UN urges probe into deadly Israeli strike in Northern Lebanon

AFP , Tuesday 15 Oct 2024

The United Nations on Tuesday demanded a "prompt, independent and thorough investigation" into an Israeli strike on the northern Lebanese village of Aito, which it said had killed 22 civilians.

Aito
Lebanese army soldiers and others walk past the rubble of a destroyed building at the site of a previous Israeli air strike on the village of Aito in northern Lebanon. AFP

 

"What we're hearing is that amongst the 22 people who were killed were 12 women and two children," UN rights office spokesman Jeremy Laurence told reporters about Monday's strike, which he said appeared to have hit a four-story residential building.

"With these factors in mind we have real concerns with respect to... the laws of war and the principles of distinction, proportion and proportionality," he said.

"Our office calls for a prompt, independent and thorough investigation into this incident."

An AFP photographer at the site of Monday's strike in the north said the attack had leveled a residential building at the entrance to the Christian-majority village.

Body parts were scattered in the rubble, with Red Cross volunteers searching for survivors in the wreckage while ambulances evacuated the wounded.

Hezbollah had been exchanging cross-border fire with Israel for almost a year, saying it is acting in response to Israel's devastating ground and air assault on Gaza.

The near-daily exchange of fire across the Israel-Lebanon border led to the displacement of tens of thousands of people on both sides even before the dramatic escalation last month, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to crush Hezbollah.

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