HRW SUMMERY: Lib; you're toast here now. .

[Jay_Esbe]

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/lebanon0806/2.htm#_Toc142299220

Summary

This report documents serious violations of international humanitarian law (the laws of war) by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Lebanon between July 12 and July 27, 2006, as well as the July 30 attack in Qana. During this period, the IDF killed an estimated 400 people, the vast majority of them civilians, and that number climbed to over 500 by the time this report went to print. The Israeli government claims it is taking all possible measures to minimize civilian harm, but the cases documented here reveal a systematic failure by the IDF to distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Since the start of the conflict, Israeli forces have consistently launched artillery and air attacks with limited or dubious military gain but excessive civilian cost. In dozens of attacks, Israeli forces struck an area with no apparent military target. In some cases, the timing and intensity of the attack, the absence of a military target, as well as return strikes on rescuers, suggest that Israeli forces deliberately targeted civilians.

The Israeli government claims that it targets only Hezbollah, and that fighters from the group are using civilians as human shields, thereby placing them at risk. Human Rights Watch found no cases in which Hezbollah deliberately used civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory IDF attack. Hezbollah occasionally did store weapons in or near civilian homes and fighters placed rocket launchers within populated areas or near U.N. observers, which are serious violations of the laws of war because they violate the duty to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties. However, those cases do not justify the IDF’s extensive use of indiscriminate force which has cost so many civilian lives. In none of the cases of civilian deaths documented in this report is there evidence to suggest that Hezbollah forces or weapons were in or near the area that the IDF targeted during or just prior to the attack.

By consistently failing to distinguish between combatants and civilians, Israel has violated one of the most fundamental tenets of the laws of war: the duty to carry out attacks on only military targets. The pattern of attacks during the Israeli offensive in Lebanon suggests that the failures cannot be explained or dismissed as mere accidents; the extent of the pattern and the seriousness of the consequences indicate the commission of war crimes.

This report is based on extensive on-the-ground research in Lebanon. Since the start of hostilities, Human Rights Watch has interviewed victims and witnesses of attacks in one-on-one settings, conducted on-site inspections (when security allowed), and collected information from hospitals, humanitarian groups, and government agencies. Human Rights Watch also conducted research in Israel, inspecting the IDF’s use of weapons and discussing the conduct of forces with IDF officials. The research was extensive, but given the ongoing war and the scope of the bombings, Human Rights Watch does not claim that the findings are comprehensive; further investigation is required to document the war’s complete impact on civilians and to assess the full scope of the IDF’s compliance with and disregard for international humanitarian law.

While not the focus of this report, Human Rights Watch has separately and simultaneously documented violations of international humanitarian law by Hezbollah, including a pattern of attacks that amount to war crimes. Between July 12, when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight, and July 27, the group launched a reported 1,300 rockets into predominantly civilian areas in Israel, killing 18 civilians and wounding more than 300. Without guidance systems for accurate targeting, the rockets are inherently indiscriminate when directed toward civilian areas, especially cities, and thus are serious violations of the requirement of international humanitarian law that attackers distinguish at all times between combatants and civilians. Some of these rockets, Human Rights Watch found, are packed with thousands of metal ball-bearings, which spray more than 100 meters from the blast and compound the harm to civilians.

This report analyzes a selection of Israeli air and artillery attacks that together claimed at least 153 civilian lives, or over a third of the reported Lebanese deaths in the conflict’s first two weeks. Of the 153 civilian deaths documented in this report by name, sixty-three of the victims were children under the age of eighteen, and thirty-seven of them were under ten. Israeli air strikes also killed many dual nationals who were vacationing in Lebanon when the fighting began, including Brazilian, Canadian, German, Kuwaiti, and U.S. citizens. The full death toll is certainly higher because medical and recovery teams have been unable to retrieve many bodies due to ongoing fighting and the dire security situation in south Lebanon.

