War crimes in Lebanon and Israel

The UN is now warning the parties to the present conflict that they may be guilty of war crimes:

Jan Egeland, the emergency relief co-ordinator for the UN, toured a bombed neighbourhood in south Beirut at the weekend. "Bombing civilian populations is wrong, destroying civilian infrastructure is wrong," he said.

"It is wrong also for Hezbollah to continue firing rockets against Israeli towns. My position is very clear - the hostilities must stop immediately. Civilian populations are not targets. That is against the law, humanitarian law."

The report goes on to say that experts think that prosecutions are nevertheless unlikely:

Neither Israel nor Lebanon is a party to the new criminal court [the International Criminal Court in The Hague] and it is improbable that the UN Security Council would exercise its power to refer cases to it because of opposition from the US.

Without a referral, the UN can issue human rights reports but not launch a criminal prosecution. That remains the responsibility of the courts in Israel and Lebanon.

David Crane, a visiting professor at Syracuse University in New York, served as a UN prosecutor in Sierra Leone. He said: "In my opinion, yes, there appear to have been war crimes committed related to civilians, but the reality is there won't be any prosecutions."

The following categories of war crime are mentioned: hostage-taking with a view to a prisoner exchange; bombarding residential areas and civilian infrastructure; direct attacks on civilians or 'civilian objects'; attacks expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life that are 'excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated'.

A category of war crime not mentioned in the report, though obviously relevant here, is this one (scroll down to Article 51.7):

The presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favour or impede military operations. The Parties to the conflict shall not direct the movement of the civilian population or individual civilians in order to attempt to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield military operations.

It is perhaps not surprising that little has been made of this category of war crime by certain of Israel's critics - those with an interest in vilifying Israel rather than a concern to see people protected from war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is more surprising how little attention there is to it in the more general media coverage. In any case, Jan Egeland has now made a clear statement (hat tip: StM) about this:

The UN humanitarian chief, returning from a visit to Beirut, has accused Hizbollah of being "cowardly".

Jan Egeland blasted the group's strategy of "blending" in among Lebanese civilians, causing the deaths of hundreds.
.....
Mr Egelund condemned the killing and wounding of civilians by both sides.

He called Israel's offensive "disproportionate" and "a violation of international humanitarian law."

Speaking to reporters at Larnaca airport in Cyprus on his return, he slammed Hizbollah for hiding among civilians.

"Consistently, from the Hizbollah heartland, my message was that Hizbollah must stop this cowardly blending... among women and children," Mr Egeland said.

"I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this.

"I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men..."

(Also here.)