Possible War Crimes In The 2006 Lebanon War
Various groups and individuals, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and United Nations officials, accused both Israel and Hezbollah of violating international humanitarian law during the 2006 Lebanon War, and warned of possible war crimes. These allegations included intentional attacks on civilian populations or infrastructure, disproportionate or indiscriminate attacks, the use of human shields, and the use of prohibited weapons.
Under international humanitarian law, warring parties are obliged to distinguish between combatants and civilians, ensure that attacks on legitimate military targets are proportional, and guarantee that the military advantage of such attacks outweigh the possible harm done to civilians. Violations of these laws are considered war crimes.
According to various media, between 1,000 and 1,200 Lebanese are reported dead. Additionally, there were between 1500 and 2500 people wounded, and over 1,000,000 were temporarily made refugees, with an unknown number of missing civilians in the south of Lebanon. Over 150 Israelis were killed and 300,000–500,000 were displaced.
Israel said that it tried to avoid civilians, and had distributed leaflets calling on civilian residents to evacuate, but that Hezbollah stored weapons in and fired from civilian areas and transferred weapons using ambulances, making those areas legitimate targets, and used civilians as human shields.
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