MILITARY OPERATIONS BY LEBANESE GUERRILLA FORCES

Lebanese guerrillas who plan and carry out military activity against Israeli and SLA soldiers and other military targets in occupied south Lebanon are bound by the requirements of international humanitarian law. The guerrillas are in blatant violation of the laws of war when they deliberately target the civilian population inside Israel. Hizballah political leaders have consistently and publicly asserted that the guerrillas have a right to retaliate militarily against Israeli civilians in reprisal for Lebanese civilian deaths caused by Israeli military forces. At the beginning of Operation Grapes of Wrath, Hizballah's secretary-general, al-Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, promised residents of northern Israel that reprisals would be forthcoming: "What concerns us is that when our civilians are touched your civilians will be touched, too, no matter what consequences they talk about. Yesterday our civilians were the target of aggression, a clear and flagrant aggression. We will respond to the aggression and will bombard the settlements in northern Palestine."154 On April 14, a Hizballah spokesman told the Reuter news agency in Beirut: "We are firing dozens of Katyusha rockets into Zionist settlements. The northern settlements will be hit continuously and heavily and we will transform northern Israel into hell."155

A total of 639 Katyusha rockets were fired into Israeli territory during Operation Grapes of Wrath.156 About 28 percent of the total were launched on April 14 (eighty-one), the day after an Israeli helicopter attacked an ambulance in Mansouri, killing six civilians, and on April 19 (ninety rockets), the day after nine civilians were killed in a house in Upper Nabatiyeh in the early morning and over one hundred civilians perished later that afternoon in Qana.

Indiscriminate Attacks in Northern Israel

The prevailing view of Israeli official and unofficial sources interviewed by Human Rights Watch was that the Katyusha attacks during Operation Grapes of Wrath were aimed at Israeli civilians. Ninety of the 639 Katyusha rockets fired into Israel landed in the vicinity of the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona, fifty-eight of them in thecity proper, all causing injury or property damage, according to Israeli sources interviewed by Human Rights Watch.157 The three serious Israeli civilian casualties during the conflict were all residents of Kiryat Shmona.

According toYedidya Freudenberg, head of emergency services in Kiryat Shmona, there were direct hits on eleven houses in Kiryat Shmona, and seven of them sustained heavy damage. Two of the homes were totally destroyed, and two were completely destroyed by fires ignited when the Katyushas exploded. Another 250 homes were moderately damaged, and 1,757 were lightly damaged. He added that most structures that were not directly hit by rockets were damaged by shrapnel. Freudenberg told Human Rights Watch that 2,018 homes were damaged in the city, out of a total of 5,800 homes. The area of the Havradim housing development alone, home to 2,100 people, was hit eight times. Three hundred factories and manufacturing plants were also damaged, seven of them badly. Most of these buildings were located within the city's industrial zone, where rockets fell on April 19, April 23, and April 26. Freudenberg described the extent of the damage:

The worst destruction was to homes and businesses. Also seven schools and day-care centers in the city were damaged. In terms of the length of the operation, the number of rockets that fell, and the amount of property damage sustained, these attacks were much worse than during Operation Accountability in 1993. Of course, in 1993, two of our residents were killed and there is no way to factor such a loss. The main thing to remember is that these attacks [were] committed against families, against civilians.158

Kiryat Shmona's Gimel neighborhood was without phone service for four days (April 13, April 16, April 19 and April 24), and various neighborhoods suffered power outages of between three to eight hours daily throughout much of Operation Grapes of Wrath, Freudenberg told Human Rights Watch. Nearby Kibbutz Kfar Giladi was without electricity for twenty-four hours on April 18.159 The total monetary losses from damage to electricity and telephone systems in northern Israel reportedly reached 1 million NIS (U.S. $280,000), according to the Israeli Income and Property Tax Commission.