The report breaks civilian deaths into two categories: attacks on civilian homes and attacks on civilian vehicles. In both categories, victims and witnesses interviewed independently and repeatedly said that neither Hezbollah fighters nor Hezbollah weapons were present in the area during or just before the Israeli attack took place. While some individuals, out of fear or sympathy, may have been unwilling to speak about Hezbollah’s military activity, others were quite open about it. In totality, the consistency, detail, and credibility of testimony from a broad array of witnesses who did not speak to each other leave no doubt about the validity of the patterns described in this report. In many cases, witness testimony was corroborated by reports from international journalists and aid workers. During site visits conducted in Qana, Srifa, and Tyre, Human Rights Watch saw no evidence that there had been Hezbollah military activity around the areas targeted by the IDF during or just prior to the attack: no spent ammunition, abandoned weapons or military equipment, trenches, or dead or wounded fighters. Moreover, even if Hezbollah had been in a populated area at the time of an attack, Israel would still be legally obliged to take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimize civilian casualties resulting from its targeting of military objects or personnel. In the cases documented in this report, however, the IDF consistently tolerated a high level of civilian casualties for questionable military gain.

In one case, an Israeli air strike on July 13 destroyed the home of a cleric known to have sympathy for Hezbollah but who was not known to have taken any active part in hostilities. Even if the IDF considered him a legitimate target (and Human Rights Watch has no evidence that he was), the strike killed him, his wife, their ten children, and the family’s Sri Lankan maid.

continues below...

[Jay_Esbe]

continued:

On July 16, an Israeli airplane fired on a civilian home in the village of Aitaroun, killing eleven members of the al-Akhrass family, among them seven Canadian-Lebanese dual nationals who were vacationing in the village when the war began. Human Rights Watch independently interviewed three villagers who vigorously denied that the family had any connection to Hezbollah. Among the victims were children aged one, three, five, and seven.

Others civilians came under attack in their cars as they attempted to flee the fighting in the South. This report alone documents twenty-seven civilian deaths that resulted from such attacks. The number is surely higher, but at the time the report went to press, ongoing Israeli attacks on the roads made it impossible to retrieve all the bodies.

Starting around July 15, the IDF issued warnings to residents of southern villages to leave, followed by a general warning for all civilians south of the Litani River, which mostly runs about 25 kilometers north of the Israel-Lebanon border, to evacuate immediately. Tens of thousands of Lebanese fled their homes to the city of Tyre (itself south of the Litani and thus within the zone Israel ordered evacuated) or further north to Beirut, many waving white flags. As they left, Israeli forces fired on dozens of vehicles with warplanes and artillery.

Two Israeli air strikes are known to have hit humanitarian aid vehicles. On July 18 the IDF hit a convoy of the Red Crescent Society of the United Arab Emirates, destroying a vehicle with medicines, vegetable oil, sugar and rice, and killing the driver. On July 23, Israeli forces hit two clearly marked Red Cross ambulances in the village of Qana.

As of August 1, tens of thousands of civilians remained in villages south of the Litani River, despite the warnings to leave. Some chose to stay, but the vast majority, Human Rights Watch found, was unable to flee due to destroyed roads, a lack of gasoline, high taxi fares, sick relatives, or ongoing Israeli attacks. Many of the civilians who remained were elderly, sick, or poor.

Israel has justified its attacks on roads by citing the need to clear the transport routes of Hezbollah fighters moving arms. Again, none of the evidence gathered by Human Rights Watch, independent media sources, or Israeli official statements indicate that any of the attacks on vehicles documented in this report resulted in Hezbollah casualties or the destruction of weapons. Rather, the attacks killed and wounded civilians who were fleeing their homes, as the IDF had advised them to do.

In addition to strikes from airplanes, helicopters, and traditional artillery, Israel has used artillery-fired cluster munitions against populated areas, causing civilian casualties. One such attack on the village of Blida on July 19 killed a sixty-year-old woman and wounded at least twelve civilians, including seven children. The wide dispersal pattern of cluster munitions and the high dud rate (ranging from 2 to 14 percent, depending on the type of cluster munition) make the weapons exceedingly dangerous for civilians and, when used in populated areas, a violation of international humanitarian law.

Statements from Israeli government officials and military leaders suggest that, at the very least, the IDF has blurred the distinction between civilian and combatant, and is willing to strike at targets it considers even vaguely connected to the latter. At worst, it considers all people in the area of hostilities open to attack.

