GENEVA - The escalating armed conflict involving Israel and Lebanon risks swallowing up the whole region in a humanitarian and geopolitical catastrophe, UN experts* warned today.
"While Hezbollah has fired more missiles indiscriminately, forcing thousands of Israelis to leave their homes, Israel has escalated its indiscriminate and large-scale airstrikes across Lebanon. The ballooning violence adds immensely to the instability and the ongoing suffering of civilians in the wider region, including in Palestine," the experts said.
"We firmly condemn Israel's use of the same destructive violence that was applied in Gaza to its attacks on Lebanon, suggesting that attacks on civilians are justified because Hezbollah members allegedly hide among them and use civilians as human shields."
The experts noted that according to Lebanese authorities, more than 1,600 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli bombardments since October 2023, including two UN staff, medical workers and many women and children; and more than 8,000 have been wounded. More than 200,000 civilians have been displaced, and tens of thousands of families are deprived of guaranteed minimum services such as clean water and sanitation.
They also expressed concern about the harm caused by rockets and missiles launched by Hezbollah into Israel since October 2023, reportedly causing death and injury to dozens of people in northern Israel and the displacement of thousands of civilians.
The experts said airstrikes now being carried out by Israel in densely populated areas in Lebanon, where residential buildings are being levelled to the ground and people are given unrealistically short evacuation orders before homes are bombed, fail the tests of distinction, proportionality, precaution and necessity under international humanitarian law and may constitute domicide for mass destruction of homes.
"The escalation and expansion of attacks against civilians, which we now see in Lebanon, comes on top of a genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza, which we have condemned for months," they said.
"After this month's deadly explosion of electronic devices across Lebanon that killed dozens, and blinded and injured thousands, it is particularly disturbing to note that some observers have responded to the use of booby-trapped electronic devices by commending Israel for the 'creativity' and 'astuteness' of such devious actions, ignoring their criminal nature."
The experts said that double standards in condemning terror while according impunity undermine the foundations of the democratic international order, which teeters on a knife's edge.
"We should step back from the brink. The fundamental regional factors that feed the escalation of violence, including the supply of arms, technical assistance, and training to non-state actors, extrajudicial killings and continuing illegal occupation of Palestine, must be central to the sustainable search for peaceful solutions," the experts said. "Turning a blind eye to the deteriorating catastrophe in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, will not help in finding a solution to the deteriorating situation in Lebanon."
"We urgently call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and swift intervention by the UN Security Council to fully discharge its role and prevent further escalation of violence and arbitrary displacement, ensure protection of civilians on all sides, investigate the crimes committed and further strengthen the UN's protective presence in the region."
