Amnesty International, November 2006 Report (Italian)

Following the end of the hostilities, Amnesty International delegates again visited both countries for further research and discussions with officials. As a result, the organization issued two publications covering some aspects of the conflict. In August it published Israel/Lebanon: Deliberate destruction or “collateral damage”? Israeli attacks against civilian infrastructure. Amnesty International found that Israeli forces had committed indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, pursuing a strategy which appeared intended to punish the people of Lebanon and their government for not turning against Hizbullah, as well as harming Hizbullah’s military capability.

In September, Amnesty International published Israel/Lebanon: Under fire: Hizbullah’s attacks on northern Israel.3 This concluded that Hizbullah’s bombardment amounted to direct attacks on civilians as well as indiscriminate attacks. The attacks also violated the prohibition under international humanitarian law on attacking the civilian population as reprisal, regardless of what abuses the enemy may be carrying out.

This new report, "Out of All Proportions", covers further aspects of the conduct and consequences of Israeli military actions in Lebanon, and looks into allegations that Hizbullah’s fighters used civilians as “human shields”. The report recalls standards of international human rights, humanitarian and criminal law relevant to the conflict. It analyses patterns of Israeli attacks and a number of specific incidents in which civilians were killed in Lebanon. It highlights the impact on civilian life of other Israeli attacks, including the legacy of the widespread cluster bomb bombardment of south Lebanon by Israeli forces in the last days of the war. The final chapter summarizes Amnesty International’s conclusions with regard to the overall conduct of both Israel and Hizbullah, and makes recommendations addressed to the parties to the conflict as well as to the international community.

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