UN officials warned of a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Lebanon on Thursday as death tolls mounted from Israeli air strikes.
On Wednesday, advocacy group Human Rights Watch called for urgent UN action, reporting that some 1,600 Israeli strikes had killed at least 558 people, including 50 children, and injured thousands in the span of two days. The organization’s Middle East and North Africa director, Lama Fakih, urged compliance with international law to protect civilians, saying:
The Israeli military killed hundreds of people in Lebanon in just one day; thousands have been injured and forced to flee from their homes, and hundreds of homes, businesses, and farms have been destroyed. … It is paramount for Israel and Hezbollah to comply with the laws of war to minimize civilian harm.
The UN’s Refugee Agency revealed Thursday that some 90,000 Lebanese residents had been displaced in the span of 72 hours. The United Nations’ head of peacekeeping operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, meanwhile painted a grim picture of chaos along the UN-patrolled line of separation between Lebanon and Israel. And UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned the Security Council of unprecedented exchanges of fire amid mounting concerns of a broader regional war.
Leaders from across North America, Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East called for a 21-day ceasefire and compliance with UN Security Council resolutions aimed at brokering an end to regional hostilities in Lebanon and Gaza. The leaders said in a joint statement:
We call on all parties, including the Governments of Israel and Lebanon, to endorse the temporary ceasefire immediately consistent with UNSCR 1701 during this period, and to give a real chance to a diplomatic settlement. We are then prepared to fully support all diplomatic efforts to conclude an agreement between Lebanon and Israel within this period, building on efforts over the last months, that ends this crisis altogether.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz struck a defiant tone Thursday, asserting via social media: “There will be no ceasefire in the north.”
Israel has faced growing international calls to respect international humanitarian law in recent months, amid reports of devastating civilian death tolls in Gaza, where it has been engaged in a ground war with terror organization Hamas for nearly a year, and, more recently, Lebanon. It faces ongoing charges of genocide against the people of Palestine before the International Court of Justice.
