Israel accused of war crimes

Israel deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure and committed war crimes during the month-long conflict in Lebanon, according to an Amnesty International report. The report said strikes on civilian buildings and structures went beyond "collateral damage" and amounted to indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks under the Geneva Conventions on the laws of war. Kate Gilmore, the Amnesty executive deputy secretary general, said the bombardment of power and water plants and transport links was "deliberate and an integral part of a military strategy." "Israel's assertion that the attacks on the infrastructure were lawful is manifestly wrong," she said. "Many of the violations identified in our report are war crimes. The pattern, scope and scale of the attacks makes Israel's claim that this was collateral damage simply not credible." The report's authors described the destruction of up to 90 percent of some towns and villages in southern Lebanon, releasing aerial photographs that showed Beirut's southern Dahiya district had been transformed from a bustling suburb into a gray wasteland. "In village after village the pattern was similar–the streets, especially main streets, were scarred with artillery craters along their length," the report said. "Business premises such as supermarkets or food stores and auto service stations and petrol stations were targeted, often with precision-guided munitions and artillery that started fires and destroyed their contents." Israel launched more than 7,000 air strikes against Lebanon during the 34-day war, and naval vessels launched 2,500 shells, the report said. Around one third of the 1,183 people killed in Lebanon were children, while 4,054 people were injured and 970,000 displaced. Lebanese estimates suggest that 30,000 houses, along with up to 120 bridges, 94 roads, 25 fuel stations and 900 businesses, were destroyed. Two hospitals were destroyed and three others severely damaged, while 31 "vital points"–such as airports, ports, water and sewage treatment plants, and electrical facilities–were also completely or partially destroyed. Around 4,000 Hezbollah rockets were fired at northern Israel during the conflict, killing around 40 civilians. Up to 300,000 people in northern Israel were driven into bomb shelters by the fighting, and 117 soldiers died. The Amnesty report said Israeli military policy seemed directed at destroying Lebanese popular support for Hezbollah, a tactic prohibited by the Geneva Conventions. "The widespread destruction... in addition to several statements by Israeli officials, suggests a policy of punishing both the Lebanese government and the civilian population in an effort to get them to turn against Hezbollah," it said. The report's allegation of disproportionate action echoes comments made during the conflict by international observers including French, Russian and EU officials and the UN humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland. The UN development agency has said that Lebanon's 15-year economic and social recovery from civil war was wiped out in the Israeli offensive. "The damage is such that the last 15 years of work on reconstruction and rehabilitation, following the previous problems that Lebanon experienced, are now annihilated," said Jean Fabre, a spokesman for the UN Development Program on Aug. 22. Lebanon's relatively healthy progress towards the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, which cover a range of social and economic targets, "have been brought back to zero," he said. "Fifteen years of work have been wiped out in a month." Relief agencies say the most urgent issues are the need for clean water and sanitation and to clear unexploded munitions. Underground water pipes and sewers were destroyed in 10 out of 12 war-struck communities visited by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in recent days, and a similar scale of damage was reported elsewhere. At least five Lebanese children were killed this past week when they picked up unexploded munitions, and more than a dozen have been injured, UNICEF said. Mine clearance experts have accused Israel of "carpeting" Lebanese border villages with deadly cluster bombs. The Mines Advisory Group (MAG), a British-based charity working in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh, said "extreme" quantities of cluster bombs had been dropped on scores of surrounding villages during the final days leading up to the current cease-fire. There have been growing calls in recent years to outlaw the use of cluster bombs, which scatter hundreds of small "bomblets" no bigger than a AA battery over a target area. Although designed to explode on impact, some fail to do so, remaining a deadly threat to civilians who might tread on them. Among the victims was Ali Turkiye, 13, who was harvesting grapes in the village of Zawte when he accidentally dislodged a bomblet that had been caught in a vine. "It tore the top of his skull off," said Ali Haaj Ali, the director- general of the Najde Hospital in Nabatieh. Yusuf Khalil died while helping the Lebanese army clear the munitions. "He