8-25-06, 9:16 am
Citing Israeli military sources, Amnesty estimated that Israel launched more than 7,000 air attacks on about 7,000 targets and conducted an additional 2,500 bombardments from the sea. These attacks resulted in at least 1,183 deaths and 4,054 people injured, according to UN and Lebanese government sources. Almost 1 million Lebanese people were displaced by the violence.
According to early Lebanese government assessments, targets included civilian infrastructure, private homes, and businesses. Among the targets for complete or partial destruction by Israeli forces were 'airports, ports, water and sewage treatment plants, [and] electrical facilities,' posing public health threats to Lebanon's civilian population and denying them access to potable water. Additionally, '80 bridges and 94 roads... more than 25 fuel stations and around 900 commercial enterprises were hit.'
According to the Amnesty report, 'The number of residential properties, offices and shops completely destroyed exceeds 30,000.' Early, very conservative estimates by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) suggest that 15,000 civilian homes and apartments were destroyed.
Amnesty representatives who traveled to Lebanon described mass destruction in 'village after village.' Roads were destroyed by aerial and artillery bombardment. Businesses such as supermarkets and gasoline stations were targeted and destroyed 'often with precision-guided munitions and artillery that started fires and destroyed their contents.' The use of such weapons indicates intentional destruction rather than the vaguer claim of collateral damage.
Environmental damage is also mounting and may cause long-term damage in the Mediterranean Sea. Due to the Israeli air force attack on the Jiyyeh power station just south of Beirut, the resulting explosions and fire burned for three weeks. In addition to massive air pollution as much as 15,000 tons of fuel oil leaked into the sea. The oil slick is believed to cover about 240 miles of the Lebanese coastline according to the United Nations Environmental Program, and will take years and billions of dollars to clean up.
By contrast, other sources show that after Israel began its aerial assault on Lebanon, Hezbollah launched thousands of rockets into northern Israel over the 34-day period which resulted in the deaths of 40 non-combatant Israelis and the displacement of thousands.
The Amnesty report also cited high-ranking Israeli military officials who openly declared non-military targets to be fair game. In apparent blatant disregard of international law protecting non-combatants and civilian infrastructure from military attack, Israeli military Chief of Staff Lt. General Dan Halutz was quoted as saying that all of Beirut could be targeted. 'Nothing is safe, as simple as that,' Halutz told reporters. He further reportedly added that Lebanon itself would 'pay a very high price' for Hezbollah's actions.
Israeli military and government officials justified their military tactics of targeting civilian infrastructure by claiming that Hezbollah had situated its forces within a civilian population, in effect, using non-combatants as a 'human shield.' The Amnesty report, however, points out that '[w]hile the use of civilians to shield a combatant from attack is a war crime, under international humanitarian law such use does not release the opposing party from its obligations towards the protection of the civilian population.'
In other words, Israel, despite Hezbollah's actions, was obligated under international laws it has agreed to, to carefully distinguish between military and civilian targets. Its deliberate failure to do so violates international law.
In a press release accompanying the report, Kate Gilmore, Executive Deputy Secretary General of Amnesty International, stated, 'Israel's assertion that the attacks on the infrastructure were lawful is manifestly wrong. Many of the violations identified in our report are war crimes, including indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks. The evidence strongly suggests that the extensive destruction of power and water plants, as well as the transport infrastructure vital for food and other humanitarian relief, was deliberate and an integral part of a military strategy.'
Amnesty called for a special independent investigation, conducted by the UN, to examine the Israeli military's actions during this attack on Lebanon from the perspective of international humanitarian and human rights law. Amnesty is also urging the public to pressure their governments to support such an investigation. .
--Joel Wendland is managing editor of Political Affairs and can be reached at