On July 17, for example, after IDF strikes on Beirut, the commander of the Israeli Air Force, Eliezer Shkedi, said, “in the center of Beirut there is an area which only terrorists enter into.”1 The next day, the IDF deputy chief of staff, Moshe Kaplinski, when talking about the IDF’s destruction of Beirut’s Dahia neighborhood, said, “the hits were devastating, and this area, which was a Hezbollah symbol, became deserted rubble.”2

On July 27, Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said that the Israeli air force should flatten villages before ground troops move in to prevent casualties among Israeli soldiers fighting Hezbollah. Israel had given civilians ample time to leave southern Lebanon, he claimed, and therefore anyone remaining should be considered a supporter of Hezbollah. “All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah,” he said.3

International humanitarian law requires effective advance warnings to the civilian population prior to an attack, when conditions permit. But those warnings do not way relieve Israel from its obligation at all times to distinguish between combatants and civilians and to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians from harm. In other words, issuing warnings in no way entitles the Israeli military to treat those civilians who remain in southern Lebanon as combatants who are fair game for attack.

In addition to recommendations to the Israeli government and Hezbollah that they respect international humanitarian law, Human Rights Watch calls on the U.S. government immediately to suspend transfer of all arms that have been documented or credibly alleged to have been used in violation of international humanitarian law in Lebanon, as well as funding or support for such materiel, pending an end to the violations. Human Rights Watch calls upon the Iranian and Syrian governments to do the same with regards to military assistance to Hezbollah.

This report does not address Israeli attacks on Lebanon’s infrastructure or Beirut’s southern suburbs, which is the subject of ongoing Human Rights Watch research. It also does not address Hezbollah’s indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel, which have been reported on and denounced separately and continues to be the subject of ongoing Human Rights Watch investigations. In addition, Human Rights Watch continues to investigate allegations that Hezbollah is shielding its military personnel and materiel by locating them in civilian homes or areas, and it is deeply concerned by Hezbollah’s placement of certain troops and materiel near civilians, which endangers them and violates the duty to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties. Human Rights Watch uses the occasion of this report to reiterate Hezbollah’s legal duty never to deliberately use civilians to shield military objects and never to needlessly endanger civilians by conducting military operations, maintaining troops, or storing weapons in their vicinity.

The armed conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is governed by international treaties, as well as the rules of customary international humanitarian law. Article 3 Common to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 sets forth minimum standards for all parties to a conflict between a state party such as Israel and a non-state party such as Hezbollah. Israel has also asserted that it considers itself to be responding to the actions of the sovereign state of Lebanon, not just to those of Hezbollah. Any hostilities between Israeli forces and the forces of Lebanon would fall within the full Geneva Conventions to which both Lebanon and Israel are parties. In either case, the rules governing bombing, shelling, and rocket attacks are effectively the same.

[Bertrand]

I disagree with you.

Lib is not toast.

Rather... burnt crumbs... in the toaster.

[Lib]

I read the "summery" and I read the methodology. Human Rights Watch, a good leftie organization generally doing good work has shot itself in the foot and injured its reputation this time. Observe:

1. There is a shooting war going on. The Fog of War has set in and won't clear until the war is over. Everyone knows this. How many times have early reports from a live battlefield proven to be untrue. Iraq anyone?

2. There is a shooting war going on. It is not possible to get a team of people in to comprehensively and scientifically assess anything such as whether military materiel were present at bombing sites.

3. The main "research" technique HRW is using is to interview "witnesses" and "victims." Now think about this for just a short second. Southern Lebanon is Shia. It is Hezbollah country. Hezbollah doesn't just rocket Israel it keeps the clinics and social services going in the south. It hands out the jobs and the apartments. No Shia in his right mind is going to rat out Hezbollah for its war crimes. Get real. Get objective.

Pity, I otherwise have a high regard for Human Rights watch.

However, in this case, Garbage in, Garbage Out.

