Israel responsible for Qana attack; war crimes on both sides: HRW

The Israeli attack early Sunday "is the latest product of an indiscriminate bombing campaign that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have waged in Lebanon over the past 18 days, leaving an estimated 750 people dead, the vast majority of them civilians," the New York-based HRW said in a statement datelined Beirut Sunday.

"Todays strike on Qana, killing at least 54 civilians, more than half of them children, suggests that the Israeli military is treating southern Lebanon as a free-fire zone," said Kenneth Roth, HRW executive director.

"The Israeli military seems to consider anyone left in the area a combatant who is fair game for attack."

The appalling loss of civilian life in Qana underscores the need for the UN secretary general to establish an international commission of inquiry to investigate serious violations of international humanitarian law in the context of the current conflict, Roth said.

Such consistent failure to distinguish combatants and civilians is a war crime, he said.

HRW cited an Israeli military statement issued Sunday that said responsibility for the Qana attack "rests with the Hezbollah" because it has used the area to launch "hundreds of missiles" into Israel, and asserted it had warned residents of Qana several days in advance to leave the village.

"Just because the Israeli military warned the civilians of Qana to leave does not give it carte blanche to blindly attack," Roth said. "It still must make every possible effort to target only genuine combatants."

HRW recalled that even if Israeli military claims of Hezbollah rocket fire from the Qana area were correct, Israel remained under a strict obligation to direct attacks only at military objectives, and to take all feasible precautions to avoid the incidental loss of civilian life.

Tens of thousands of civilians remain in villages south of the Litani River, despite IDF warnings to leave. "The vast majority is unable to flee due to destroyed roads, a lack of gasoline, high taxi fares, sick relatives, or ongoing Israeli attacks. The sick and poor are those who mostly remain behind," it said.

The watchdog organization said its researchers have been in Lebanon since the onset of the current hostilities on July 12 and have documented dozens of cases in which Israeli forces have carried out indiscriminate attacks against civilians.

A report of these findings and their legal consequences will be issued later this week, it said.

HRW said it had also documented Hezbollahs deliberate and indiscriminate firing of Katyusha rockets into civilian areas in Israel, resulting in 18 civilian deaths to date.

"These serious violations of international humanitarian law are also war crimes," it said.

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