Middle East Crisis: Day 15 - Israeli military ethics questioned

Israel repeated attacks on UN peacekeepers:

The United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon, or UNIFIL, was created by the United Nations, with the adoption of Security Council Resolution 425 and 426 on 19 March 1978, to confirm Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon,restore the international peace and security, and help the Lebanese Government restore its effective authority in the area. The first UNIFIL troops arrived in the area on 23 March 1978; these troops were reassigned from other UN peacekeeping operations in the area (namely UNEF and UNDOF). Israel invaded Lebanon again in 1982 (1982 Lebanon War), U.N. positions were overrun. During the occupation, UNIFIL's function was mainly the provision of food and aid to locals in Southern Lebanon. In 1999, it undertook a full withdrawal, which concluded in 2000 and enabled UNIFIL to resume its military tasks. At the request of the country of Lebanon in January 2006, the UN extended UNIFIL's mandate to expire 31 July 2006.:
* An Israeli tank shell hit a UNIFIL position in southern Lebanon on Monday 24 July, wounding four Ghananian soldiers.[115]
* Shrapnel from tank shells fired by the IDF seriously wounded an UN Indian soldier on 16 July.[116]
* and, as mentioned before on 25 July 2006 four UNTSO peacekeepers from Austria, Canada, China and Finland were killed in an Israeli air strike on a UN observation post in southern Lebanon. According to the UN, the four had taken shelter in a bunker under the post. It had been shelled 14 times by Israeli artillery, and a rescue team was also shelled as it tried to clear the rubble. "I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defence Forces of a UN Observer post in southern Lebanon," Secretary General Annan said in a statement from Rome. [118]

Israeli attacks on Red Cross in this conflict:

It was reported on 26 July that "at least 10 Lebanese ambulances bearing the emblem of the international red cross have [...] become targets in Israeli air strikes",[119] resulting in the death of more than a dozen patients and emergency workers.[120][121][122][123] Similarly, an ambulance struck by Israeli aircraft fire near Sour was marked as belonging to "the Shiite Amal militia", although that organisation is not acknowledged as a combatant in the conflict.[124]

Israeli Use of Illegal Weapons on civilian areas:

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud claimed Israeli forces have used "phosphorus incendiary bombs, which are a violation of international laws, … against Lebanese civilians".[108][109][110] Information Minister Ghazi Aridi also said, "Israel is using internationally prohibited weapons against civilians".[111] The Lebanese claim has been denied by Israeli authorities, and remains unverified.[112]
The relevant portion of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, to which Israel is a party,[113] reads:
2. It is prohibited in all circumstances to make any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by air-delivered incendiary weapons.
3. It is further prohibited to make any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by means of incendiary weapons other than air-delivered incendiary weapons, except when such military objective is clearly separated from the concentration of civilians and all feasible precautions are taken with a view to limiting the incendiary effects to the military objective and to avoiding, and in any event to minimizing, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.[114]

In other news:
Hezbollah kills 14, wound 30 Israeli troops as the intense ground (at times hand-to-hand) combat continues in battle for Bint Jbeil heights in southern Lebanon

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