Israel accused of indiscriminate attacks during Lebanon war

Israel was accused on Sept. 6 of firing indiscriminately during last year's war in Lebanon in a report by Human Rights Watch that challenged the country's claim that the high number of civilian casualties resulted from the militant group Hezbollah deliberately shielding itself among the Lebanese population. In a 249-page investigation, its most detailed inquiry into the war, the New York-based rights group said its research showed that even though Hezbollah was also guilty of serious violations of the laws of war, there was no evidence that the militant group systematically fought from among civilians. Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, dismissed as "simply false" Israel's claim to have killed 600 Hezbollah fighters. Roth said his group's best estimate, based on research in Lebanon, was that there were only 250 Hezbollah fighters among the 1,109 Lebanese deaths. Around 160 Israeli civilians and soldiers were killed. "The main conclusion that Human Rights Watch reached is that the Israeli government claim that civilian deaths in southern Lebanon were due mainly to Hezbollah hiding behind civilians is false," Roth said. "Hezbollah did endanger civilians by firing from civilian areas. This is something that happened, but it was not systematic," he said. Last week Human Rights Watch issued another report criticizing Hezbollah's conduct during the war, dismissing and condemning the militant group's claims that it had aimed at military targets in Israel and that its attacks were reprisals for the killing of civilians in southern Lebanon. In its report on Israeli conduct during the war, the group studied 94 incidents in detail in which about 500 civilians and 50 fighters were killed on the Lebanese side. Although it found some instances where Hezbollah fired rockets from civilian areas, or mixed with the civilian population it said: "Such violations, however, were not widespread: we found strong evidence that Hezbollah stored most of its rockets in bunkers and weapon storage facilities located in uninhabited fields and valleys, that in the vast majority of cases Hezbollah fighters left populated civilian areas as soon as the fighting started, and that Hezbollah fired the vast majority of its rockets from pre-prepared positions outside villages." It accused the Israeli military of firing indiscriminately at targets across southern Lebanon and in Beirut, and said Israel wrongly assumed that all Lebanese civilians had fled from the south. It said Israel was also wrong to target people or buildings affiliated with Hezbollah when they were not valid military objectives. The report calls into question the reluctance of the British government among others to call for an early ceasefire during the 34-day conflict. The Israeli military dismissed the criticisms, saying the report contained "many inaccuracies" and that Human Rights Watch was not privy to classified Israeli intelligence. It again blamed Hezbollah for Lebanese civilian casualties. "The IDF abides by the norms of international law and human rights at all times and went to great lengths in its efforts to ensure that Lebanese civilians were protected and that only military objectives were targeted," the military said in a statement. "Targets were selected on the basis of reliable information linking them to Hezbollah military activity."