Human Rights Watch: Israel Used US Weapon in Likely War Crime in Lebanon
Israeli forces used at least one U.S.-provided weapon in a series of strikes that killed dozens of civilians in northeastern Lebanon last year, in attacks that were likely in violation of international law and should be investigated as war crimes, Human Rights Watch says in a new report.
The group investigated several Israeli strikes between September 25 and November 21, 2024 in Younine, near Baalbek in northeastern Lebanon, where Israeli forces had been carrying out numerous attacks amid its escalation against Hezbollah and Lebanon last year.
Two of these strikes killed 33 civilians, including 15 children, in total, the group found. The strikes came on residential buildings without any combatants or other military targets.
One bombing, on September 25, killed 22 members of one family, from Syria. Part of the family was leaving for Syria the next day, so the family was gathered in the building to say goodbye, according to one child survivor of the attack. Three children in the family survived the strike, which killed their parents, siblings, grandfather, and uncles, Human Rights Watch researchers found.
The strike, which hit around 10 pm that day, came without prior warning, witnesses said. Younine’s mayor and others interviewed by the group said that, even though the town was targeted with two other airstrikes on the same day, there were no military targets in the area.
“After the strike, dead bodies were strewn across the ground,” said Yousef Abdelkader, a 16-year-old survivor of the attack, who helped identify members of his family who were killed. “It was really hard for me to identify them because some of them were in pieces.” Pictures of the site of the attack show nothing left of the building but rubble.
Researchers visited the site in December, shortly after the ceasefire agreement began between Israel and Hezbollah, and found fragments of a MK-80 series bomb — which are manufactured in numerous countries, including the U.S. — equipped with a U.S.-made JDAM kit.
In another strike on November 1, an Israeli strike destroyed a two-story building in Younine, killing 10 members of the same family, including two children. One of the children was just one year old, the group found. One survivor, Ali Salah, lost his wife, one-year-old son, mother in law, his two sisters and their families in the strike.
“There’s no one I value more than my sisters. If I thought there was any reason for there to be a military target here, I would have forced them to leave. There was nothing here. Just civilians,” he told Human Rights Watch.
Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon has killed over 4,000 people in Lebanon and wounded at least 16,600 others since October 7, 2023, according to Lebanese officials, while 1.2 million have been displaced.
Numerous other reports have found that Israel has used U.S. weapons relentlessly in strikes on Lebanon, including in strikes on aid workers and journalists. Despite November’s ceasefire agreement, Israel has continued to carry out attacks in Lebanon, killing at least 71 civilians, the UN has said.
“The United States government’s provision of arms to Israel, which have repeatedly been used to carry out apparent war crimes, has made the US complicit in their unlawful use,” Human Rights Watch said in its report. “All states, including Israel’s key allies such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany should suspend military assistance and arms sales to Israel.”