UN refugee chief says humanitarian law violated in air strikes on Lebanon

Beirut — The UN’s refugee chief Filippo Grandi said on Sunday that air strikes in Lebanon had violated international humanitarian law by hitting civilian infrastructure and killing civilians, in reference to Israel's bombardment of the country.

“Unfortunately, many instances of violations of international humanitarian law in the way the air strikes are conducted that have destroyed or damaged civilian infrastructure, have killed civilians, have impacted humanitarian operations,” he told media in Beirut.

Grandi was in Lebanon as it struggles to cope with the displacement of more than 1.2-million people as a result of an expanded Israeli air and ground operation that it says is targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah.

His visit came as Israeli air attacks battered Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight and early on Sunday. During the night, the blasts sent booms across Beirut. It was the single biggest attack of Israel’s assault on Beirut so far, witnesses and military analysts on local TV channels said.

Grandi said all parties to the conflict and those with influence on them should “stop this carnage that is happening both in Gaza and in Lebanon today”.

More than 2,000 people have been killed and nearly 10,000 wounded in Lebanon in nearly a year of fighting, most in the past two weeks, the Lebanese health ministry says. Israel says about 50 civilians and soldiers have been killed.

Israel says it targets military capabilities and takes steps to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians, while Lebanese authorities say civilians have been targeted.

Israel accuses both Hezbollah and Hamas of hiding among civilians, which they deny.

Grandi said the World Health Organisation briefed him “about egregious violations of IHL [international humanitarian law] in respect of health facilities in particular that have been impacted in various locations of Lebanon”.

Attacks on civilian homes may also be violations, though the matter requires further assessment, he said.

The fighting has led about 220,000 people to cross the Lebanese border with Syria, 70% of whom are Syrians and 30% Lebanese, Grandi said, saying these were conservative estimates.

Israel’s bombardment of the main border crossing with Syria at Masnaa on Friday was “a huge obstacle”, to those flows of people continuing, he said.

Many of the Syrians leaving Lebanon had sought refuge and fled war and a security crackdown after the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

Now was an opportunity for the Syrian government to show that returnees’ “safety and ability to go back to their homes or wherever they need to go is respected”, Grandi said.

Reuters