Israeli strikes kill at least 16 in southern Lebanon

Israeli air strikes killed at least 16 people across southern Lebanon on Wednesday, Lebanese state media reported, as the United Nations said it would send investigators to examine possible violations of international law by all sides in the conflict.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said nine people were killed in a series of Israeli strikes on Tayr Debba, a town just east of the port city of Tyre. Three others were killed in Deir Qanoun el-Nahr, and at least one person was killed in Tyre, the agency reported. Al Jazeera, citing the same agency, said an Israeli warplane later struck the village of Deir ez-Zahrani, targeting a mosque and a clinic and killing at least three people.

The BBC reported that Lebanese media put the overall death toll from Wednesday’s strikes at 17, including two people killed in Sidon after a car was targeted by an Israeli drone and another person killed in the Massaken al-Shaabiya area of Tyre. An AFP correspondent in Sidon said they heard an explosion before seeing a car burning, and that rescuers pulled two people from the vehicle.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on Wednesday’s strikes. Earlier, the military said it had struck six Hezbollah infrastructure sites in Tyre and ready-to-use launchers in several other areas of southern Lebanon on Tuesday.

Hezbollah said its fighters attacked gatherings of Israeli troops and military vehicles in southern Lebanon, including in the Bayada and Yohmor areas, using rockets and shellfire. Al Jazeera reported that Hezbollah also launched rockets and drones at Israeli troops on Wednesday.

The violence came after Israeli strikes on Tuesday killed 15 people in Lebanon, according to the BBC. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 11 of those killed were in Massaken al-Shaabiya and other parts of Tyre, where the Israeli military issued a new evacuation order that included the city’s Christian quarter for the first time.

Al Jazeera correspondent Obaida Hitto, reporting from Tyre, said Israel was trying to show that residents had been given enough time to leave safely, but said conditions did not meet that standard. “The Geneva Convention requires that evacuation routes are safe, that people are given enough time, and that a return route is provided so the occupation does not continue,” Hitto said. “Israeli military activities in southern Lebanon do not meet those requirements.”

“If people try to leave Tyre today and go north, they are at high risk of being targeted by drone strikes,” Hitto said. “It is an extremely dangerous situation, and there are no reasonable guarantees for civilians trying to journey out of the city.”

UN human rights chief Volker Türk said Wednesday that investigators would be sent to Lebanon next week, at the Lebanese government’s request, to assess possible violations by all parties. “It’s the first time that we are sending this assessment mission, and the idea is indeed to look at violations by all parties – violations of international law, violations of international human rights law, and to document this, and eventually to report back to you on our findings,” Türk said.

The BBC reported that the team is expected to present findings at the end of July and that evidence gathered could be used in possible war crimes prosecutions. Israel has been informed of the mission, though it is unclear whether it will cooperate.

Lebanon was drawn into the wider war involving Israel, the United States and Iran on March 2, when Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel after an Israeli strike killed Iran’s supreme leader. Israel responded with a bombing campaign across Lebanon and an invasion of a significant part of the south.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says at least 3,696 people have been killed and 11,413 injured since March 2. The BBC reported that Israeli authorities say 30 soldiers and four civilians have been killed on both sides of the border, while Al Jazeera, citing the Israeli military, reported that 29 soldiers and one civilian contractor have been killed in Lebanon.

The UN says nearly one million people in Lebanon, about a fifth of the population, remain displaced, and 1.4 million need humanitarian aid. A US-brokered ceasefire between the Israeli and Lebanese governments was reached on April 16, but fighting has continued.