BEIRUT: The UN human rights office will deploy a team of investigators to Lebanon next week to assess potential violations of international law by all parties during the current war in the country, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Wednesday.
Lebanon was drawn into the wider Middle East conflict on March 2 when the Tehran-backed Hezbollah militia fired rockets at Israel in solidarity with Iran, which was under US-Israeli attack, prompting a major Israeli air and ground campaign.
“It’s the first time that we are sending this assessment mission, and the idea is indeed to look at violations by all parties — violations of international law, violations of international human rights law, and to document this, and eventually to report back to you on our findings,” Turk said.
More than 3,600 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon and more than one million Lebanese are displaced. The US declared a ceasefire on April 16 but fighting has continued, and Lebanon says Israel has carried out nearly 3,500 strikes since the truce was announced.
The crisis is rapidly eroding food security, with nearly one in four people in Lebanon — about 1.24 million people — expected to face crisis and emergency levels of food insecurity until August, according to the UN.
Meanwhile, a strike hit the centre of the southern Lebanese city of Sidon on Wednesday, an AFP correspondent said, as Israeli attacks continue across the country's south.
The correspondent heard an explosion in the area before seeing a car burning as rescuers and firefighters were heading to the scene.
