Amnesty accuses Hezbollah of war crimes against Israelis

LONDON: The militant Shiite group Hezbollah committed war crimes in its deliberate targeting of civilians in the recent conflict with Israel, Amnesty International said in a report on Thursday.   

The London-based human rights group said the guerillas fired nearly 4,000 rockets into northern Israel, killing 43 civilians, seriously injuring 33 others and forcing hundreds of thousands to take refuge or flee.   

About a quarter of all rockets -- some packed with thousands of metal ball bearings -- were fired directly into urban areas, it added in a nine-page document called "Under fire -- Hezbollah's attacks on northern Israel".   

It was only because Israeli civilians fled their homes or took shelter in bunkers that a higher death toll was prevented, it said.   

"The scale of Hezbollah's attacks on Israeli cities, towns and villages, the indiscriminate nature of the weapons used and statements from the leadership confirming their intent to target civilians make it all too clear that Hezbollah violated the laws of war," said Amnesty's secretary-general Irene Khan.   

"The fact that Israel has also committed serious violations in no way justifies violations by Hezbollah. Civilians must not be made to pay the price for unlawful conduct on either side."   

Amnesty's claims come less than a month after it called for both sides to be investigated for "grave violations" of human rights law, accusing Israel of "indiscriminate and disproportionate" attacks on civilian infrastructure and war crimes.   

Any inquiry should be conducted by the United Nations and look in particular at the impact of the hostilities on civilians on both sides with a view to bringing those responsible to account and compensating victims.   

During the month-long conflict, Amnesty said Hezbollah's firing of 900 "inherently inaccurate" Katyusha rockets into urban areas flouted the principle in international law of distinguishing between civilian and military targets.   

The modified missiles with ball bearings were "designed to inflict maximum death and injury", it said, adding that one of them killed eight railway workers.   

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, plus other senior figures, also repeatedly stated their aim of targeting civilians as a form of reprisal for the Israeli military bombardment, Amnesty said.   

The militia's rockets damaged houses, apartment blocks, schools, kindergartens, synagogues, public buildings, factories and shops in towns and villages across northern Israel, they added.   

Amnesty said the document was based on its own research in Israel and Lebanon, interviews with victims, official statements, plus discussions with government officials in Israel and Lebanon and senior Hezbollah figures.   

It did not address Israeli claims that Hezbollah used the civilian population as cover for its military activities and was therefore responsible for civilian deaths. Hezbollah has denied the claims.   

That issue would be addressed in a future report, Amnesty said.   

The 34-day conflict, sparked by the kidnap of two Israeli soldiers in a Hezbollah cross-border raid on July 12, left nearly 1,300 Lebanese dead, the majority of them civilians, as well as 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers. It ended with a UN-brokered ceasefire on August 14.