Flooding South Lebanon - Human Rights Watch

Unwarranted Reliance on Warnings
In calculating expected civilian harm, Israel needed to consider the presence of
civilians. In November 2006 Israel stated, “It should also be noted that the findings
of the operational inquiry show that, prior to the use of cluster munitions, the IDF
repeatedly warned the civilian population to leave targeted areas.” 362 The IDF lawyers
who met with Human Rights Watch in July 2007 also said that “there was a great
effort to ensure the population was not there during the war,” 363 and the military
advocate general’s December 2007 statement referred to “numerous and constant
warnings given by the IDF to the civilian population.” 364 Israel issued general
warnings to civilians in south Lebanon to leave through Arabic flyers and radio
broadcasts.
Having given warnings, Israel was not entitled to assume Lebanese civilians had
universally heeded them and no civilians remained, or that all civilian infrastructure
was thereby a potential military target. Giving warnings does not allow the parties to
a conflict to then disregard the continuing presence of some civilians—all potential
harm to civilians remaining must still be weighed against the concrete and direct
military advantage anticipated from an attack, and the attack cancelled if the
damage to civilians is disproportionate. Otherwise, Hezbollah would have been
justified in “warning” civilians to flee northern Israel and then firing away without
regard to civilian casualties—clearly an illegal method of warfare.
It is true that, by the end of the war when the vast majority of cluster munitions were
used, most civilians had abandoned the targeted towns and villages, or remained
inside shelters at the time of bombardment. As a result, relatively few civilians were
killed or injured as cluster attacks were taking place. However, in many areas, the
roads were too dangerous for civilians to flee, and transport prices were prohibitive.
Many civilians remained because they were too poor or sick to leave, or wanted to
362 Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “IDF to Probe Use of Cluster Munitions in Lebanon War.”
363 Human Rights Watch interview with Maj. Dorit Tuval, head of strategic section, International Law Department, IDF, Tel Aviv,
Israel, July 2, 2007.
364 Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Opinion of the Military Advocate General Regarding Use of Cluster Munitions in Second
Lebanon War.”
Flooding South Lebanon 110