Pager and walkie-talkie attacks on Hezbollah look like war crimes – international legal expert
Giacomo Biggio, University of Bristol
Tensions in the Middle East have reached a new high after thousands of pagers and radios used by members of Hezbollah exploded across various cities in Lebanon and Syria over September 17 and 18. The attacks – which have widely been attributed to Israel, which has not commented – have resulted in at least 30 people killed and more than 3,000 wounded.
Many analysts and politicians are now speculating that the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which has been simmering during the 11-month conflict in Gaza, will spiral into open warfare.
Far from taking place in a legal vacuum, the attacks are governed by international humanitarian law (IHL). This is the international legal regime that regulates the conduct of hostilities in situations of armed conflict.
Since the Hamas attacks on October 7 provoked Israel’s ferocious response in Gaza, Israel and Hezbollah have been involved in a series of cross-border hostilities. These qualify as what is called a “non-international armed conflict”, to which IHL applies. This includes the rules set out in, among other instruments, the Geneva conventions.
In pursuing the objective of protecting civilians in wartime, the Geneva conventions rely on the fundamental principles of “distinction” and “proportionality”.
What international law says
The principle of distinction essentially requires belligerents to distinguish at all times between the civilian population and combatants.
Combatants are lawful targets and can be attacked at all times. But intentionally attacking civilians is prohibited and constitutes a war crime under the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court. To this end, military commanders are under an obligation to do everything feasible to verify that the target of an attack is not a civilian.
Even assuming that only Hezbollah members were using the radios and pagers at the moment of the attacks, that does not mean that they shall be presumed to be combatants (and, therefore, lawful targets). Under IHL, a combatant is a “member of the armed forces of a party to the conflict”. This comprises “all organized forces, groups and units which are under a command responsible to that party for the conduct of its subordinates”.
By contrast, whoever is not a member of the armed forces of a party to the conflict is a civilian and subject to the protection of IHL.
There is no doubt that members of the military wings of Hezbollah are “members of the armed forces”, so they qualify as combatants. But those members of Hezbollah’s political wing who are not combatants should be considered as civilians and accordingly, are protected from attack.
Civilians may lose protection from attack for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities. This includes conduct like the intentional killing of civilians and carrying out acts which adversely affect the military capacity of a party to an armed conflict – for example, the planning of attacks against Israel.
What about the attacks against members of Hezbollah’s military wing?
In this case, complying with the principle of distinction does not suffice, since the attack must also respect the principle of proportionality. This requires that the expected “collateral damage” (that is, the incidental killing or wounding of civilians) should not be excessive to the “concreted and direct military advantage” anticipated from the attacks.
Launching an attack with the knowledge that it would cause excessive collateral damage also constitutes a war crime.
Collateral damage
In this case, the attacks killed several civilians. These included the nine-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member, an 11-year-old boy and at least two health workers. Moreover, the attacks injured thousands more, including Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon.
Although we do not know how many of those killed or injured were civilians, it seems logical that the level of collateral damage to be expected from the attacks would be substantial. After all, the pagers and radios were remotely detonated at the same time, exploding in crowded places such as markets and funerals. In these situations, the likelihood of killing and wounding civilians is extremely high.
These elements suggest that the expected incidental damage is excessive to the military advantage anticipated from the pager attacks – which, at the time of writing, remains unclear.
But it’s important to note that what amounts to “excessive” incidental damage is subject to disagreement. On the one hand there are those who, like the International Committee of the Red Cross, believe that extensive incidental damage is always excessive. Others – including the Israeli government – consider that even extensive incidental damage is allowed if the attack results in a high amount of military advantage.
In my opinion, Israel’s interpretation should be rejected. It turns IHL’s aims of protecting the civilian population on its head and allows for unrestricted warfare.
My conclusion, based on the available information, appears to be that the pager and walkie-talkie attacks purportedly carried out by Israel against Hezbollah members appear to violate the principles of distinction and proportionality. In other words, they could well amount to war crimes.