was close to one of the bomblets and a frog jumped from next to the device and set it off, leaving him with fatal head injuries," said Ali. In a double tragedy, an 11-year-old boy, Hadi Hatab, was killed by a cluster bomb as he wandered out of the family home; his father Moussa, 32, was killed by another bomb after he sprinted over to help him. "The Israelis dropped these in the last few hours of the war when the fighting was nearly over," said Hussein Khatib, a family friend. "They were dropped at night and landed in the rooftops, on the road, everywhere. Israel and America both know that these weapons should be banned, yet they still keep using them." When the guns went silent in Aitta Shaab, a war-ravaged village close to the Israeli border, three children skipped through the rubble looking for a little fun. Hurdling over lumps of crushed concrete and dodging spikes of twisted metal, Sukna, Hassan and Merwa, aged 10 to 12, paused before a curious object. Sukna picked it up. The terrifying blast flung her to the ground, thrusting metal shards into her liver. Hassan's abdomen was cut open. Merwa was hit in the leg and arm. "We thought it was just a little ball," said Hassan with a hoarse whisper in the intensive care ward at Tyre's Jabal Amel hospital. "The Israelis wanted to defeat Hezbollah," said Najah Saleh, 40, Sukna's mother. "But what did these children ever do to them?" "The contamination is incredibly widespread–I have never seen anything like it," said Sean Sutton, of MAG. "We have visited about 30 or 40 villages in the Nabatieh region, and I would say that about 50 percent of them have been carpeted by cluster bombs, often with one lying every few meters. We have found them on peoples' doorsteps, in school playgrounds, and even in the front room of an old lady's house." Both US-made cluster bombs and Israeli-manufactured copies had been found, he said. The US is the world's largest cluster bomb manufacturer. "We already had a major landmine problem from previous Israeli invasions, but this is far worse," said Chris Clark of the UN Mine Action Coordination Centre in Tyre, standing before a map filled with flags indicating bomb sites. "We're finding them in orange plantations, on streets, in cars, near hospitals–pretty much everywhere," Clark said. In Nabatieh, 15 people were injured in just one day along a bomb-strewn road. In Tibnin, 210 bombs were found around the town hospital. One elderly woman lost her leg in an explosion as she swept her yard. Ilham Tarhini, 45, stood at her front door appealing for help. After returning from refuge in Syria she found tiny bomblets poking from the soil of her garden of olive trees. From where she was standing she could count eight: "I'm afraid to step into the streets." Many share the blame equally between Israel and the US. "It's like we are living in a prison," said Aisa Hussain, 38, a Yahmour resident who has ordered his children to remain inside his house. Strolling through the village he pointed to yet another tiny black canister perched under a tree. "You see what America is sending us," he said bitterly. "This is their idea of democracy." Tenuous cease-fire A senior UN envoy warned on Aug. 22 that it could take up to three months to deploy an international force in southern Lebanon and that the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah remained "extremely fragile." Italy said that it would send up to 3,000 troops–the largest number offered by one country–but warned its soldiers would not be deployed unless Israel kept to the cease-fire commitment. France and other European nations have been reluctant to commit substantial contingents, which is supposed to total 15,000 troops, until its mission and rules of engagement are clarified. Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN envoy on Lebanon, said the "security vacuum" in southern Lebanon would remain for some time. "I think realistically, up to a point, you will have such a vacuum in Lebanon for the next two, three months," he said. "The situation is still extremely fragile.... Unintended incidents can kick off renewed violence, which might escalate and spin out of control." The UN has already accused Israel of violating last week's ceasefire when it launched a commando raid deep into the Bekaa Valley on Aug. 19. Israeli aircraft also fired rockets in eastern Lebanon. Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, said it was "intended to prevent the resupply of new weapons and ammunition for Hezbollah" from Syria and Iran. But Israel produced no evidence of intercepted weapons. Israel warned that it would keep up raids against Hezbollah and said it would prepare for the "next round" of war. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, a Sunni Muslim, and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Shiite and Hezbollah supporter, decried the destruction wrought by Israeli bombs during a highly publicized tour of Beirut's devastated southern suburbs. "I hope the international media transmits this picture to every person in the world so that it shows this criminal act, this crime against humanity," the Western-backed prime minister said.