During the 2006 Lebanon War, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and United Nations officials accused both Hezbollah and Israel of violating international humanitarian law.[1] These have included allegations of intentional attacks on civilian populations or infrastructure, disproportionate or indiscriminate attacks, the use of human shields, and the use of prohibited weapons.
Under international humanitarian law, warring parties are obliged to distinguish between combatants and civilians, ensure that attacks on legitimate military targets are proportional, and guarantee that the military advantage of such attacks outweigh the possible harm done to civilians.[2] Violations of these laws are considered war crimes.
According to various media reports, between 1,000 and 1,200 Lebanese citizens were reported dead; there were between 1,500 and 2,500 people wounded and over 1,000,000 were temporarily displaced. Over 150 Israelis were killed; around 700 wounded; and 300,000–500,000 were displaced.[3][4][5]
Hezbollah was accused by Israel of deliberately targeting cities and civilian centers in Israel with deadly fire, with its rocket batteries concentrating attacks on Israeli cities along the border, most of which had no direct affiliation with any military activity. In return, Hezbollah claimed its rockets may have hit Israeli civilians areas largely due to weapon inaccuracy, while mostly aiming to hit military and strategic industrial zones. Israel said that it tried to avoid civilians, and had distributed leaflets calling on civilian residents to evacuate,[6] but that Hezbollah stored weapons in and fired from civilian areas and transferred weapons using ambulances, making those areas legitimate targets,[7] and used civilians as human shields.[8][9][10][11][12]