Amnesty calls for international investigation into ‘pager’ bombings blamed on Israel in Lebanon

Amnesty International (AI) on Friday called for an international investigation into the “massive and simultaneous” explosions this week attributed to Israel against paging devices across Lebanon and Syria, which killed at least 37 people and injured nearly 3,000 more.

“The attacks were carried out indiscriminately, would be illegal under international humanitarian law and should be investigated as war crimes,” the NGO said, alleging that its officials “were unable to verify who else in the vicinity of the devices would have been injured at the time of the explosion.”

Amnesty has called for an “urgent” international investigation to “clarify the facts” and “hold the perpetrators accountable” for actions that, according to the organization, “also violated, at the very least, the right to life under international law, which continues to apply in situations of armed conflict.”

“Even if the attacks were aimed at military objectives, detonating thousands of devices simultaneously without being able to determine their exact location or who possessed them at the time of the attack demonstrates a blatant disregard for the right to life and the laws of armed conflict,” said Aya Majzoub, Deputy Director of AI’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

In a statement, the NGO also called on the UN Security Council to take “all measures within its power to ensure the protection of civilians and prevent further unnecessary suffering” in the region.

The statements come after a wave of explosions involving electronic devices in Lebanon left at least 20 dead and more than 450 injured, adding to the 12 dead and 2,800 injured the day before in the explosion of hundreds of ‘pagers’ in the hands of alleged members of the Hezbollah party-militia.

Both the Shiite group and the Lebanese authorities have denounced the attacks as the work of Israel. For its part, Amnesty has not pointed the finger at Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as responsible. However, the statements by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday about a “new era” of war with Lebanon “have been interpreted as an implicit recognition of Israel’s role in the attacks.”

“The massive explosions in Lebanon and Syria in recent days bear the hallmarks of a sinister dystopian nightmare. The use of explosive devices hidden in everyday telecommunications equipment to carry out deadly attacks of such scale is unprecedented,” Majzoyub said, noting that the attacks between Israel and Hezbollah have forced more than 60,000 Israelis and 113,000 Lebanese to flee their homes.