Lebanon lodges complaint at UN against Israel over deadly strikes

Lebanon’s permanent mission to the United Nations has filed a formal complaint before the UN Security Council following the death of at least 10 civilians in two Israeli airstrikes in the south of the country.

Addressing the rotating President of the Security Council Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, the mission noted that the strikes against civilians amount to "war crime", Elnashra news website reported on Friday.

“While international humanitarian law guarantees protection of civilians and civilian facilities, Israel’s deliberate and direct bombing of civilians in their homes is considered a violation of international humanitarian law and amounts to a war crime,” reads the complaint.

An Israeli strike knocked down part of a building in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh on Wednesday, killing seven members of the same family, including a child, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said. A boy initially reported missing was found alive under the rubble.

In a separate Israeli attack, a woman and her two children were killed in the village of as-Sawana in southern Lebanon.

The complaint added that the airstrikes are “considered a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty, as well as safety of its lands and citizens."

The attacks "breach upon all United Nations resolutions that require Israel to stop its violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty and end its occupation of Lebanese lands, including Resolution 1701 (2006),” the mission added.

The Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah has promised to retaliate for Wednesday’s strikes, stating that Israel would pay “the price” for killing 10 people, including five children in southern Lebanon.

“The enemy will pay the price for these crimes,” Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah told Reuters news agency.

“The resistance will continue to practice its legitimate right to defend its people,” he pointed out.

SS