UN calls for investigation into deadly Israeli attack on northern Lebanese village

The United Nations humanitarian office has called for an investigation into an Israeli airstrike that killed 23 people in northern Lebanon on Monday.

Spokesman Jeremy Laurence said the attack on the Christian-majority village of Aitou raised “real concerns” over international humanitarian law.

Laurence said that 12 women and two children were believed to be among those killed in the bombing, which destroyed a residential building that had recently been rented by a family displaced from the South.

Rescue workers were still pulling bodies from the rubble in Aitou on Tuesday – far from the epicenter of the conflict so far in south Lebanon, the Beqaa Valley and parts of Beirut.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have not yet commented on the attack.

Elie Alwan, the owner of the house in Aitou, told reporters that the house had been rented by a family of about 10 people, later joined by about 10 more people.

Alwan said there were no problems with the tenants until a car arrived at the house on Monday – the driver appeared to be delivering cash – when the airstrike occurred.

Israeli airstrikes targeting members of Hezbollah in areas where the group is known to operate have pushed members of the group to other parts of the country, creating fears across Lebanon that terrorist Israel’s target could be anywhere.

An Aitou resident, Sarkis Alwan, told AFP news agency that the village “may… not welcome” displaced people anymore. “And the villagers who took in the displaced people, I think they will ask them to leave,” he said.

Israel has shown a willingness in the recent escalation to attack residential buildings without warning as it tries to weaken Hezbollah, which has been firing sporadic rockets into Israel for a year to the day. Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

On Thursday night, an Israeli strike hit a residential building in central Beirut, killing 22 people, according to data from the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

Unconfirmed reports said the attack, which came without warning and injured 117 people, targeted Wafiq Safa, a senior member of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group and a powerful in Lebanon.

Reports say the attack failed to kill him and Hezbollah has not commented on his condition.

Israel believes it is necessary to deal with Hezbollah so that people in the north of the country can return to their homes.

A drone attack carried out by Hezbollah on a military base in northern Israel killed four Israeli soldiers on Sunday and seriously injured seven others – the deadliest attack yet. of the group since Israel launched a ground attack on Lebanon two weeks ago.

Also on Tuesday, the United Nations refugee agency said more than a quarter of Lebanon is currently under evacuation orders from the Israeli military.

“People are heeding these evacuation calls and they are running away with almost nothing,” the agency’s Middle East director Rema Jamous Imseis told a news conference.

The evacuation orders, along with Israel’s bombing campaign and ground invasion, caused large numbers of Lebanese to flee the affected areas.

According to the Lebanese government, more than 1.2 million people have been displaced. They fled the villages and major cities in the south and moved north to Beirut, Tripoli and other cities.

Many people have been living in unsafe and unsanitary conditions in shelters in and around the capital, where schools and shops have been closed to residents.

The mayor’s office told the BBC that the huge number of displaced people had overwhelmed welfare services, leaving thousands of displaced people on the streets.

Mayor Abdallah Darwich told the BBC last week that, using plans made for the previous invasion, in 2006 the city was prepared for only 10% of the actual number of people.

“We didn’t imagine it could be that big,” he said. “Every day our calculations get bigger and bigger.”

Israeli attacks on Beirut, focused on the southern suburb of Dahieh, have occurred daily and nightly for the past three weeks, but the capital has not been attacked in nearly five days.

Unconfirmed reports say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suspended targeting of Beirut at the urging of the US government.

After Sunday’s Hezbollah drone attack, Netanyahu threatened on Monday night that he would continue to attack the group in Lebanon “without mercy,” including Beirut.

Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem on Tuesday also issued a separate threat to Israel, saying the group had “a new calculation” to inflict pain on its enemies.

At the same time, Qassem, speaking on television, called for a ceasefire, saying it was the only solution to the current conflict. “If the Israelis don’t want it, we will move on,” he added.

According to data from the Lebanese government, Israeli attacks have killed at least 2,309 people in the past year, regardless of combatants and non-combatants.

Israel said about 50 Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, were killed.