Thirteen Lebanese citizens were killed on Thursday morning after Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes on several areas across the country, in a new escalation that deepens civilian suffering and raises serious international human rights concerns.
A Lebanese security source reported that four members of the same family were killed in the town of Kfartebnit in southern Lebanon. Three paramedics were also killed, along with two people in the town of Mefour, while another two individuals died in a drone strike in Zahle.
An additional airstrike on a residential apartment in the Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli killed two people and wounded a woman, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. The strikes also targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs and several areas in the city of Nabatieh.
The continued aggression against Lebanon has raised grave human rights concerns, as the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure constitutes a clear violation of the principles of international humanitarian law, particularly the rules requiring distinction between military and civilian targets.
Targeting civilians, including paramedics and residential apartments, is also prohibited in armed conflicts under the Geneva Conventions and customary international law.
This ongoing aggression further represents a blatant threat to the right to life, a fundamental right enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, exposing those responsible to potential international accountability.
International law requires all possible precautions to be taken to avoid harm to civilians. However, such precautions appear to have been absent in the recent strikes, placing urgent responsibility on the international community to pressure Israel to comply with international law and ensure the protection of civilians. The continued impunity for such violations risks entrenching a culture of violence and threatens the stability of the entire region.
This escalation comes at a time when Lebanon is already facing a complex humanitarian crisis, further compounding civilian suffering and forcing entire families to flee their homes in a clear violation of human rights and the right of refugees to protection and safety.
