Israel in Lebanon

The Report of the International
Commission to enquire into reported
violations of International Law by
Israel during its invasion of the Lebanon

Chapter 11

Discrimination

The Law
This principle of international law prohibits acts of violence which strike indiscriminately the civilian population or combatants and civilian objects or military objectives. The Hague Rules of Aerial Warfare 1923 go so far as to say that where military objectives are situated in the immediate neighbourhood of cities, towns, villages, dwellings or buildings so ‘thatthey cannot be bombarded without the indiscriminate bombardment of the civilian population, the aircraft must abstain from bombardment’ (Article 24(3)). The ICRC Draft Rules of 1956 require of an attack ‘the greatest degree of precision. It must not cause losses or destruction beyond the immediate surroundings of the objective attacked’ (Art. 9). Article 10 provides generally: ‘It is forbidden to attack withoUt distinction, as a single objective, an area including several military objectives at a distance from one another where elements of the civilian population, or dwellings, are situated in between the said military objectives’. Article 14 deals with weapons with uncontrollable effects. The UN Convention on Excessively Injurious Weapons 1981 deals specifically with mines, booby-traps and other devices and prohibits their indiscriminate use, if it involvers ‘a method or means of delivery which cannot be directed at a specific military objective’ (Protocol II, Art. 3(3)). It also deals expressly with incendiary weapons (Protocol III, Article 2(3)):

‘It is further prohibited to make any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by means of incendiary weapons other than air-delivered incendiary weapons, except when such military objective is clearly separated from the concentration of civilians and all feasible precautions are taken with a view to limiting the incendiary effects to the military objective and to avoiding, and in any event minimising, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.”

The Institute of International Law, Edinburgh, 1969, expressed the principle as follows (Articles 7 and 8):

7. Existing international law prohibits the use of all weapons which, by their nature, affect indiscriminately both military objectives and non