As the Gaza War broke out in October 2023, Israel and Hezbollah also clashed.
UN aid groups have released a grim assessment of the damage and cost of Israel’s “relentless” attacks on neighborhoods south of the Lebanese capital Beirut over the weekend.
These attacks caused extensive damage and caused a large number of casualties. A large number of people have been forced to flee their homes.
“The High Commissioner reiterates his call for an immediate ceasefire to stop the killing and destruction,” Jeremy Lawrence, spokesman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), stressed on Tuesday.
“Israeli military strikes in Lebanon have resulted in widespread loss of civilian life, including the death of entire families, mass displacement and destruction of civilian infrastructure.”
The spokesman said these attacks raised serious concerns about the use of force with proportionality, respecting the principle of distinguishing between combat and civilian targets and the need to carry out attacks.
Common people are becoming targets
At the same time, Hezbollah continued to fire rockets into northern Israel, causing some casualties, UN human rights spokesman Jeremy Lawrence said.
“Most of these rocket attacks were indiscriminate in nature” and displaced thousands of Israelis, “which is unacceptable,” the spokesman said. “The only way to end human suffering on all sides is a permanent and immediate ceasefire on all fronts: in Lebanon, in Israel and in Gaza.”
A deadly Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Saturday “collapsed a residential building, killing about 30 people and injuring more than 65,” according to the latest data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Assistance (OCHA), with a total of 84 people killed, according to officials. Israel attacked the country that day.”
The death toll has increased
OCHA said an average of 250 people were killed per week in Lebanon in November, bringing the death toll to more than 3,700 since the conflict escalated in October 2023.
However, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) condemned the deaths of at least nine youths between November 22 and 23, “including boys and girls who were sleeping in their homes at the time”.
The U.N. children’s agency said the total number of child deaths since October 2023 has reached at least 240 since Hezbollah’s rocket attacks in response to Israeli bombing of nearby Gaza rose to at least 240.
…to be continued…