Amnesty International said Tuesday that the Israeli army's extensive destruction of civilian property in south Lebanon during its war with Hezbollah should be investigated as a war crime.
The November 27, 2024, truce largely ended more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah that culminated in two months of open war.
Under the ceasefire agreement, Israel was to withdraw all forces from southern Lebanon, with Hezbollah pulling back from north of the Litani River and dismantling its military structures.
“The Israeli military's extensive and deliberate destruction of civilian property and agricultural land across southern Lebanon must be investigated as war crimes,” Amnesty said in a statement, according to AFP.
Amnesty also said it sent Israeli authorities questions in late June about the destruction but had not received a response.
The group said its analysis covered from October 1 of last year – around the start of Israel's ground offensive – until late January of this year, and showed “more than 10,000 structures were heavily damaged or destroyed during that time.”
Israel was to fully withdraw its troops from Lebanon, but it has kept them in several border areas it deems strategic. Israel still occupies five positions in southern Lebanon. Authorities in Beirut demanded that Israeli forces fully withdraw from its territory in the south as agreed under the ceasefire agreement.
Amnesty said it documented how Israeli forces used manually laid explosives and bulldozers to devastate civilian structures, including homes, mosques, cemeteries, roads, parks and soccer pitches, across 24 municipalities.
“The Israeli military’s destruction of civilian homes, property and land in southern Lebanon rendered entire areas uninhabitable and ruined countless lives,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns.
Also, Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab used a wealth of visual evidence – including 77 verified videos and photographs, and satellite imagery – to investigate the damage and quantify the buildings heavily damaged or destroyed. But the organization mainly focused on the villages of Kfar Kala, Maroun el Ras, Odeisseh, Aita Ash-Shaab and Dhayra.
The evidence, it said, included videos showing Israeli soldiers manually laying explosives inside homes, ripping up roads and football pitches, and bulldozing parks and religious sites.
The Israeli military stated that some destruction of civilian structures was intended to prevent future attacks, and that some of the structures had previously been used by Hezbollah fighters, stored weapons, or stood above tunnels.
However, in Amnesty International’s view, extensive destruction of civilian property in order to prevent an opposing party from launching attacks in the future does not meet the imperative military necessity standard under international humanitarian law (IHL).
