The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Trk, stressed before the Security Council yesterday evening, Friday, that international law prohibits the “booby-trapping” of civilian-type devices.
Trk stressed during a meeting requested by Algeria, after the simultaneous bombings this week of Hezbollah’s wireless communication devices in Lebanon, that “committing acts of violence aimed at spreading terror among civilians is a war crime.”
He said that “it is difficult to imagine how such attacks under these circumstances can be consistent with the basic principles of distinction, proportionality and preventive measures under international humanitarian law.”
Trk called for an independent, comprehensive and transparent investigation, and for those who ordered and carried out these attacks to be held accountable.
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, also warned the Security Council that if the violence between Israel on the one hand and Hamas
and the Lebanese Hezbollah group on the other continues, ‘we risk seeing a conflagration that may dwarf the destruction and suffering we have seen so far.’
The Israeli military said it had carried out an airstrike that killed a senior Hezbollah military official in a densely populated neighborhood in southern Beirut on Friday.
The attack was the deadliest of its kind on the Lebanese capital in years, and at least 14 others were reported killed in the attack.
Earlier on Friday, Hezbollah fired 140 rockets into northern Israel as the region awaited the retaliation promised by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in response to the mass bombing this week of Hezbollah members’ pagers and walkie-talkies.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency
