Washington, DC – The explosions of wireless communication devices across Lebanon this week in a series of attacks widely believed to have been carried out by Israel likely constitute a breach of the laws of war, experts say.
That includes the possible violation of prohibitions on indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, as the blasts have killed dozens of people and injured thousands more.
“You’re not supposed to booby-trap objects that civilians are likely to pick up and use, or objects generally associated with normal civilian use,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, a lawyer and director of the US-based rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).
“And this is exactly why we’ve seen the devastation that we’re seeing in Lebanon,” she told Al Jazeera. “Anybody could pick up one of these pagers. We also have no idea who had the pagers, or whether or not they’re legitimate military targets.”
Pagers, walkie-talkies, cellphones and other devices that were apparently associated with members of the Lebanese group Hezbollah exploded in two waves of attacks across Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Hezbollah immediately blamed Israel for the attacks, but the Israeli military has yet to comment.
While many details of the blasts remain unclear, they caused devastation across Lebanon: At least 32 people have been killed, including two children and one medic, and more than 3,000 others have been injured.
The series of simultaneous explosions also prompted scenes of panic in the country of more than five million people, with medical centres facing a flood of wounded patients and residents running out into the streets, terrified and confused.
‘Inherently indiscriminate’
While Israel has not confirmed its involvement in the attacks this week, it typically argues that its military operations are justified as part of a fight against “terrorism”.
While Israel’s supporters have celebrated the explosions in Lebanon, describing them as “precise”, the explosions went off around civilians – at funerals and in residential buildings, grocery stores, and barber shops, among other places.
International humanitarian law (IHL) – a set of rules spelled out in global treaties meant to protect non-combatants during armed conflict – prohibits attacks that “are not directed at a specific military objective”.
Whitson said the high casualties of the attacks demonstrate that booby-trapped devices are “inherently indiscriminate”.
“They’re incapable of being directed at a specific military target, and it’s very obvious from what we’ve seen and what was completely predictable that it would injure military targets and civilians without distinction,” she told Al Jazeera.
Whitson added that the explosions were a “deliberate decision on the part of Israel” to create chaos in Lebanon. “This is exactly why booby traps of ordinary civilian objects are illegal – because not only do they cause physical harm and injury, they cause psychological and emotional harm.”
Huwaida Arraf, a US-based human rights lawyer, echoed Whitson’s remarks, saying that the explosions violated the prohibition on indiscriminate attacks as well as a ban on booby-trapping devices associated with civilian use.