Giacomo Biggio, Lecturer in Law, University of Bristol Law School, University of Bristol
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
New wave of Israeli terrorist cyber attacks hit Lebanon
Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
Facing no consequences from the international community on its first series of cyber terrorist attacks in Lebanon, Israel launched a new wave of similar attacks within less than 24 hours
At least nine people were killed and more than 300 others injured when thousands of wireless devices including walkie-talkies were detonated in different parts of Lebanon on Wednesday, September 18. The new blasts took place, while the information regarding the first day’s cyber terrorist attacks through pagers remained largely unknown and subject to speculation.
Preliminary media reports stated that the trademark of Taiwan pager manufacturer Gold Apollo was identified on the remains of the pagers, which detonated on Tuesday and that they were model AR-924. In response to the reports, Gold Apollo issued a statement on Wednesday denying that it had manufactured the pagers used by Hezbollah members, clarifying that its logo was only labelled on the devices, which were manufactured by a Hungarian company called BAC through a licensing agreement with the Taiwanese company.
“According to the cooperation agreement, we authorize BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC,” Gold Apollo said in a statement, while the Hungarian partner BAC has not commented on the incident so far.
Meanwhile, some of the walkie-talkie devices that exploded on Wednesday, were reportedly identified as Icom model V82s, according to media sources. Nonetheless, Icom has not commented on the tragic blasts yet.
Although the United States said on Tuesday that it was not aware of the cyber terrorist attacks on Lebanon in advance, CNN published a report on Wednesday unveiling that Israeli officials informed the US about an Israeli plan to carry out an operation in Lebanon on Tuesday without providing it with further details about the planned operation.
While media outlets have been relying on information provided by anonymous or special sources, as well as analysts to demystify the terrorist attacks that rocked Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, no official statement has been issued on the circumstances of the attacks by Hezbollah yet. However, Hezbollah-run Al Manar news network announced that Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will deliver a speech via Al-Manar television at 17:00 (Beirut time) on Thursday to respond to the new development.
The United Nations Security Council also announced on Wednesday that it will hold an emergency meeting on Friday afternoon to discuss the recent mass explosions of communication devices across Lebanon. The meeting was scheduled after Algeria submitted a request to the Security Council on Wednesday, amidst the near complete silence of the international community, which was slammed by the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Petra de Sutter. “Silence is not an option. An international investigation is called for. The bloodshed must end,” Sutter wrote on her platform on X, strongly condemning the “massive attack”, which she described as a “brutal escalation of violence.”
Izzat al-Rishq, a senior official in the Palestinian Islamic Resistance movement Hamas, also urged the international community to abide by its legal obligations to put an end to Israel’s actions. Al-Rishq described Israel’s cyber terrorist attacks on Lebanon as an assault that violated Lebanon’s land, its leadership, and its people.
Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
Morning Star Editorial: Britain must act against Israel’s attempts to ignite wider war
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/britain-must-act-against-israels-attempts-ignite-wider-war
FOLLOWING Israel’s murderous exploding-pager stunt in Lebanon, Labour’s Emily Thornberry is asking questions every Cabinet minister should answer.
It is all very well for the Foreign Office to call for “calm heads and de-escalation” every time Israel bombs or assassinates people in neighbouring countries.
Since Israel faces no consequences for repeated escalation, it will continue to escalate: and, as Iran warned after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, this means a failure to respond to Israel’s provocations is itself escalatory, likely to lead to wider war.
Iran called on the UN security council to rein Israel in: since Israeli allies Britain, France and the US have a majority on that council, and since all are also involved in supplying arms to Israel and providing logistical support for its war on Palestine, the particular responsibility to act rests with Tel Aviv’s Western backers.
Thornberry, newly elected chair of the foreign affairs committee in the Commons, asks: “Why is this happening now? And what will the result be?
