Beirut wants to file a complaint with the UN

Despite the Jewish State’s denials, its use in raids against Hezbollah, especially against civilian targets and farmlands, has been documented by human rights associations and observers on the ground. The country of cedars is willing to file a complaint with the United Nations. Amnesty International speaks of “atrocious” attacks that cause serious damage to the environment.

Beirut () – The International Criminal Court (ICC) has already ruled that a whole series of actions committed by the Israeli army in the context of the conflict in Gaza against Hamas can be classified as war crimes. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, along with numerous other reliable sources and groups on the ground, whether individuals or associations, who have followed the clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli army on Lebanon’s southern border – and which have so far left 375 dead and more than 1,500 injured – have registered hostilities that are considered, at least potentially, war crimes. These include numerous accounts of bombing of civilian, agricultural and forestry areas with white phosphorus ammunition.

These bombings began a few days after the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, on October 7, and the subsequent war in support of Hamas by Hezbollah from the southern border, on the following day, October 8. Unfortunately, hostilities began in the middle of the fruit and olive harvest season, depriving dozens of farmers of their primary resources and making some predominantly agricultural areas and regions inaccessible. This region, with fertile soils and ideal growing conditions, produces up to 22% of the country’s fruits and citrus fruits, and 38% of its olives, according to data from the Lebanese Ministry of Economy. It is therefore possible to imagine the losses for the economy and national production.

Reduced agricultural production, infertile soils, increased risk of erosion, threats to living organisms. These are just some of the main effects of using white phosphorus, which are numerous and long-lasting, according to experts. Once the substance has reached rivers and aquifers, it can affect people who drink the water. Furthermore, if water resources used for irrigation are contaminated, local crops and livestock are immediately exposed to the toxicity of this chemical.

Its spread can endanger the security of the local food cycle. At the same time, soil decontamination is possible, but it is an arduous process with an uncertain outcome.

Affected populations

According to Amnesty International, the use of this type of missiles and devices against civilian targets marked the first phase of the war, between October 10 and 16. This was followed by the bombing of the village of Dhayra on the night of October 16-17, well documented by the activist organization and the local press. It was an indiscriminate attack that injured at least nine people and damaged civilian property. Dhayra is a Sunni village located about a hundred meters from the border. It was split in two in 1948, when the State of Israel was created: some local residents still have relatives in the village on the Israeli side, now renamed Arab Al-Aramshe.

The residents of Dhayra called the night of October 16-17 the “black night”, with the complete evacuation of the entire area, which had previously been hit hard by white phosphorus bombs dropped by the Israeli army, without taking into account account to the local population. According to the mayor of the Lebanese town, Abdallah Gharib, the attacks began around four in the afternoon on October 16 and continued well into the night.

«A nauseating smell and a huge cloud covered the city, so much so that we could not see further than five or six meters in front of us. People began to run away from their houses in a frenzy,” said the first citizen. “When some returned two days later, their houses were still burning. Even today, we continue to find remains, even the size of a fist,” explained Mayor Gharib a few weeks after the bombing, “which flare up again when exposed to air,” illustrating a persistently critical situation.

Dr Haitham Nisr, an emergency doctor at the Lebanese-Italian hospital in the Tire region, told Amnesty International that on 16 and 17 October medical teams treated nine people from the towns of Dhaïra, Yarine and Marwahin. Residents in the area who required medical attention were suffering from breathing difficulties and persistent coughs caused, in his opinion, by inhalation of white phosphorus fumes left by explosive devices that exploded on the ground. An accusation shared and reiterated by Aya Majzoub, deputy regional director of Amnesty International for the Middle East and North Africa, according to which “it is appalling that the Israeli army has used white phosphorus indiscriminately, violating international humanitarian law.”

Difficult to reach a conviction

Apart from the attack on civilians, the damage caused to vegetation and that inflicted on agricultural land is considered part of a “deliberate and systematic policy” of “scorched earth”, as the acting Minister of the Environment, Nasser Yassine, described it. For the Lebanese politician, Israel’s objective was to cause damage to the environment, which is why the country of cedars intends to present “a documented complaint” against these “acts of aggression, prohibited by international law.” However, although mechanisms and safeguards exist in international law, they are difficult to apply in practice and difficult to translate into concrete actions.

In this regard, researcher Charlotte Touzot-Fadel, from the University of Limoges, who has worked in the past with the United Nations in southern Lebanon after the 2006 war, emphasizes that “serious and lasting damage to the environment must be demonstrated.” atmosphere”. From this point of view, it applies the principle of “cumulative and irreversible” criteria, which are usually “complicated” to prove in legal terms. “The United Nations,” she continues, “approved resolutions against Israel in 2006 as a result of the oil spill, but there has been no concrete implementation.” The environmental and legal expert emphasizes that “even a symbolic condemnation would have been enough” although, Despite existing legal and regulatory provisions, environmental law “is only really applicable,” he concludes, “in times of peace.”

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