Israel/Lebanon: End indiscriminate strikes on civilians

[bemildred]

(Beirut, August 3, 2006) – Israeli forces have systematically failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The pattern of attacks in more than 20 cases investigated by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon indicates that the failures cannot be dismissed as mere accidents and cannot be blamed on wrongful Hezbollah practices. In some cases, these attacks constitute war crimes.

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“The pattern of attacks shows the Israeli military’s disturbing disregard for the lives of Lebanese civilians,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “Our research shows that Israel’s claim that Hezbollah fighters are hiding among civilians does not explain, let alone justify, Israel’s indiscriminate warfare.”

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Human Rights Watch researchers found numerous cases in which the IDF launched artillery and air attacks with limited or dubious military objectives but excessive civilian cost. In many cases, Israeli forces struck an area with no apparent military target. In some instances, Israeli forces appear to have deliberately targeted civilians.

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“Hezbollah fighters must not hide behind civilians – that’s an absolute – but the image that Israelhas promoted of such shielding as the cause of so high a civilian death toll is wrong,” Roth said. “In the many cases of civilian deaths examined by Human Rights Watch, the location of Hezbollah troops and arms had nothing to do with the deaths because there was no Hezbollah around.”

ReliefWeb

[AlamoDemoc]

1. I find this quote as complete hypocrisy

“Hezbollah fighters must not hide behind civilians – that’s an absolute – but the image that Israel has promoted of such shielding as the cause of so high a civilian death toll is wrong,” Roth said.

The reality is that Israeli army are known to use unarmed civilians as human Shields in the Occupied Palestine. So, are we to believe that they aren't doing it in Lebanon?


"Israelis accused of 'human shields' tactic"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5212870.stm

[bemildred]

2. It seems like a separate issue to me.

They do not say the IDF does not do it, the IDF admits they do it and defends the practice.

But the claim here is that Hizbullah deliberately draws IDF fire to civilian areas, and this attacks that by saying that civilian areas are fired on when there is no preceding Hizbullah activity that the fire could be drawn to.

[AlamoDemoc]

5. We know that Hezbollah has been fighting with the Israeli forces

at the border with Lebanon for years. Hezbollah is well-trained and disciplined fighters. We are hearing many reports from the Israelis that Hezbollah is using civilian areas to launch missiles...but what many don't realize is that Hezbollah itself is fighting from southern Lebanon, and that it would be a fair assessment to charge Israel that they too are using Haifa and Jerusalem and other areas as their air base fueling depot to launch their F-16. We all know now that Israel declared southern Lebanon as free zone for deliberate air attacks, and for Israel to accuse Hezbollah to be in southern Lebanon is an excuse to level the entire southern Lebanon to the ground.

[bemildred]

8. I'm not disagreeing with you.

I'm pointing out that the OP is making a different argument. I suppose you could say they ought to make the argument you want to make, but they aren't, so there is not much I can do about it, other than to say you are certainly allowed to think that they are making the wrong argument.

[pelsar]

9. i admit to be being speachless...

"that they too are using Haifa and Jerusalem and other areas as their air base fueling depot to launch their F-16."


...is this somekind of weird way of saying the missles on haifa, nahariya, etc is because they are military staging areas?.....sheesh

everybody in first grade listen up: F-16s are "airplanes" airplanes require airports, runways to fly and land and airports for the mechanics to fix them. Its not hard to find such runways as they require large areas and in israel they dont exist within large cities.....

[azurnoir]

7. It seems this crap

is written for an American audience, who look around them and say "ya they could fight in wilderness areas' they must do it on purpose" simple fact Lebanon is far more densely populated then the US, Lebanon's population density is approximately 948 per sq mile vs the us 83 per sq mile* .

* source Wikipedia

[pelsar]

11. ever see some pictures of lebanon?

lots of open areas in the south....the placement and shooting of missles from within villages etc is a choice made by Hizballa....thats all it is

[azurnoir]

12. Yes but

not that open US missle instilations tend to be in o p e n areas like say North Dakota which is 70,000 sq miles of sq miles, it is one of the most flat featureless pieces of grassland anywhere and a population density of 9.3 persq/mi that's the kind of place I was talking(?) about. I would imagine that without the Negev Israel would be in about the same situation as Lebanon.

edited for spelling

[xchrom]

3. all modern wars are conducted against civilians.

that hasn't changed -- yet.

lots of high minded talk by those steering empiriums -- they are always desperate to control history.

but the fact remains -- wars are conducted against civilians.

and all countries embed their soldiers around civilian areas.

i would the proximity of military bases to civilian centers.

and in recent times -- the rather curious drive by military thinkers to want married couples.

[bemildred]

4. And the pre-modern wars were too. nt

[breakaleg]

6. This isn't surprising at all.

The problem is, it doesn't seem to matter what offenses Israel is found to be guilty of as they don't seem to care.

Human Rights groups can line up to accuse them of violation after violation, but they won't change their tactics.

[IntiRaymi]

10. Israel can act with impunity because USA allows it to.

And the USA allows it to because...it serves our interests.
Neocolonialism, you know, it is couched on situations like these, where an outpost is planted on someone else's land, which then becomes a bone of contention.
The whites in South Africa attempted to garner worldwide sympathy, but there was none. This after an extremely long worldwide public relations campaign to return that country back to its rightful owners.