Human Rights Watch called upon Israel to halt indiscriminate and reprisal attacks on civilians and civilian objects in Lebanon.
Israeli officials explicitly stated that the attacks were reprisals against the Lebanese civilian population. Internal Security Minister Avigdor Kahalani said that he wanted "all the inhabitants of Lebanon feel what all of Israel feels." Reprisals, when aimed at civilians or civilian objects, violate international humanitarian law.
"The laws of war explicitly forbid targeting civilians," said Hanny Megally, executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch. "Both sides need to respect international law."
Background information
Attacks on Civilian Infrastructure in Lebanon
According to Maj. Gen. Dan Halutz, chief of IDF operations, the government "decided to carry out an attack on Lebanese infrastructure and not only on Hizballah objectives." An IDF official summary of his press conference today said that the targets included "power and the electrical transformer stations, bridges," "main arteries of transportation," as well as ammunition depots.
The Jamhour power station, located about ten kilometers southeast of Beirut, was attacked three times by Israeli aircraft on Thursday evening. Six hours later, on Friday, the Bsalim station, five miles northeast of Beirut was hit. The attacks left large parts of Beirut and its suburbs without electricity. Agence France-Presse reported that a high-voltage relay station in Meshref, six miles south of Beirut, was also hit today, cutting off electricity to communities in the Shouf mountains. Power facilities were hit in other parts of Lebanon as well. The English-language Daily Star (Beirut) reported today that the Ras al-Ain plant was destroyed, leaving Baalbek without electricity, and a facility in Khirbet Silm in south Lebanon was attacked, cutting off service for residents of the Bint Jbail area.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose cabinet unanimously approved the attacks, was quoted by Israeli radio as saying: "If there is no quiet in northern Israel, there will be no quiet in Lebanon."
Internal Security Minister Avigdor Kahalani, a cabinet member in the Netanyahu government, told Israel Radio that he had long advocated the idea of "switching the lights off in Beirut." He made clear that the attacks on the electricity infrastructure were reprisals against the Lebanese civilian population: "The moment residents of Israel living on the Lebanese border sit in their air raid shelters, it's important that they also feel it in Beirut. I have no doubt they will remember this night in Beirut for many years to come. It marks the transition point of a new method -- Israel no longer strikes at some antenna on a hilltop, but hits the infrastructure, and all the inhabitants of Lebanon feel what all of Israel feels." Speaking in an IDF press conference this morning, IDF Major General Dan Halutz said that the infrastructure targets "had been selected a long time ago" and that expanding the target list to include non-Hizballah objectives was intended to send a message to the Lebanese that "all power brokers in Lebanon who support Hizballah's murderous activity are liable to attack." Gen. Halutz also remarked that future attacks on Lebanese infrastructure would target "all sources of power in Lebanon, not just Hizballah, to convey a message that none are immune to an Israeli retaliation if Hizballah attacks continue."
Israel=s targeting of Lebanon=s infrastructure constitutes indiscriminate attacks under international humanitarian law (the laws of war). The laws of war prohibit attacks on civilians and civilian objects and limit attacks strictly to military objectives. Military objectives are those which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage. Under the laws of war, attacks on objects that do not meet this strict test are prohibited.
To the knowledge of Human Rights Watch, Israeli government and military officials have not characterized Lebanon=s infrastructure as a legitimate military objective. No official has made the case that this infrastructure is facilitating in any way Hizballah=s attacks on Israel. Rather, government and military officials have indicated that Israel was carrying out reprisals which, when aimed at civilians or civilian objects, violate international humanitarian law. The laws of war also prohibit attacks that destroy objects that are indispensable to the survival of the civilian population. In a modern society like Lebanon=s, electricity should be considered indispensable to the survival of the civilian population because it is needed to power everything from water purification systems to hospitals.
Attacks on Israeli Civilians
The Katyusha rockets launched into northern Israel towns and settlements by Hizballah guerrillas also are indiscriminate attacks in violation of international humanitarian law. Katyushas are inaccurate weapons with an indiscriminate effect when fired into areas where civilians are concentrated. In addition, the firing of Katyusha rockets into Israel in reprisal for attacks by Israeli and South Lebanon Army military forces that killed or injured Lebanese civilians also violate international humanitarian law, which prohibits attacks against the civilian population or civilians, either directly or by way of reprisals.
The Civilian Toll
The two Israeli civilians who were killed in Qiryat Shemona brought to nine the total number of Israeli civilians who have lost their lives since 1985 in the military conflict at the Israel-Lebanon border, according to statistics compiled by the IDF. Between 1985 and the present, Lebanese civilians have suffered casualties in much greater numbers. For example, during two Israeli military operations, Operation Accountability (June 1993) and Operation Grapes of Wrath (April 1996), a total of 274 Lebanese civilians were killed and over 1,000 injured.
Before this most recent escalation, the last Lebanese civilian deaths in the border conflict occurred on May 17, 1999. Two young men were killed in the village of Zawtar, the multilateral Israel Lebanon Monitoring Group reported, when "a guided missile fired by Israel and those cooperating with it impacted in the village." Following these deaths, Hizballah guerrillas fired at least 59 Katyushas into northern Israel on May 18, 1999. According to the Monitoring Group, 23 of the rockets landed in Qiryat Shemona, and others in Liman, Shelotni, Gerher Haziv, Goren, Metsuba, Kabri, and Granot Hagalil. Three Israeli civilians were injured, and two houses, a factory, a chicken coop, and a car were damaged.
