All’s fair in Lebanon war? When it comes to removing Hezbollah, Israeli experts say yes
Allegations of ‘forcible displacement’ of Lebanese civilians and disproportionate strikes on Hezbollah leaders do not match up with reality on the ground, according to academics
The Israeli military’s stepped-up campaign against Hezbollah has unsurprisingly drawn criticism that aspects of the offensive could violate key provisions of international law.
Accusations against the Israel Defense Forces have included allegations regarding the displacement of civilians, with hundreds of thousands forced to flee an intense bombing campaign in several parts of Lebanon and ground operations in villages near the Israeli border.
There have also been charges regarding the proportionality of Israel’s strikes on residences, with some questioning whether the estimated collateral damage is outweighed by the military gain of any given action.
The campaign first appeared to ramp up on the afternoons of September 17 and 18, when pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members suddenly exploded, maiming thousands and reportedly killing some three dozen people, many of them Hezbollah members.
The blasts may have been the most legally fraught of Israel’s alleged actions, given the use of banned booby traps in a civilian setting with potential harm to innocent passersby.
However, Israel has not taken responsibility for the attack, and even its more conventional actions have drawn serious accusations.
Israel’s campaign against the terror group thus far has largely taken the form of a traditional military offensive, with air strikes targeting Hezbollah positions and weapons caches in south Lebanon and assassinating the Iran-backed terror group’s senior leadership.
The army has described its ground offensive, launched last week, as “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids,” even as it has sent four full divisions across the border, each comprised of thousands of troops.
On Sunday, United Nations’ refugee chief Filippo Grandi said airstrikes in Lebanon had violated international humanitarian law by hitting civilian infrastructure and killing civilians.
“Unfortunately, many instances of violations of international humanitarian law in the way the airstrikes are conducted that have destroyed or damaged civilian infrastructure, have killed civilians, have impacted humanitarian operations,” he told media while visiting Beirut.
According to Lebanon, over 1,400 people have been killed in the Israeli offensive, though the country does not say how many of them were Hezbollah combatants.
Israel says it targets military capabilities and takes steps to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians, putting blame on Hezbollah for hiding both personnel and weapons among civilians, including putting missile launchers in peoples’ homes.
Experts in Israel say given the IDF’s reasoning, the army’s actions against Hezbollah are justifiable and properly conducted, despite the civilian toll.
Critics of the country’s actions are weaponizing international law by distorting the IDF’s actions and ignoring key provisions of such codes and rules, said Tammy Caner, director of the Law and National Security Program at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).
“Those who accuse Israel of violating international law and committing war crimes either don’t understand how the laws of war work, don’t care, or use the laws of war to make false accusations against Israel,” she said.
Displacement effect
Over 1.2 million Lebanese, around a fifth of the country’s population, have been displaced since the start of Israel’s offensive last month, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Most fleeing civilians have come from southern Lebanon, the Beqaa Valley in the east of the country, and the Dahiya suburb south of Beirut, all of them Hezbollah strongholds targeted by Israeli air raids.
Ahead of the Israel Air Force’s aerial campaign to destroy Hezbollah rockets, missiles, munitions and military installations, numerous warnings in Arabic were issued to civilians in areas set to be hit, including by phone call, text message, and by hacking into radio broadcasts and instructing people who know they are located close to Hezbollah assets to leave quickly.
The army has continued to issue warnings, including via social media, before it bombards heavily populated areas or launches raids in villages, telegraphing its punches but giving civilians who can leave a chance to get out of harm’s way.
The mass exodus, accompanied by scenes of highways jammed with packed cars trying to escape north and of families living on Beirut’s streets, has led to accusations that Israel is “depopulating” parts of Lebanon, particularly the south, and “forcibly displacing” its civilians.
Academics in the field of international law have accused Israel of “mass expulsions” and forced displacement. US Congresswoman Ayanna Presley, a hard-left member of the Democratic Party, has warned that Israel’s “forced displacement” in Gaza “must not be repeated in Lebanon.”
Tal Mimran, a lecturer in international law at Zefat Academic College in Safed and the director of a digital human rights program at the Tachlit think tank, rejected those allegations outright.
Mimran noted that displacement only covers those who have been forced out with no home to return to.
While some residences have been bombed, there has not been any massive, wholesale destruction of civilian homes and infrastructure in the regions targeted by Israel, so the notion that Israel is forcibly displacing or “depopulating” those areas is not tenable, he argued.
Displacement is not very well defined in international law, although customary international law, a body of law arising from “general practice accepted as law” and norms of international law but not formalized in treaties, restricts forcible displacement.
A compilation of customary international law rules produced by the International Committee of the Red Crescent (ICRC), states that parties to a conflict “may not order the displacement of the civilian population,” but does allow exceptions “if the security of the civilians involved or imperative military reasons so demand.”
According to Mimran, the fact that hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah are ongoing means IDF evacuation orders fall under those exceptions.