According to Gideon Giladi, head of security at Kibbutz Kfar Giladi, which is located about five kilometers north of Kiryat Shmona: "At least eighteen rockets fell on our property. By the third day, we could see from the map charting rocket hits that the kibbutz itself was the target."160 Other settlements in the Panhandle region of the Galilee also came under indiscriminate fire, particularly settlements surrounding Kiryat Shmona to the west (Margaliot and Menara), the northeast (Kfar Giladi and Ma'yan Baruch), and the southwest (Yiftah, Malkiyya, and Keren Naftali). The central Galilee (Ma'alot and Tarshicha) suffered slightly fewer attacks; while the Western Galilee was the safest. The pattern reflects the degree of IDF control over adjacent areas inside Lebanon from which rockets were fired.161

The home of the Sabagi family in the cooperative village of Margaliot, located a few kilometers west of Kiryat Shmona, was damaged by shrapnel on April 18, after a rocket fell on their chicken coop, about thirty-five meters from the house. Rivka Sabagi recalled:

When I came back to the house afterwards, I couldn't believe it. The walls were torn up and there were holes in most of the living room furniture. The television had exploded and glass was everywhere. The damage came to about $11,000, which we will be compensated for.162

In the Katyusha attacks that preceded Operation Grapes of Wrath, the Azulai family of Kiryat Shmona sustained $100,000 worth of damage to their home on April 9, 1996, when a Katyusha hit an electricity pole about five meters from their house. "It looked like a bomb had gone off in the living room," said Yitzhak Azulai, a local textile worker and the father of five children. "All eight rooms were damaged. The roof was destroyed and almost all of the windows were broken by the blast. The bedroom wall looked like someone had taken a machine gun to it --it was full of holes from flying shrapnel."163

Terrorizing and Targeting the Civilian Population

The IDF told Human Rights Watch that, particularly at the beginning of Operation Grapes of Wrath, the Katyusha attacks appeared timed to yield maximum casualties: rockets were fired in the early morning, when civilians set out for work and school, and in the evening when residents returned home.164 But residents of the north said that after the first three days, the rocket fire became more sporadic. "Once they knew we were in the shelters, they fired at all hours to keep us guessing," said Ahud Orli of Kiryat Shmona. "This made it impossible to know when it might be safe to come out."165

The Katyushas typically were fired in volleys of between two to seven at a time. On April 16, for example, six rockets landed in a Kiryat Shmona neighborhood at the same time. The next day, pairs of rockets rained on different parts of the city throughout the day.166 "It's a war of nerves," one resident told Human Rights Watch. "You never know where or when the next Katyusha will land." Dan Frank, a restaurant owner in Kiryat Shmona, emphasized how the Katyusha attacks terrorized the civilian population:

It's true that the Katyushas cause damage and have even killed people in the past. But you can't really argue that the rockets are a military threat to Israel. The point of the Katyushas is simply to destroy the morale of people here. It's a form of terrorism -- holding a civilian population hostage to the policies of its government. On this count, the rockets are quite effective. People here are indeed terrorized. My six-year-old daughter is afraid of every noise she hears. Lots of kids here havesevere problems in school -- they can't concentrate, they have nightmares. Living in Kiryat Shmona you wake up every morning and check to see that you're still alive. That's the point of the rockets.167

Compared to Operation Accountability in 1993, more Israelis chose temporary shelter outside the range of Katyusha fire instead of staying behind in shelters. Although no IDF evacuation orders were issued, tens of thousands of Israelis fled the north, most of them independently and some with the assistance of municipalities and local councils.168 The displacement of civilians was most pervasive in Kiryat Shmona. In safer areas and in kibbutzim, many residents remained, except for some infirm and elderly who were evacuated.

In Margaliot, more than 90 percent of the 450 inhabitants fled to the south.169 Rivka and Yisrael Sabagi, a middle-aged couple, stayed through the first week of Operation Grapes of Wrath, then headed for Netanya as part of the organized evacuation. Mrs. Sabagi told Human Rights Watch:

At first I was not afraid. Katyushas here are like storms: what can you do? Besides, we had to maintain our chicken coop. I sent my daughter to relatives in Haifa and my husband and I stayed to work. We finally left on the morning of April 18. It was just too much. That night a rocket landed on the chicken coop, killing thousands of birds and causing $95,000 worth of structural damage. We got a call from someone who had stayed behind, telling us that our property was hit. I cried the whole way home, wondering how bad the destruction was, thinking about our thirty-eight years here trying to build something for ourselves and the kids. Thank God no one was here when it happened. We probably would have been hurt if we had been at home.170

