Amnesty urges war crimes probe into Israeli destruction in Lebanon

Amnesty International says the Israeli army’s extensive destruction of civilian property in south Lebanon, including after a ceasefire with Hezbollah was struck, should be investigated as a war crime.

“The Israeli military’s extensive and deliberate destruction of civilian property and agricultural land across southern Lebanon must be investigated as war crimes,” Amnesty says in a statement.

The rights group’s Erika Guevara Rosas says in the statement that the destruction had “rendered entire areas uninhabitable and ruined countless lives.”

Israel has said its military action targeted Hezbollah sites and operatives, and it continues to strike Lebanon over what it says are Hezbollah violations of the November 2024 ceasefire. The Lebanese terror group began launching rockets at Israel shortly after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.

Amnesty says it sent Israeli authorities questions in late June about the destruction but had not received a response.

The group says its analysis covered from October 1 of last year until late January of this year, and showed “more than 10,000 structures were heavily damaged or destroyed during that time.”

It notes that “much of the destruction took place after November 27”, when the truce took effect.

“Israeli forces used manually laid explosives and bulldozers to devastate civilian structures, including homes, mosques, cemeteries, roads, parks and soccer pitches, across 24 municipalities,” it says.

The rights group says it used verified videos, photographs and satellite imagery to investigate the destruction.

“In some videos, soldiers filmed themselves celebrating the destruction by singing and cheering,” it says.

It adds that much of the destruction was done “in apparent absence of imperative military necessity and in violation” of international humanitarian law.

Amnesty notes that “the previous use of a civilian building by a party to the conflict does not automatically render it a military objective”.

In March, the World Bank put the war’s total economic cost on Lebanon at $14 billion, including $6.8 billion in damage to physical structures.

Authorities in cash-strapped Lebanon have yet to launch reconstruction efforts and are hoping for international support, particularly from Gulf countries.