[Jay_Esbe]

I read the "summery" and I read the methodology. Human Rights Watch, a good leftie organization generally doing good work has shot itself in the foot and injured its reputation this time. Observe:

1. There is a shooting war going on. The Fog of War has set in and won't clear until the war is over. Everyone knows this. How many times have early reports from a live battlefield proven to be untrue. Iraq anyone?

2. There is a shooting war going on. It is not possible to get a team of people in to comprehensively and scientifically assess anything such as whether military materiel were present at bombing sites.

3. The main "research" technique HRW is using is to interview "witnesses" and "victims." Now think about this for just a short second. Southern Lebanon is Shia. It is Hezbollah country. Hezbollah doesn't just rocket Israel it keeps the clinics and social services going in the south. It hands out the jobs and the apartments. No Shia in his right mind is going to rat out Hezbollah for its war crimes. Get real. Get objective.

Pity, I otherwise have a high regard for Human Rights watch.

However, in this case, Garbage in, Garbage Out.


"shot itself in the foot and injured its reputation this time"

So this, after being the first person in this debate to use Human Right's Watch to attempt to ***prove*** your assertions, and after REPEATEDLY citing them, this is what you finally come back with after a day. :lol:

Ya know, if I had prayed to God for you to do the STUPIDIST, most LAUGHABLE, most TRANSPARENTLY DISHONEST thing you could do in any response you might use as evidence for your claims in front of this entire forum to SHOW exactly what you and your "opinions" really are, God couldn't have done better in granting my prayer. But as it stood, I never bothered to pray for his help. I guess he hates your garbage enough himself to intervene without being asked.

THANKS GOD! ;)

As to YOU; Have a day.

[Gerry]

I read the "summery" and I read the methodology. Human Rights Watch, a good leftie organization generally doing good work has shot itself in the foot and injured its reputation this time. Observe:

Spoken like a true neocon, or a programmed Israeli. Human Rights Watch is an internationally well regarded organization. Something you cannot claim for yourself.

1. There is a shooting war going on. The Fog of War has set in and won't clear until the war is over. Everyone knows this. How many times have early reports from a live battlefield proven to be untrue. Iraq anyone?

This war will never be over until the International Community kicks Israel's collective arse out of illegally occupied territory within a one week time period, and if they don't bomb their tails....see how well they like it. Furthermore it shoudl force IT to recognize the Palestinians as having a right to their own country. It should then be required to pay restitutiont to Palestinians for the NEXT 50 years. Now that should work just fine. See how fast they could get their act together, these Israeli punks, who are right now terrorizing the whole world and their fellow Jews, who are beginnning to realize that Israel has become a albatros around their collective necks. Something they hardly need and will certainly backfire on them. NB Belgian Rabbi demands Israel be charged wuith war crimes and crimes against humanity. Inconvenient for you ain't it?

2. There is a shooting war going on. It is not possible to get a team of people in to comprehensively and scientifically assess anything such as whether military materiel were present at bombing sites.

No shit Sherlock....It's massacring masses of people. As for witnesses, that's what you think. There are plenty of people and witnesses there that have reported these violations. Pictures speak louder than words. Unless you;re trying to say that Hezbollah or Lebanon did all this damage to themselves??? Sicko.

3. The main "research" technique HRW is using is to interview "witnesses" and "victims." Now think about this for just a short second. Southern Lebanon is Shia. It is Hezbollah country. Hezbollah doesn't just rocket Israel it keeps the clinics and social services going in the south. It hands out the jobs and the apartments. No Shia in his right mind is going to rat out Hezbollah for its war crimes. Get real. Get objective.

You would take the Nazi's word for it they didn't bomb Rotterdam? It exploded spontaneously??

Pity, I otherwise have a high regard for Human Rights watch.

However, in this case, Garbage in, Garbage Out.

Inconvenient WHAT? Why should we even bother with your delusional diatribe?

[Lib]

Oh, and the other important shortcoming is that there has been no time, the war has been on only three weeks, for an adequate assessment of anything on this battlefield much less having the foundation to accuse anyone of a war crime.

All in all the report is worthless. Too bad for HRW, they've let their understandable concern for civilians on both sides cloud their good judgment.

[Bubba2]

You mentioned "war crime"?

HA!!!