Sarah Krimling, a resident of Metullah on the northern border, chose not to evacuate:

For me it's harder to be away, no matter how frightening the situation is at home. During Grapes of Wrath I left for two days, but returned because I felt terribly cut off. At least in Metullah you always know exactly what's happening. Any child here can tell the difference between the sound of our artillery and theirs. Being able to keep tabs on the situation, to count every explosion, gives you an illusion of control. It helps combat the terror. It's traumatic either way -- fleeing or staying put. I suppose it depends on what kind of stress you are better able to cope with.171

Civilian Casualties and Damage

No Israeli civilians were killed as a result of the Katyusha attacks but sixty-two were injured, three of them seriously, and another sixty-five were treated for shock, according to information provided to Human Rights Watch by the IDF spokesman.

Three Israeli civilians were seriously injured by Katyushas that landed in Kiryat Shmona. Seventeen-year-old Hannah Azulai was asleep in her family's home when a rocket hit an electricity pole about five meters from the house on April 9. Shrapnel blew out the window and hit Azulai in the thigh. She was rushed to Rebecca Sieff Hospital in Safed in serious condition, after severe hemorrhaging.172 Hani Chemi, who is married to Kiryat Shmona Deputy Mayor Yossef Chemi, was seriously injured on April 12 when a rocket exploded two meters from her car. "She wasn't burned, even though the gas tank ignited," recalled Ayal Abromov, who arrived at the scene while Chemi was still trapped in the burning car. "But the whole back of her head was bloody."173 Chemi was evacuated by helicopter to Rambam Hospital in Haifa. She suffered serious internal injuries and severe but temporary memory loss.174 Twenty-nine-year-old Shula Ben Hamo was also flown to Rambam Hospital in serious condition. She was wounded by shrapnel in her face and neck after a rocket exploded about thirty meters away from the car in which she was riding on April 18.175

Another fourteen people in Kiryat Shmona were treated for light injuries from shrapnel, and fifty-nine others for shock.176 Thirty-three-year-old Ayal Abromov, a mechanic in Kiryat Shmona, was one of the dozens of Israelis who was lightly wounded. He described the circumstances of the attack that injured him:

It was April 24 -- Israeli Independence Day -- and I was going to get a cake for a small celebration; one of those attempts to maintain a semblance of normal life. I was driving north out of Kiryat Shmona when a rocket crashed into the oncoming lane, about seven meters from my car. I heard the explosion -- I still hear it in my sleep -- and then all of the windows in the car shattered. I was hurled into the passenger seat. The car was still speeding down the road, rocking back and forth crazily from the impact of the rocket. I managed to get back into the driver's seat and gain control of the car. Luckily the roads were deserted. I drove myself to the emergency medical station where they removed shrapnel from my eye. I still have muscle spasms in my left eye, and intermittent hearing loss and extensive pain and ringing in my ears.177

The Israeli Finance Ministry calculated the damage caused by Katyushas at 170 million NIS ($47.6 million).178 The Israeli Income and Property Tax Commission estimated that approximately 2,000 houses andapartments in the Galilee were damaged: over half of them (some 1,100 units) sustained light to moderate damage, primarily of windows and siding, while 900 sustained more serious structural damage, according to information provided to Human Rights Watch by the commission.179

Israeli residents of the north stressed the financial impact of the Katyusha attacks on the local work force. "Property destruction, whether to homes or businesses, [was] not the main cause of financial hardship," said Amnon Kadri, who runs a gas station on the outskirts of Kiryat Shmona. "For most people I know, the biggest factor [was] lost work days."180 The seventeen-day military conflict brought to thirty-two the total number of lost work days in Kiryat Shmona in 1996, according to Yedidya Freudenberg. Throughout the areas of northern Israel visited by a Human Rights Watch representative, residents confirmed that lost work days were the most significant financial liability of the Katyusha attacks. Kibbutz Kfar Giladi, for example, lost nearly a half-million dollars because its chalk and optics factories were forced to suspend operations. "The factories themselves were not damaged," commented Gideon Giladi. "But we had to stop work for two-and-a-half weeks -- and continue to pay people. Our guest house business, which wasn't hit either, nevertheless lost more than $15,000." The Israeli Hotel Association reported a one-third drop in national tourism, which it attributed to hostilities in the north. The Association reported that the tourism industry in the north suffered a revenue loss of 7.5 million NIS ($2.1 million).181

