Flooding South Lebanon - Human Rights Watch

injured in my legs. I still can’t walk. The shrapnel tore through muscle
and tendons. 188
The gathering of scrap metal for income also caused casualties. Fifteen-year-old `Ali
Muhammad Jawad had just returned from the hospital when Human Rights Watch
visited his home in al-Hallousiyyeh. From his bed, he described how on October 17,
2006, around 4 p.m., he spent the afternoon picking up pieces of shrapnel and
metal with his cousin Hamdid `Ali Jawad, 18, to sell for 1,000 or 1,500 Lebanese
pounds (the equivalent of 66 cents or $1) per kilo. Hamdid found something unusual
on the ground, marked by a painted red stick that he used to poke at the item. `Ali
stood two to three meters away from Hamdid when the cluster exploded, killing
Hamdid and injuring `Ali. 189 The ambulance was slow in coming; `Ali’s family
speculates that if it had arrived earlier, they might have been able to save Hamdid.
`Ali remained bedridden and did not know when he would be able to return to his job
as a blacksmith’s apprentice.
Case Studies
The following three case studies are highlighted because they represent a special
circumstance (Tebnine) or egregious examples of the types of civilian harm
discussed above (Yohmor and the Zawtars).
Tebnine
On Sunday, August 13, 2006, Israeli forces struck Tebnine Hospital with cluster
munitions. Approximately 375 civilians and military noncombatants, including
medical staff, patients, and people who had sought refuge, were in the hospital
during the attack. Because “this whole area was infested with cluster bombs,” the
civilians were trapped in the hospital until a path was cleared to allow them to
escape. 190 The hospital is a very large, multistory, multi-wing complex that has been
188 Human Rights Watch interview with Hussein `Ali Kiki, construction worker, `Ein Ba`al, September 22, 2006. When asked
whether Hezbollah had been firing rockets from the fields, he said, “The field I was in at the time I got injured did not have
launching pads. However, fields next to it did. At the beginning, the Israelis were firing most of the clusters on places where
there were rocket launchers. But after that, they started throwing them everywhere.” Ibid.
189 Human Rights Watch interview with `Ali Muhammad Jawad, al-Hallousiyyeh, October 21, 2006.
190 Human Rights Watch interview with Dr. Ahmed Hussein Dbouk, Tebnine Hospital, Tebnine, October 24, 2006.
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Human Rights Watch February 2008