“…Is this the first step, and what will Israel do next? Is it part of a larger plan? It is very worrying and I would certainly be expecting Israel’s friends to be speaking very seriously to them, and saying: ‘What on Earth are you doing’?”
Thornberry could go a lot further. She could call out the pager operation for what it was: a callous act of terrorism committed in a country with which Israel is not at war.
…
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/britain-must-act-against-israels-attempts-ignite-wider-war
Hezbollah holds Israel responsible for cyber terrorist attack in Lebanon
Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
Israel continues to carry out war crimes and breach the sovereignty of countries in the region, while the international community remains unmoved
The Lebanese Internal Security Forces announced on Tuesday, September 17, that thousands of pagers or wireless communication devices exploded in a number of areas across Lebanon, including in the southern suburb of the Lebanese capital of Beirut. The attack reportedly targeted pagers held by members of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.
The explosion of the pagers killed at least nine people, including a child, and injured over 3,000 others. Videos that have circulated online of the explosions, illustrate how many occurred in public places and caused transit accidents, secondary injuries, and general chaos.
According to media reports, Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani was among the people who sustained injuries in the attacks, and was transported to a hospital to receive treatment. Some casualties were also reported in Syria’s southwestern governorate of Rural Damascus. Mahdi Ammar, son of Ali Ammar, a member of parliament with Hezbollah’s Resistance Loyalty Bloc, was also killed in the attacks.
Hezbollah movement stated on Tuesday that the pagers, which exploded, were in the possession of a number of workers at various Hezbollah units and institutions, and that the reasons behind their explosion were still unknown. The movement also announced that investigations have been under way to unveil the reasons and the circumstances behind the simultaneous explosions. According to Reuters, the detonated pagers were acquired by Hezbollah in recent months.
“Hezbollah’s competent agencies are currently conducting a wide-ranging security and scientific investigation to determine the causes of those simultaneous explosions. Likewise, medical and health agencies are treating the wounded and injured at a number of hospitals in various Lebanese regions,” Hezbollah said in a statement. In the statement, the movement urged the Lebanese people “to be aware of the rumors and false as well as misleading information that some parties are spreading in a way that serves the psychological war of the Zionist enemy.”
Hezbollah issued another statement later on Tuesday holding Israel fully responsible for the attack, which injured thousands including civilians and Hezbollah members. The statement was issued after the movement scrutinized the facts, current available data, and information about the attack. The statement also stressed that the attack will not deter Hezbollah from continuing its support to the Palestinian people. “Our martyrs and wounded are the symbol of our struggle and sacrifices all the way to Al-Quds in triumph of our honorable people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and continuous support,” Hezbollah added in the statement, concluding it with a pledge to justly punish Israel for what it described as a sinful aggression.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement condemned the attack in a statement describing it as a “war crime”. “The treacherous operation carried out by the Zionist entity’s devices through the explosion of dual-use communication equipment is a documented war crime. It inflicted severe damage on a large number of innocent civilians inside their homes with premeditated malice,” Islamic Jihad said in its statement. “Although the enemy’s resort to this option is intended within the framework of psychological and intellectual warfare, it indicates the level of frustration and the narrow options they now have after the blows they have received from multiple fronts supporting the Palestinian people,” Islamic Jihad added.
The spokesperson of Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement Mohammad Abdul Salam also condemned the attack in a post on his platform on X describing it as a crime and a violation of Lebanese sovereignty. A number of countries also officially condemned the deadly series of explosions in Lebanon vowing to provide necessary medical assistance to the Lebanese people, including Jordan, Iran, and Palestine.
Meanwhile, the United States denied being aware of the attack. On Tuesday, the US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the US “was not aware of this operation and was not involved in it”. Miller added that the US “is still gathering information about the explosions in Lebanon”. The unprecedented deadly cyber attacks came after Israeli media outlets recently reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to expand a military operation on the northern front with Lebanon.
Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.