“Right now, there is a military justification to protect the population,” he said.
You’ve been warned
On the flip side, some have alleged that Israel’s warnings are not “effective,” including claims that the time between the warnings and the attacks is too short.
Article 57 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Convention stipulates that “effective advance warning shall be given of attacks which may affect the civilian population,” adding, however, “unless circumstances do not permit.”
Israel is not a signatory to Additional Protocol I, although the ICRC lists the exact same provision in its rules of customary international law.
I told you yesterday to evacuate homes in which there is a missile in the living room and a rocket in the garage. Whoever has a missile in the living room and a rocket in the garage will no longer have a home.
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) September 24, 2024
Caner pointed out that the terms of those provisions mean that the warnings have to be practically implementable — that is, those receiving the warnings must be able to understand them and leave before an attack.
On September 23, the first day of Israel’s intensified air campaign, there were some three hours between its first warnings issued via social media and when it announced that it had begun carrying out attacks in southern Lebanon, though it’s possible warnings were issued by other means earlier.
In the messages, the IDF warned residents of unspecified Lebanese villages to stay away from any buildings housing Hezbollah weapons or infrastructure.
“A warning has to be timely and effective, but that doesn’t mean it has to be 24 hours before an attack, general notification on shorter notice may suffice depending on the circumstances,” said Caner.
She added that since the latest escalation began, Israel has issued several evacuation warnings to Lebanese citizens living in southern and eastern Lebanon, and even in Beirut, who were located near Hezbollah facilities.
Both Additional Protocol I and the ICRC’s compilation of customary international law rules include provisions stating that warring parties should, as far as is possible, “endeavor to remove the civilian population… from the vicinity of military objectives.”
The warnings Israel has issued, which explicitly state concern for the safety of civilians living in proximity to Hezbollah military assets, are ostensibly designed to comport with those requirements.
Ends versus means
According to Caner, there is no obligation for Israel to issue warnings before carrying out strikes on Hezbollah commanders and the terror group’s leadership, as doing so would undermine the military objective of the attack by enabling them to escape.
Israel, however, is still obliged to comply with the principle of proportionality, which stipulates that the expected harm to civilians from an attack cannot be excessive in relation to the expected military advantage to be gained from it.
“Lebanese civilians do not lose their protection under international law just because they live in the same cities or buildings as Hezbollah members or fighters,” Saïd Benarbia of the International Committee of Jurists said in a statement on September 24. “The disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks against Lebanese civilians and civilian objects are war crimes and must be investigated as such, with a view to ensuring accountability.”
International law does not stipulate that an attack cause no civilian casualties, but rather that precautions be taken to avoid civilian casualties, warnings be given when possible, and that the expected level of collateral damage to civilians not be disproportionate to the expected military gain.
According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, 11 people were killed and 108 injured in the airstrikes that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah near Beirut on September 27. Israel said at least 20 senior commanders were killed alongside Nasrallah, including Ali Karaki, the commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front.
Six residential buildings were destroyed in the strike, which used 2,000-pound bunker-buster bombs fired from a fleet of eight F-15I fighter jets, though the relatively low casualty count indicates they may have been evacuated beforehand.
While the use of bunker-buster bombs in the attack was expected to cause significant collateral damage, Caner stated that targeting Hezbollah’s headquarters, eliminating Nasrallah and other commanders, and disrupting the group’s command and control capabilities could have been expected to significantly weaken Hezbollah and help turn the tide against Iran and its proxies in the region, providing a significant military advantage, and therefore be considered proportionate.
“The ‘military advantage’ of the attack is evident in this case,” said Caner.
“Targeting Hezbollah’s headquarters and eliminating Nasrallah and other commanders, depriving the group of its leader, and damaging its command and control capabilities could have been expected to weaken Hezbollah significantly.”
Boots on the ground
Israel, under heavy international pressure to limit its ground offensive, has taken pains to emphasize that its air and ground campaigns are not aimed at the Lebanese state but rather Hezbollah, and seeks only to push the terror group away from the Israeli border, where it has harassed Galilee towns with rockets, drones and anti-tank missiles for a year in solidarity with Hamas.
“Such actions, individually and aggregately, all amount to an armed attack against Israel, which entitle it to invoke the right of self-defense under article 51 of the United Nations Charter,” said Mimran.
The attacks have killed and wounded scores of soldiers and civilians alike, and prompted Israel to evacuate some 60,000 residents of towns closest to the border.
According to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Hezbollah’s Radwan commando force had been readying to stage a major attack on Israeli communities, making the offensive an urgent imperative if residents were to feel safe enough to return home.
“We are eliminating the Hezbollah terrorist organization in southern Lebanon and dismantling its Radwan forces along the entire border,” he said on October 1, the day the ground incursion began. “What we will do here is part of what it means to ensure the safe return of Israel’s citizens to their homes in the north. We are changing the security situation.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
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