Why Israel's pager attacks in Lebanon violated international law

Fear and shock are palpable in Beirut as a sense of doom weighs on the Lebanese capital’s residents one week after two waves of Israeli attacks involving booby-trapped Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies left the country on edge.

Since then, mass Israeli airstrikes on Monday have killed upwards of 550 people – the deadliest day in Lebanon since the 1975-90 civil war – while ongoing attacks in the south have forced thousands to flee.

Citizens and experts are still trying to make sense of what happened to them when thousands of telecom devices rigged with explosives were detonated across the country, killing nearly 40 people and injuring more than 4,000.

“We never thought we'd see anything like it. What we saw on Tuesday and Wednesday was... I mean, my mind couldn't really comprehend it, to be honest,” Jad El Dilati, Middle East and North Africa program coordinator at Minority Rights Group, told The New Arab.

“I was driving from Nabatiyeh [in south Lebanon], where my family lives, to Beirut - one of these beepers exploded in a car next to me. It could have swerved and killed many,” he said.

Psychological warfare

Just weeks before the explosions, the human rights worker had co-authored an article about Israel’s psychological warfare against Lebanon.

“A non-lethal type of warfare, psychological warfare uses non-combat techniques to instil fear among the targeted community and alter perceptions of the enemy,” it read. Lebanon has experienced “almost all textbook tactics” of psychological warfare, Dilati says.

These range from sonic booms over populated areas and social media disinformation, to drones carrying loudspeakers telling people that the war is Hezbollah’s fault or issuing fake evacuation orders.

Last week’s attacks, even if they were ostensibly aimed at Hezbollah fighters, have been likened to psychological warfare in its most intense form.

“There definitely was a psychological effect to the attack,” Dilati said. “People were not thinking straight for two days in a row, looking at these everyday technological devices, at phones, at Wi-Fi routers, thinking that they might explode any minute - people saw something unprecedented that made them fear their neighbours.”

For Dilati, the double attacks could clearly be described as an “act of terrorism”.

“People who live among us, neighbours, friends, family members, women, having their eyes blown out, pieces of their flesh taken out, blood everywhere – they exploded in stores, pharmacies, and supermarkets – it was super graphic and traumatising,” he said.

“That definitely instilled a sense of frustration, uncertainty, and insecurity - I think Israel wanted to deal a blow to Hezbollah that is strong enough to rally public opinion against them.”

'Massacre'

Joseph Daher, a researcher and professor at the University of Lausanne and author of several books on Hezbollah, agrees.

“What we saw was a much bloodier and more violent psychological war. The Lebanese are being told that even those who are not directly involved in the war can be a potential target,” he told The New Arab.

Analysts agree that psychological considerations may have been one objective of Israel’s attack, together with breaching Hezbollah’s security and weakening the group militarily.

“It is a blow for Hezbollah soldiers’ morale and their social milieu,” Daher explained. “Within the popular base, there may be frustrations at the fact that the safety of their loved ones is no longer guaranteed, and they may be hit in the middle of their own home,” the researcher added.

“There won’t be mass desertions or vocal criticism, but the attack could reinforce opinions that run counter to those of Hezbollah's leaders,” he added.

Violating international law

In Lebanon, the pager attacks have been described as ‘terrorism’, a ‘massacre’, and even as a form of ‘genocide’.

While such terms reflect the traumatic experiences of a nation, international law experts are more divided on how to classify the attacks.

“International humanitarian law prohibits the launch of attacks spreading terror among the civilian population - but this requires evidence that it was its primary purpose,” Marco Longobardo, associate professor of international law at Westminster University in the UK, told The New Arab.

And, in the case of Lebanon’s pager explosions, proof is lacking. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack, and it probably never will – as is its standard policy for undercover operations.

But there are at least three ways to condemn the attacks, he added. “Assuming that Israel carried out this attack, it would have to prove that it was necessary in order to exercise self-defence against Hezbollah’s strikes,” Longobardo analysed.

“But I don’t think it could, because the explosions didn’t affect the group’s operational structure and didn’t destroy any military infrastructure.”

"Israel did not respect the principle of distinction: it had no way to know who would be holding the pagers and to make sure they wouldn't be civilians. It didn't even try to discriminate between civilian and military targets"

The modus operandi also raises questions. The explosions were carried out by inserting explosives into 5,000 of Hezbollah’s newly ordered pagers and walkie-talkies, at the time of their production, according to reports.

“This can be considered as using booby traps, which are prohibited under international law - as well as using inoffensive-looking civilian objects,” the scholar explained.

Pagers and walkie-talkies are widely used by civilians and medical personnel - two of which were killed during last week’s explosions, along with two children and other civilians.

“This shows that Israel did not respect the principle of distinction: it had no way to know who would be holding the pagers and to make sure they wouldn’t be civilians. It didn’t even try to discriminate between civilian and military targets,” Longobardo said.

“This is unlawful under international humanitarian law. The attacker should have used a weapon that could not be circulated amongst civilians,” the scholar concluded.

War crimes

Several human rights groups and experts have reached similar conclusions.

“Under international humanitarian law, any attacks that are indiscriminate are unlawful,” Aya Majzoub, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, told The New Arab.

“And the evidence that we were able to gather demonstrates that whoever planned and carried out these attacks couldn't verify who was in the immediate vicinity of the devices and who was harmed by the explosion,” she added.  “The attack should therefore be investigated as a war crime.”

Shortly after, Amnesty International released a statement calling for an international investigation. “The UN Security Council should take all the measures at its disposal to ensure protection of civilians and avoid more needless suffering,” the communiqué read.

“An international investigation must urgently be set up to establish the facts and bring the perpetrators to justice.”

This will not be easy, as neither Lebanon nor Israel can be held accountable by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“We're also asking Lebanon to ratify the Rome Statute, which would give the ICC the jurisdiction to look into war crimes committed on Lebanon's territory,” Majzoub explained.

For her, the psychological terror that rippled through Beirut, where her office is located, was all too real.

“The first second after we started hearing the news about exploding devices, it just felt surreal. It felt like a dystopian nightmare,” she said. “The scale of the attack, the wide-reaching impacts just terrified the entire population.”

This prompted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to reiterate that “civilian objects” must not be turned into weapons.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, stated that those responsible for these attacks “will be held accountable”, stressing that these acts constitute “a violation of international human rights law and, insofar as it is applicable, of international humanitarian law”.

Last week’s attacks, however, might simply be added to a long list of war crimes and human rights violations Israel has committed without facing any legal condemnation.

“The frustration is the main aspect of it because we saw what they can do at any moment, and the impunity they have to do it. I haven't seen a proper condemnation from any Western country to what happened,” Jad El Dilati said.

As devastating airstrikes rain down on Lebanon’s south, southern Beirut, and the Bekaa Valley, many Lebanese told The New Arab they felt abandoned as the world stands by and watches, with many fearing they could share a similar fate to Gaza.

Philippe Pernot is a French-German photojournalist living in Beirut. Covering anarchist, environmentalist, and queer social movements, he is now the Lebanon correspondent for Frankfurter Rundschau and an editor for various international media. 

Follow him on Twitter: @PhilippePernot7