Nasrallah Warns Israeli Army Against Targeting Civilians in Lebanon

Participants carry a portrait of Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah in Beirut on July 17, 2024.  (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)
Participants carry a portrait of Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah in Beirut on July 17, 2024. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)
TT

Nasrallah Warns Israeli Army Against Targeting Civilians in Lebanon

Participants carry a portrait of Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah in Beirut on July 17, 2024.  (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)
Participants carry a portrait of Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah in Beirut on July 17, 2024. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned on Wednesday the Israeli military against targeting civilians in Lebanon, saying the group will target new Israeli towns and villages otherwise.

“If your tanks came to Lebanon and southern Lebanon ... you won't have any left,” he said in a televised address to commemorate Ashoura.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Tuesday two separate Israeli airstrikes in south Lebanon killed five Syrian citizens, including three children.

NNA said the first drone strike killed two Syrian citizens who were riding a motorcycle near the southern village of Kfar Tibnit.

It added that the three children were killed later in the day in an airstrike on an agricultural land in the village of Im al-Tout near the border.

On Monday, an Israeli airstrike on a home in the southern town of Bint Jbeil killed a Hezbollah member and his two sisters.

Since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza started on Oct. 7, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have killed over 450 people, mostly Hezbollah members but also include about 90 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 21 soldiers and 13 civilians have been killed.



HRW Says Hamas Committed War Crimes on Oct. 7

FILE - Israeli soldiers walk past houses destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be'eri, Israel, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)
FILE - Israeli soldiers walk past houses destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be'eri, Israel, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)
TT

HRW Says Hamas Committed War Crimes on Oct. 7

FILE - Israeli soldiers walk past houses destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be'eri, Israel, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)
FILE - Israeli soldiers walk past houses destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be'eri, Israel, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)

Human Rights Watch said Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, and at least four other Palestinian armed groups "committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity against civilians during the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel.”

According to its findings, these included "deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian objects; willful killing of persons in custody; cruel and other inhumane treatment; sexual and gender-based violence; hostage taking; mutilation and despoiling of bodies; use of human shields; and pillage and looting.”

In response, Hamas rejected "the lies and blatant bias" towards Israel and demanded Human Rights Watch withdraw its report and apologize.

"The Human Rights Watch report adopted the entire Israeli narrative and moved away from the method of scientific research and the neutral legal position, and became more like an Israeli propaganda document," Hamas said in a statement.

The 230-page HRW report focuses only on the Oct. 7 attacks and does not examine the actions taken by Hamas or Israel during the subsequent war in Gaza. More than 38,400 people have been killed in Israeli ground offensives and bombardments in Gaza since the war began, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.