Israel's action goes way beyond war crimes. The WORLD wants a piece of the murdering israeli's if only the farce of the U.N. would allow protest beyond the US veto power.

Still standing with israel, I see. You're a FUCKWIT as always. Israel's actions are INDEFENSIBLE, yet you persist. I believe this indicates deep phycological pathologies manifesting in evil associations to support zionist ambitions to behave like your innermost "Walter Mitty" wet dreams.

Move to israel.

[Gerry]

Oh, and the other important shortcoming is that there has been no time, the war has been on only three weeks, for an adequate assessment of anything on this battlefield much less having the foundation to accuse anyone of a war crime.

The ONLY proper and valid assessments are made DURING the raids, by eyewitnsses. HRW is an internationally reknown organization as long as it doesn;t criticize Israel...Right???
You have no clue how utterly absurd and diningenuoys you sound by making these stupid statements.

All in all the report is worthless. Too bad for HRW, they've let their understandable concern for civilians on both sides cloud their good judgment.

Too bad for YOU.......You have lost all arguments and all credibility. You are a mouthpiece for Israel and condone wholescale slaughter of civilians. Morally bankrupt you are.

[Jay_Esbe]

The ONLY proper and valid assessments are made DURING the raids, by eyewitnsses. HRW is an internationally reknown organization as long as it doesn;t criticize Israel...Right???
You have no clue how utterly absurd and diningenuoys you sound by making these stupid statements.



Too bad for YOU.......You have lost all arguments and all credibility. You are a mouthpiece for Israel and condone wholescale slaughter of civilians. Morally bankrupt you are.

There's not much point in shooting the dead a second time, but if it makes you feel better, go for the face so they can't drag him out for final viewing before the burial. Here's a final look at the most salient point one can derive from his response to my final rebuttal:

"generally this time Fog Everyone, knows this is not possible, otherwise However, Garbage Garbage."

Hey Lib; Take up drinking. It'll make you feel better than arguing with Esbe and I doubt the "quality" of your "arguments" will suffer in the least anyway.

[Jay_Esbe]

bump.

[Jay_Esbe]

"Lib" seems to have thrown in the towel and just skulked away.

People with integrity who lose an argument admit it when they know it.

As I said, he seems to have simply chosen to disappear himself after declaring all the evidence "worthless".

[Gerry]

If he has watched any of the videos produced by Israeli jews showing how the U.S. media is manipulated and under the absolute control of the Israeli PR machine and lies in order to continue its illegal occupation....if he were to listen to these brave Israelis he would hang his head in shame.

You didn't really think Lib had any dignity did you? Not with his histrionics.

[Jay_Esbe]

If he has watched any of the videos produced by Israeli jews showing how the U.S. media is manipulated and under the absolute control of the Israeli PR machine and lies in order to continue its illegal occupation....if he were to listen to these brave Israelis he would hang his head in shame.

You didn't really think Lib had any dignity did you? Not with his histrionics.

There's a saying by Jesus that I've found very useful over the years; "He who is dishonest in a very little, is dishonest in much".

In other words, a liar, is a liar. I became aware of "Lib's" dishonesty a long time ago. It just took a major issue like this one, to really prove the proverb.

Also, it's evident that he preferes his shame to repentance, otherwise he'd just be a man about this. I have to feel sorry for him to a degree, but that pity will never equal my anger at the destructiveness of his lies during a time of war crimes and endless lies. What a goddamned PUNK.

[Gerry]

There's a saying by Jesus that I've found very useful over the years; "He who is dishonest in a very little, is dishonest in much".

In other words, a liar, is a liar. I became aware of "Lib's" dishonesty a long time ago. It just took a major issue like this one, to really prove the proverb.

Also, it's evident that he preferes his shame to repentance, otherwise he'd just be a man about this. I have to feel sorry for him to a degree, but that pity will never equal my anger at the destructiveness of his lies during a time of war crimes and endless lies. What a goddamned PUNK.


Cannot say that I disagree.

[Lib]

"Lib" seems to have thrown in the towel and just skulked away.

People with integrity who lose an argument admit it when they know it.

