NEW YORK, US
An alleged airstrike on an emergency relief center in south Lebanon, in March 2024, was made using US-manufactured weaponry, according to a Tuesday release from the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW.)
The strike was reportedly made
using Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit and an Israeli-made
500-pound general purpose bomb.
Some seven aid workers were
reportedly killed in the strike, according to HRW.
HRW described the
attack as unlawful, claiming it was on civilians and that Israel
failed to take all necessary precautions. If the attack on civilians was
carried out intentionally or recklessly, it should be investigated as an
apparent war crime, the organization claimed.
The strike, which occurred
after midnight, hit a residential structure that housed the Emergency and
Relief Corps of the Lebanese Succour Association, a nongovernmental
humanitarian organization that provides emergency, rescue, first aid training,
and relief services in Lebanon, according
to the release
HRW claimed to have found no
evidence of a military target at the site.
“Israeli forces used a US
weapon to conduct a strike that killed seven civilian relief workers in Lebanon
who were merely doing their jobs,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at
Human Rights Watch. “Israel’s assurances to the United States that it is abiding
by the laws of war ring hollow. The US needs to acknowledge reality and cut off
arms to Israel.”
It is the position of HRW that
the United States should immediately suspend arms sales and military assistance
to Israel given evidence that the Israeli military is using US weapons
unlawfully.
The organization also
expressed the belief that Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry should move forward with
filing a declaration with the International Criminal Court, enabling it to
investigate and prosecute alleged crimes within the court’s jurisdiction on Lebanese
territory since October 2023.
In October 2023, Hamas
launched a massive terror attack which resulted in more than 1200 people being
killed and over 250 more kidnapped. Hezbollah, a Lebanese-based terror group,
began launching rockets toward Israeli residential communities and Israeli
military bases in the north, resulting in the IDF conducting strikes against
Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanese territory. A number of Hamas terrorists
have also been eliminated during the strikes in Lebanon.
In a Telegram post on March
27, the Israeli military said that “fighter jets struck a military compound in
the area of al-Habbariyeh in southern Lebanon” and that “a significant
terrorist operative belonging to the ‘al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya’ [an Islamic terrorist
group] organization who advanced attacks against Israeli territory was
eliminated along with additional terrorists who were with him.”
A parliament member
representing The Islamist terror 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 were killed
in the strike, and denied any affiliation with the Emergency and Relief Corps
of the Lebanese Succour Association.
HRW later interviewed six
people from Habbarieh, including 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 strike, a resident who was at the site shortly after the
attack, and a local official.
In addition, HRW
representatives spoke to the head of the Emergency and Relief Corps at the
Lebanese Succour Association, a member of parliament representing the Islamist
terror group, and two people at the General Directorate of the Lebanese Civil
Defense, including the head of the civil defense team that pulled the bodies
out of the rubble.
Photographs of weapon remnants
found at the site were also reviewed, after photographs and videos of the site
before and after the attack shared online by journalists, news agencies, and
rescue workers; and the footage was shared directly with researchers.
Footage of weapons remnants
found at the site of the strike, and shared with Human Rights Watch, included a
metal remnant marked “MPR 500,” confirming it was a 500-pound class general
purpose bomb, made by Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems, and remnants
of the strake and a tail-fin belonging to a JDAM guidance kit, produced by the
US-based Boeing Company.
Based on the above
investigation, HRW claimed to have sent a letter with findings and questions to
the IDF and the US State Department on April 19 but state that they have not
received a response as of time of publishing.
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