HRW Probe: Israeli Strike Which Killed 7 Lebanese Aid Workers in Hibariyeh Was Unlawful

“An Israeli strike on an emergency and relief center” in south Lebanon’s Hibariyeh on March 27 “killed seven emergency and relief volunteers” and “was an unlawful attack on civilians that failed to take all necessary precautions,” HRW said in a statement.

“If the attack on civilians was carried out intentionally or recklessly, it should be investigated as an apparent war crime,” it added, noting that the strike was carried out “using a US-made Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit and an Israeli-made 500-pound (about 230 kilograms) general purpose bomb.

Israeli forces used a US weapon to conduct a strike that killed seven civilian relief workers in Lebanon. Israel’s assurances to the US that it is abiding by the laws of war ring hollow – it’s time to acknowledge reality and cut off weapons sales https://t.co/Bm6MAeEfIp pic.twitter.com/f40kNQWby8

— Adam Coogle (@adamcoogle) May 7, 2024

The human watchdog said that it found “no evidence of a military target at the site,” and that the Israeli strike “targeted a residential structure that housed the Emergency and Relief Corps of the Lebanese Succour Association, a nongovernmental humanitarian organization.”

“The Israeli military’s admission” it had targeted the center in Hibariyeh indicated a “failure to take all feasible precautions to verify that the target was military and avoid loss of civilian life… making the strike unlawful.”

The rights group said those killed were volunteers, adding that 18-year-old twin brothers were among the dead.

“Family members… the Lebanese Succour Association, and the civil defense all said that the seven men were civilians and not affiliated with any armed group,” it added.