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WASHINGTON (Islam Online)-Amnesty International U.S. is calling for an investigation into incidents in which Lebanese civilians were killed in south Lebanon during the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Force (IDF) from the region and the collapse of the South Lebanon Army (SLA), Israel's proxy militia.. Information gathered by Amnesty International during a fact-finding visit to south Lebanon suggests that in at least four incidents on May 22nd and 23rd, Israeli forces directed tank fire from the Israeli side of the border at Lebanese civilians, killing four people and injuring several others. "If these attacks were indeed willfully directed at civilians, the Israeli army has committed war crimes and those responsible should be brought to justice," said Amnesty International. "These killings happened after the withdrawal of the IDF and SLA when there was no hostile military action and many Lebanese civilians were on the move celebrating the withdrawal and their return to their villages," charged the organization. "The people killed appear all to have been targeted without warning." On May 22nd, one man and a 16-year-old boy were killed on a road facing the Israeli village of Manara. Hundreds of civilians, including many children, and some armed people had been driving or walking along the road celebrating Israel's withdrawal and the return of villagers to south Lebanon when the attacks took place. According to witnesses, 22-year-old 'Abd al-Karim 'Assaf from Mays al-Jabal, was killed when a shell fired without warning from an Israeli tank slammed into the Mercedes car he was driving. Five other people in the car were injured. Shortly after, another shell exploded near a pick-up truck, which was approaching the burning Mercedes, killing Ibrahim Maruni, aged 16, from Shaqrah. Salman Rammal was killed in the Lebanese village of 'Adaysah by tank fire apparently coming from the Israeli border near the Israeli village of Misgav Am. He was operating a bulldozer to remove an SLA roadblock after the SLA had left. There were dozens of people celebrating around him when he was killed. On May 23rd 'Abd al-Rahman ('Abed) Taqqush was killed on the same stretch of road facing Manara, where the two other fatal attacks had taken place the day before. Witnesses who were near the car when it was hit, and others watching from Manara, said an Israeli tank fired at the stationary car in which 'Abed Taqqush was making a phone call. This attack was followed by bursts of machine-gun fire apparently aimed at civilians, including foreign journalists who were sheltering in a nearby building. The laws of war included in the 1949 Geneva Conventions and its two 1977 Additional Protocols categorically prohibit any direct attack against civilians or civilian objects, including in reprisal. It also prohibits attacks that do not attempt to distinguish between military targets and civilians, as well as attacks, although aimed at legitimate military targets, that disproportionately impact civilians or civilian objects. |
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