Violations of The Laws of War
According to Human Rights Watch and other human rights organizations, both sides in the conflict violated the laws of war by attacking civilian targets.
During the week-long operation, Israel bombarded thousands of houses and buildings resulting in 300,000 civilians being displaced from southern Lebanon towards Beirut and other areas. Israeli forces also destroyed much Lebanese infrastructure and civilian targets, such as major electricity stations and bridges, and have been accused of failing to take adequate measures to minimize civilian casualties, and may have used weapons inappropriate for the environment.
Hezbollah retaliated with rocket attacks on Israeli civilian targets, though it inflicted significantly fewer casualties. They were also accused of hiding small arms in civilian houses.
Ultimately, Israel declared that it attacked Hezbollah targets only to pressure Hezbollah to stop attacking Israeli civilians - while Hezbollah declared similar motive for their attacks along with liberating of Southern Lebanon.
Read more about this topic: Operation Accountability
Famous quotes containing the words violations of, violations, laws and/or war:
“The peace loving nations must make a concerted effort in opposition to those violations of treaties and those ignorings of humane instincts which today are creating a state of international anarchy and instability from which there is no escape through mere isolation or neutrality.... When an epidemic of physical disease starts to spread, the community approves and joins in a quarantine of the patients in order to protect the health of the community against the spread of the disease.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“There is no end to the violations committed by children on children, quietly talking alone.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)
“Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night;
God said Let Newton be! and all was light.”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
“The war was won on both sides: by the Vietnamese on the ground, by the Americans in the electronic mental space. And if the one side won an ideological and political victory, the other made Apocalypse Now and that has gone right around the world.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)