Israel: US weapons used in strike that killed aid workers in Lebanon

(Beirut) An Israeli strike on an emergency and relief center in southern Lebanon on March 27, 2024 was an unlawful attack on civilians that failed to take all necessary precautions, Human Rights Watch said today . If the attack on civilians was carried out intentionally or recklessly, it should be investigated as an apparent war crime. The strike, using a US-made Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit and an Israeli-made 500-pound (approximately 230 kilograms) multi-purpose bomb, killed seven city emergency and relief volunteers from Habbarieh, five kilometers north of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The strike, after midnight, targeted a residential structure housing the Emergency and Relief Corps of the Lebanese Relief Association, a non-governmental humanitarian organization that provides emergency services, rescue, first aid training and relief in Lebanon. Human Rights Watch found no evidence of a military target at the site. A week earlier, Israel reportedly submitted written assurances to the U.S. State Department that U.S.-supplied weapons were not being used in violation of international law.

Israeli forces used a U.S. weapon to carry out a strike that killed seven civilian aid workers in Lebanon who were simply doing their jobs, said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. Israel's assurances to the United States that it respects the laws of war ring hollow. The United States must recognize reality and cut off Israel's weapons.

The United States should immediately suspend arms sales and military aid to Israel given evidence that the Israeli military is illegally using American weapons, Human Rights Watch said. The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs should also promptly file a declaration with the International Criminal Court, allowing it to investigate and prosecute crimes falling under the jurisdiction of the courts on Lebanese territory since October 2023.

In a March 27 Telegram message, the Israeli military said warplanes had struck a military compound in the al-Habbariyeh region of southern Lebanon and that a major terrorist belonging to al-Jamaa al -Islamiyya [The Islamic Group] The organization that launched attacks against Israeli territory was eliminated along with other terrorists who accompanied it. A lawmaker representing the Islamic Group, a Lebanese Islamist political party whose armed wing, the Fajr Forces, has been engaged in cross-border hostilities with Israel, told Human Rights Watch that no fighters from the group had been killed during the the strike, and denied any affiliation with the Emergency and Relief Corps of the Lebanese Relief Association.

Human Rights Watch interviewed six people from Habbarieh: the parents of three people killed, the owner of the house, a member of the emergency and rescue team who left the center shortly before the attack, a resident who was at the scene shortly after the attack. , and a local manager. Human Rights Watch also spoke with the head of the Emergency and Rescue Corps of the Lebanese Relief Association, a deputy representing the Islamic Group, and two people from the General Directorate of Lebanese Civil Defense, including the head of the civil defense team. who pulled the bodies out of the rubble.

Human Rights Watch also reviewed photographs of weapons remnants found at the site; photographs and videos of the site before and after the attack shared online by journalists, news agencies and rescue workers; and images shared directly with researchers. Human Rights Watch sent a letter with its findings and questions to the Israeli military and the US State Department on April 19, but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

Images of weapons remnants found at the attack site and shared with Human Rights Watch included a metal remnant marked MPR 500, confirming that it was a 500-pound-class general-purpose bomb, manufactured by the Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems, and remains of the strake and fin belonging to a JDAM guidance kit, produced by the American company Boeing.

Two verified photographs, posted on the Emergency and Rescue Corps Facebook page on March 28 and taken at the site of the attack, show remains in the same location seen in the photographs sent directly to Human Rights Watch . The photographs were shared by a Habbarieh resident who was at the scene shortly after the attack and by a Beirut journalist who shared photographs of the same set of remains on display at the funeral of the seven volunteers.

The seven people killed were all volunteers who began working with the center shortly after its branch in Habbarieh opened in late 2023, their families, colleagues and the head of the Emergency and Rescue Corps said. Those killed were twin brothers Ahmad and Hussein al-Chaar, Abdul Rahman al-Chaar, Ahmad Hammoud, Mohammed Farouk Atwi, Abdullah Atwi and Baraa Abou Qaiss, aged 18; the oldest person in this group was 25 years old.

The attack took place shortly after 12:30 a.m., killing all seven workers at the center, said Samer Hamdan, head of the civil protection team at the site. Photographs and videos taken by residents and journalists show the center razed and a destroyed ambulance parked nearby with recognizable red marks on its back and sides.

Human Rights Watch found no evidence of a military target. The IDF's admission in its Telegram message that it targeted the center, given that it was a relief center, indicates at a minimum that it did not take all possible precautions to verify that the target was military and to avoid loss of civilian lives and damage to civilian property. making the strike illegal.

An Islamic Group official said that while some Islamic Group supporters are volunteers in the Lebanese Relief Association, they do not include any fighters from its armed wing, the Fajr Forces. Content posted on social media and reviewed by Human Rights Watch suggests that at least two of those killed may have been supporters of the Islamic Group. In one case, the person posted four photographs on their Facebook page with the Islamic Group's banner and images between 2016 and 2018. Another photograph posted on social media showed a third person holding an assault rifle while wearing a camouflage mesh. The person's mother said her son, like other men in the village, used guns to hunt and was not affiliated with any armed group. Family members of those killed, the Lebanese Relief Association and civil defense all said the seven men were civilians and were not affiliated with any armed group. A lawmaker representing the Islamic Group, which has a history of making public statements when its fighters are killed, told Human Rights Watch that none of its fighters were killed in the attack, and that the group had publicly denied any affiliation with the association.

We have turned over every stone, Hamdan said. All we found was emergency and medical equipment and devices. Suits, helmets, gauze, first aid kits. That's it.

In retaliation for the strike, Hezbollah said it launched rockets at the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shimona and at the headquarters of the 769th Brigade later that morning. The Hezbollah attack killed one civilian, according to media reports. Later in the day, Israeli strikes killed nine people, including Hezbollah and Amal fighters and three other medical workers affiliated with both groups. As of May 1, Israeli attacks in Lebanon since October 2023 would have killed at least 73 civilians, according to an AFP report, as well as more than 300 fighters.

Rocket and missile strikes and other attacks against Israel by Hezbollah and Palestinian armed groups in Lebanon since October 2023 have reportedly killed at least 9 civilians and 11 soldiers. More than 92,000 people have been displaced from their homes in southern Lebanon and at least 80,000 people have been displaced from northern Israel.

Under international humanitarian law, all parties to the conflict have a duty to distinguish between combatants and civilians and to target only combatants. If there is any doubt as to whether a person is a civilian, that person should be considered a civilian. In the conduct of military operations, constant care must be taken to spare the civilian population, civilians and civilian objects. All possible precautions must be taken to avoid, and in any case to minimize, accidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian property. Each party to the conflict must make every effort to verify that the targets are military objectives. Anyone who commits serious violations of the laws of war with criminal intent, that is, intentionally or recklessly, may be prosecuted for war crimes. The attack that destroyed an emergency and relief center containing only civilians shows a significant failure to take adequate safeguards to ensure that the targets were military objectives and to prevent civilian deaths, Human Rights Watch said.

In March, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam submitted a joint memorandum to the US State Department highlighting a wide range of Israeli violations of international humanitarian law and finding its assurances to legally use US weapons not credible.

The uninterrupted and unconditional flow of weapons, despite Israel's systematic violations of the laws of war and impunity for these abuses, facilitates the continued unlawful killings of civilians, including humanitarian workers. » Kaiss said. Israel's conduct in Gaza and Lebanon violates U.S. and international law, and President Biden must urgently stop the flow of weapons to prevent further atrocities.

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