Flooding South Lebanon - Human Rights Watch

disregard of that character, they give rise to a duty on Israel’s part to investigate
criminal responsibility on the part of those who authorized the attacks.
Indiscriminate Attacks
In many of the cases that Human Rights Watch examined, the few civilians present at
the time of the attacks could not identify a specific military target such as the
presence of Hezbollah fighters, rocket launchers, or munitions in the villages
attacked, nor did we find material evidence of such military targets. Furthermore, the
staggering number of cluster munitions that rained on south Lebanon over three
days before a negotiated ceasefire went into effect, as well as statements by Israeli
soldiers attesting to the indiscriminate nature of the attacks, raises serious
questions about whether they were aimed at specific targets or strategic locations, or
were instead an effort to blanket whole areas with explosives and duds.
In response to Human Rights Watch’s request that it identify the military objectives
in specific attacks, including the cluster strike on Blida, the IDF declined to specify,
but did send a response identifying “damage to key routes” as well as “maximal
coverage of the missile-launching areas” as general objectives of its cluster munition
attacks. 344 IDF lawyer Maj. Dorit Tuval later said, “The vast majority [of cluster
munitions] were not used toward populated areas or near inhabited areas.” 345 Those
that were used in built-up areas were directed “toward places where rockets were
shot from toward Israel.” 346
Although transport routes and missile (technically rocket) launching areas can be
legitimate military objectives, the sheer scope and intensity of the assaults casts
doubt on the adequacy of this general explanation and whether, in fact, there were
discrete military objectives for all cluster munition attacks. Israeli officials, despite
344 Israel’s Response to Accusations of Targeting Civilian Sites in Lebanon During the “Second Lebanon War.” The December
2007 investigation also identified “maximum coverage” of launch sites as a reason to use clusters. Israel Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, “Opinion of the Military Advocate General Regarding Use of Cluster Munitions in Second Lebanon War.”
345 Human Rights Watch interview with Maj. Dorit Tuval, head of strategic section, International Law Department, IDF, Tel Aviv,
Israel, July 2, 2007.
346 Ibid.
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Human Rights Watch February 2008