A report compiled by an Israeli think tank shows that
Hizbullah's entire approach to warfare is a war crime
according to internationally accepted rules of law, and in
execution, consisting almost entirely of attacks against
Israeli civilian targets, is also a crime.
The report provides extensive documentation for what it
calls, "two central concepts of Hizbullah's warfare,
demonstrated during the second Lebanon war (July-August
2006). The first is the broad use of the Lebanese civilian
population as a living shield; the second, viewing the
Israeli civilian population as the primary target for the
enormous rocket arsenal Hizbullah built up over a period of
years. Both acts are considered war crimes under
international law. . . . The IDF was forced to deal with a
terrorist organization, generously supported by two terrorism-
sponsoring states (Iran and Syria), which constructed a broad
military infrastructure within populated areas in south
Lebanon. The organization systematically used local
inhabitants as human shields, cynically endangering their
lives and well being."
Hizbullah was well aware of the danger in which it placed the
civilian population, and the civilians were apparently aware
of it as well. It cynically exploited the hesitance of the
Israeli armed forces to harm noncombatants to give itself
military advantages.
Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah was well aware that
Hizbullah fighters of south Lebanon were residents of the
region, and in a speech given after the war, he boasted that
therefore Hizbullah could not be removed from the area as
demanded by the international community: "Explain to me how
Hizbullah should retreat from the region south of the
[Litani] River. This would mean [the retreat of] the people
of Aita [al-Shaab] who fought in Aita [al-Shaab]; the people
of Bint Jbeil who fought in Bint Jbeil; . . . [the people of]
all the villages who fought, and I don't want to name those
villages right now . . . All the youngsters who fought on
the front lines, as well as in the rear, south of the
[Litani] River, are from those very villages and not from
anywhere else . . . The Hizbullah are the people of the
region. There's no logic to saying that Hizbullah will
retreat from the region south of the Litani" (NTV Television,
August 27).
Lebanon and international human rights groups have accused
Israel of war crimes in the fighting in July and August,
saying that Israel fired into populated areas and that
civilians accounted for a vast majority of the more than
1,000 Lebanese killed.
Israel says that it tried to avoid civilians, and it
questions the figures as well. Lebanon says that about 1,000
were killed, but it does not distinguish between Hizbullah
fighters and noncombatant civilians in this number. Israel
claims that it knows the names of at least 450 of the dead
and can positively identify them as Hizbullah fighters, and
is reasonably certain that at least 200 more were fighters.
Thus the majority of those killed, and perhaps an
overwhelming majority were fighters.
The new report shows that Hizbullah stored weapons in
mosques, battled from inside empty schools, flew white flags
while transporting missiles and launched rockets near United
Nations monitoring posts.
The report was produced by the Intelligence and Terrorism
Information Center at the Center for Special Studies, a
private research group headed by Reuven Ehrlich, a retired
colonel in military intelligence, who worked closely with the
Israeli military.
The report includes Israeli Air Force video that shows
several instances of Hizbullah personnel firing rockets next
to residential buildings in southern Lebanon and then being
bombed by Israel.
The report says: "The construction of a broad military
infrastructure, positioned and hidden in populated areas, was
intended to minimize Hizbullah's vulnerability. Hizbullah
would also gain a propaganda advantage if it could represent
Israel as attacking innocent civilians."
In a video from July 23, a truck with a multi-barreled
missile launcher is parked in a street, right between
residential buildings. The video was transmitted from an
Israeli missile approaching the truck. The screen goes fuzzy
as the missile slams into the target.
In another video rockets are seen fired from a launcher on
the back of a truck. The truck then drives a short distance
and disappears inside a building. Seconds later, the building
itself disappears under a cloud of smoke from an Israeli
bomb.
The New York Times asked Elias Hanna, a retired
Lebanese Army general, if Hizbullah should be seen as
responsible for the deaths of Lebanese civilians in the war.
He replied: "Of course Hizbullah is responsible. But these
people are ready to sacrifice their lives for Hizbullah. If
you tell them, `Your relative died,' they will tell you `No,
he was a martyr.' The party's military preparations from 2000
till 2006 took place in their areas. They were of course done
with complete secrecy, but in accordance with the
civilians."
During the war, Israel dropped leaflets urging villagers to
leave southern Lebanon and also to evacuate from Hizbullah
strongholds in southern Beirut. Many did flee, but some
remained.
Hizbullah fired some 4,000 rockets into northern Israel, and
most Israeli civilians either fled the region or took refuge
in bomb shelters.
More than 1,000 Lebanese were killed, according to the
Lebanese government. There is no breakdown into Hizbullah and
non-Hizbullah deaths.
Israel suffered 159 deaths, including 41 civilians and 118
military personnel, according to the report.
