Human Rights and Global Wrongs

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While the world’s attention is focused on the U.S.-Israeli aggression in Iran and Donald Trump’s genocidal proclamations, Israel is perpetrating genocide in Lebanon.

Trump threatened genocide in Iran on April 7, stating, “A whole civilization will die tonight.” The next day, he agreed to a two-week ceasefire. In response, Israel nearly immediately intensified its assault on Lebanon, even though the Pakistani officials facilitating the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran said that Lebanon was also covered by the ceasefire.

“Just hours after the world cautiously welcomed news of a US-Israeli ceasefire with Iran, in Lebanon the nightmare for civilians has become more terrifying,” Amnesty International reported. “Israel has an appalling track record of carrying out unlawful attacks in Lebanon and displaying a callous disregard for civilian life, fueled by the impunity Israeli officials feel they enjoy.”

On January 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice determined that Israel was plausibly committing genocide in Gaza and ordered it to prevent the commission of genocidal acts. Nevertheless, the continued failure of the world community to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza has emboldened it to replicate its genocidal strategy in Lebanon.

Israel’s Tally of War Crimes in Lebanon Increases in Wake of Exploding Pagers

Israel’s Genocidal Acts

Israel is pummeling southern Lebanon and displacing much of its population. As in Gaza, the Israeli actions fall squarely within the definition of genocide set forth in the Genocide Convention.

The Genocide Convention defines genocide as acts committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group,” including killing members of the group, inflicting serious bodily or mental harm on members of the group, or deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction in whole or in part.

Since March 2, 2026, Israel has killed more than 2,020 people in Lebanon and wounded over 6,436.

On April 8, the date of the ceasefire agreement, the Israeli military launched more than 100 airstrikes “within ten minutes and across multiple areas simultaneously,” including in densely populated areas in Beirut, without warning, killing at least 303 people and injuring more than 1,150, Lebanon’s health ministry reported.

Israel is also conducting mass demolitions in several Lebanese villages along the Israel-Lebanon border. The Israeli military is rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground with remote detonations.

“The possibility that Hezbollah may use some civilian structures in Lebanon’s border villages for military purposes does not justify the wide-scale destruction of entire villages along the border,” according to Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher for Human Rights Watch.

Israel said it will occupy large swathes of southern Lebanon to establish a “security zone” in the entire area up to the Litani River, and displaced people will not be permitted to return to........

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