks at the pictures of the dead and Mohammed's eyes well up with tears. Read More

(Beirut, August 3, 2006) – The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) inquiry into the July 30 killing of at least 28 civilians in Qana is incomplete and legally misguided, and contradicts eyewitness testimony, Human Rights Watch said today. The findings underline the need for an independent international inquiry into what took place. Read More

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(Beirut, August 2, 2006) – A preliminary Human Rights Watch investigation into the July 30 Israeli air strike in Qana found that 28 people are confirmed dead thus far, among them 16 children, Human Rights Watch said today. Read More

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(Beirut, July 31, 2006) –Day after day, Israeli government spokesmen insist that everything they are doing accords with international humanitarian law. Endless communiqués insist that Israel's behaviour is "proportionate". Let us be blunt: those claims are fantasy, as the carnage in Qana has shown once again. Read More

Published in Guardian Unlimited

(Beirut, July 30, 2006) – Responsibility for the Israeli airstrikes that killed at least 54 civilians sheltering in a home in the Lebanese village of Qana rests squarely with the Israeli military, Human Rights Watch said today. It is the latest product of an indiscriminate bombing campaign that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have waged in Lebanon over the past 18 days, leaving an estimated 750 people dead, the vast majority of them civilians. Read More

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(Beirut, July 24, 2006) – Israel has used artillery-fired cluster munitions in populated areas of Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said today. Researchers on the ground in Lebanon confirmed that a cluster munitions attack on the village of Blida on July 19 killed one and wounded at least 12 civilians, including seven children. Human Rights Watch researchers also photographed cluster munitions in the arsenal of Israeli artillery teams on the Israel-Lebanon border. Read More

Human Rights Watch has expressed grave concern about attacks on civilians and respect for international humanitarian law by both Israel and Hezbollah.  The organization has written to the governments of the United States, Syria and Iran, asking them to use their influence on both sides to promote respect for the laws of war during the current conflict.

Letter to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice on the Crisis in Lebanon
July 22, 2006

(Beirut, July 21, 2006) – Israel must allow civilians safe passage out of Lebanon's embattled south, Human Rights Watch said today. Warnings by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to civilians that they must evacuate southern Lebanon within 24 hours do not absolve Israel of the duty to avoid attacks likely to cause indiscriminate or disproportionate loss of civilian life. Read More

(Beirut, July 20, 2006) – Israel must allow relief convoys safe entry into and passage inside Lebanon, and take all feasible precautions to avoid attacking them, Human Rights Watch said today. Border towns in Lebanon are already facing serious shortages of food and medicine, and are in urgent need of supplies. Read More

(New York, July 18, 2006) – Hezbollah's attacks in Israel on Sunday and Monday 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 and probable war crimes, Human Rights Watch said today. Read More

(Beirut, July 17, 2006) – The Israel Defense Forces should provide details about a bombing on Saturday that killed 16 people in a convoy of civilians fleeing a Lebanese village near Israel’s border, Human Rights Watch said today. Under international humanitarian law, all parties to an armed conflict must take all feasible precautions to protect civilians fleeing areas at risk. Read More

(New York, July 13, 2006) — Hezbollah and Israel must not under any circumstances attack civilians in Israel and Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on all sides to scrupulously respect the absolute prohibition against targeting civilians or carrying out attacks that indiscriminately harm civilians. Read More

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Fatal Strikes

Cluster Submunitions  

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Report - Fatal Strikes: Israel’s Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon

 

Unexploded M42 and M46 submunitions. © August, 2006 UN Mine Action Coordination Center for southern Lebanon.