As I said, he seems to have simply chosen to disappear himself after declaring all the evidence "worthless".
I've been busy making a living and working on our cabin in the mountains. Three big trees fell on it in a microburst and I'm fixing the broken deck, etc.

As for being called dishonest by the board lunatics Esbe and Gerry, well yhat's just one of life's unbidden little pleasures to be savored and treasured long. You lot are leaving a trail of your ignorance, rotteneness and Jew hating a mile wide and an ocean deep. Nothing I could possibly say could condemn you as thoroughly as your own words. I couldn't be happier than to see you all foaming at the mouth for dead Jews here while trumpeting the virtuousness of Hezbollah and the paradise on earth in Iran. Priceless.

[Bubba2]

I've been busy making a living and working on our cabin in the mountains. Three big trees fell on it in a microburst and I'm fixing the broken deck, etc.

As for being called dishonest by the board lunatics Esbe and Gerry, well yhat's just one of life's unbidden little pleasures to be savored and treasured long. You lot are leaving a trail of your ignorance, rotteneness and Jew hating a mile wide and an ocean deep. Nothing I could possibly say could condemn you as thoroughly as your own words. I couldn't be happier than to see you all foaming at the mouth for dead Jews here while trumpeting the virtuousness of Hezbollah and the paradise on earth in Iran. Priceless.

weak

[Jay_Esbe]

I've been busy making a living and working on our cabin in the mountains. Three big trees fell on it in a microburst and I'm fixing the broken deck, etc.

As for being called dishonest by the board lunatics Esbe and Gerry, well yhat's just one of life's unbidden little pleasures to be savored and treasured long. You lot are leaving a trail of your ignorance, rotteneness and Jew hating a mile wide and an ocean deep. Nothing I could possibly say could condemn you as thoroughly as your own words. I couldn't be happier than to see you all foaming at the mouth for dead Jews here while trumpeting the virtuousness of Hezbollah and the paradise on earth in Iran. Priceless.

Spoken like a true neo-conservative PLANT and internet propagandist and all around slandering McCarthyite rat bastard. Ann Coulter's got NOTHING on you "Lib". You don't have an ounce of truth in you. Not an ounce. Just look at yourself; you've gone off the edge into complete hysteria and paranoia. You've been reduced to a raving drooling ad-hominem slandering right-wing imbecile by nothing more than the FACTS, and from your own source no less. Admit it or deny it, it doesn't matter: your over as a credible voice on this forum.

[Lib]

Esbe, you are incapable of recognizing truth. I'm the real deal. You are a nut. Everybody knows. Heh, heh, heh, go boy.

[Bubba2]

Esbe, you are incapable of recognizing truth. I'm the real deal. You are a nut. Everybody knows. Heh, heh, heh, go boy.

You wouldn't know truth if it bit you on the ass.

It's YOU who clings to the radical zionist state of israel, and supports its' murderous actions no matter what form of vile deed is done. THAT would be the definition of a nut.

[Lib]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS]You wouldn't know truth if it bit you on the ass.
FONT]
Bubba declaiming on truth. Behold.

[Gerry]

I've been busy making a living and working on our cabin in the mountains. Three big trees fell on it in a microburst and I'm fixing the broken deck, etc.

As for being called dishonest by the board lunatics Esbe and Gerry, well yhat's just one of life's unbidden little pleasures to be savored and treasured long. You lot are leaving a trail of your ignorance, rotteneness and Jew hating a mile wide and an ocean deep. Nothing I could possibly say could condemn you as thoroughly as your own words. I couldn't be happier than to see you all foaming at the mouth for dead Jews here while trumpeting the virtuousness of Hezbollah and the paradise on earth in Iran. Priceless.


Some day you will wake up and understand that you've been deceived and lied to and that sheer complacency on your part prevented you from seeking out the truth which was there all along. The whole rest of the world knows what is going on except for America. To convince yourself that the rest of the world is wrong and are all anti-semites is delusional.
Go stick your head back into the sand.

In the meantime I hope your cabin wasn't damaged too much.

[Jay_Esbe]

I've been busy making a living and working on our cabin in the mountains. Three big trees fell on it in a microburst and I'm fixing the broken deck, etc..............

God smote you three times. Some people never learn...