UNITED NATIONS, Sep 21 :The United Nations has condemned the suspected Israeli detonations this week of hand-held devices by Hezbollah members in Lebanon, stating that the attack violated international law and could be considered a war crime.
\n\u201cInternational humanitarian law prohibits the use of booby-trap devices disguised as harmless portable objects,\u201d Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told the UN Security Council which met in emergency session late Friday following Israeli strikes on Beirut, resulting in the deaths of at least a dozen people.
\nThe pager blasts , which killed at least 37 people and wounded nearly 3,000 on Tuesday and Wednesday, targeted communication devices used by the Hezbollah group.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a war crime to commit violence intended to spread terror among civilians,\u201d he added, reinforcing his call for an \u201cindependent, rigorous and transparent\u201d investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am appalled by the breadth and impact of the attacks,\u201d Turk said.
\n\u201cThese attacks represent a new development in warfare, where communication tools become weapons,\u201d he added.
\n\u201cThis cannot be the new normal,\u201d he added.
\nOpening the debate, the top UN political affairs official warned that the risk to security and stability, not only in Lebanon but also in the wider Middle East region, could not be clearer.
\nRosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peace-building Affairs, told the 15-member Council that strikes and exchanges of fire across the Blue Line, which have been going on for nearly a year, have expanded in scope and intensity.
\nIn some cases, she said, they reached much deeper into Lebanese and Israeli territory, displacing tens of thousands of people on both sides and causing numerous casualties, including among civilians.
\nLebanon\u2019s UN Ambassador, Abdallah Bouhabib, called the attack \u201can unprecedented method of warfare in its brutality and terror.\u201d
\n\u201cIsrael, through this terrorist aggression, has violated the basic principles of international humanitarian law,\u201d he said, calling Israel a \u201crogue state.\u201d
\nIsrael has declined comments on the device blasts but has said it will widen the scope of its war in Gaza to include the Lebanon front.
\n\u201cWe have no intention to enter a war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, but we cannot continue the way it is,\u201d Israel\u2019s Ambassador to the U.N., Danny Danon, told reporters Friday.
\nSpeaking at the Security Council, he said Israel would do \u201cwhatever it takes\u201d to restore security in northern areas.
\nUS Deputy Ambassador envoy Robert Wood said that Washington \u201cplayed no role\u201d in the deadly communication devices explosions.
\n\u201cThe Security Council cannot ignore the origins of this particular conflict between Israel and Hezbollah,\u201d he added,
\nExplosions of communication devices in Lebanon \u2018unheard of in history\u2019.
\nWood said, \u201cThe US continues to believe a diplomatic resolution is the only way to create the conditions for displaced Lebanese and Israeli civilians to return to their homes with safety and security.\u201d
\nChinese envoy Fu Cong also denounced the explosions of communication devices and described it as something \u201cunheard of in history.\u201d
\n\u201cThis practice is, without a doubt, a gross violation of a country\u2019s sovereignty and security and a blatant breach of international law, particularly international humanitarian law, is an act that tramples on human lives with unconscionable callousness,\u201d he said.
\nFu demanded a full investigation\u201d on the attacks and encouraged Israel to \u201cforego its obsession with the use of force and to halt without delay, its militia operations in Gaza, its violations of Lebanon sovereignty and security, and its adventurism that risks dragging the region into yet another devastating catastrophe.\u201d
\nRussia\u2019s Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the perpetrators of the explosion attacks \u201chave deliberately been seeking to foment a large-scale military confrontation.\u201d
\n\u201cThey have striven to provoke a new major Middle East war,\u201d he said, adding it was not the first attempt.
\n\u201cRussia considers the explosions a \u201cterrorist attack,\u201d resulting from the US administration\u2019s \u201cpseudo diplomacy,\u201d he said.
\nMeanwhile, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told reporters that the world body was \u201cvery concerned about the heightened escalation\u201d across the Lebanon-Israel frontier after Friday\u2019s Israeli strike on Beirut.
\nHe called for \u201cmaximum restraint\u201d from all sides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 21 :The United Nations has condemned the suspected Israeli detonations this week of hand-held devices by Hezbollah members in Lebanon, stating that the attack violated international law and could be considered a war crime. \u201cInternational humanitarian law prohibits the use of booby-trap […]<\/p>\n
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