Violations of International Humanitarian Law

The Katyusha attacks terrorized the civilian population in northern Israel, and forced the displacement of tens of thousands of residents. Katyusha rockets are inaccurate weapons with an indiscriminate effect when fired into areas where civilians are concentrated. The use of such weapons in this manner is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law. In addition, when guerrillas fired the rockets in reprisal for attacks by Israeli military forces that killed or injured Lebanese civilians, they committed another grave violation of the laws of war.182

Military Activities in South Lebanon

UNIFIL sources in south Lebanon told Human Rights Watch that during Operation Grapes of Wrath the guerrillas generally fired Katyushas from protected valleys or open fields adjacent to or outside villages. "You can't fire a Katyusha from inside a village," one source said. He did note, however, that there had been instances during Operation Grapes of Wrath when guerrillas fired from inside villages with SA-7 anti-aircraft missiles and AK-47s "when helicopters came close."183 Human Rights Watch is unaware of any documentation provided by Israel to substantiate that Katyusha rockets were fired from inside towns or villages in south Lebanon occupied by civilians during Operation Grapes of Wrath. Timor Goksel, the senior UNIFIL political advisor in Lebanon, told HumanRights Watch in October 1993 that, in his many years of experience with UNIFIL, he was unaware of the firing of Katyushas from inside villages.184

Human Rights Watch did obtain confirmation from one Lebanese guerrilla, however, that Katyusha rockets were fired during Operations Grapes of Wrath from at least one village that he claimed had been emptied of civilians.The guerrilla, whose wife was killed in Operation Accountability in 1993, said that he and other fighters in Adchit had fired Katyusha rockets at northern Israeli settlements, and anti-aircraft guns at Israeli aircraft and helicopters. Asked if they fired from within the village, he responded, "Once the civilians left -- yes, we fired from here and everywhere," sweeping his arm to indicate the surrounding hills. "We fired at the villages of Kefar Yuval, Safad, Jada'un, Nahiriyyah, and Kiryat Shmona....We have excellent maps of northern Israel." Asked if these were military targets, he responded: "They are Israeli targets. They hit our villages, we hit theirs."185

But as the investigation of the events leading up to the Israeli artillery barrage on Qana makes clear, the guerrillas did launch rockets and mortar from sites near the packed U.N. base. The U.N. report on Qana documented that the guerrillas carried out the following military operations near the base on April 18: firing two or three rockets between noon and 2:00 p.m. from a location 350 meters southeast of the base; firing four or five rockets between 12:30 and 1:00 p.m. from a location 600 meters southeast of the base; and firing five to eight mortar rounds from a location 220 meters southwest of the center of the base at about 1:45 p.m.186 The mortar, according to what witnesses told the U.N. investigators, "was installed there between 1100 and 1200 hours that day, but no action was taken by UNIFIL personnel to remove it. (On 15 April, a Fijian had been shot in the chest as he tried to prevent Hezbollah fighters from firing rockets.)"187

Lebanese civilians sheltered at the Qana base clearly were sensitive to the potential danger created by the close proximity of the guerrillas' military equipment and activities. According to a Fijian officer interviewed by Human Rights Watch, when Lebanese women sheltered at the base learned of the shooting of the Fijian soldier on April 15, "they offered to go and sit at the site to stop [the guerrillas] from firing."188 The site from which the rockets were fired on April 15 was about 220 meters from the base, Human Rights Watch learned. Human Rights Watch also learned that, in incidents such as these, patrols would be sent out to negotiate with the guerrillas to relocate to a distance further away from the base, so that the base itself would not draw Israeli counterfire. It was during the course of such a negotiation that the Fijian officer was shot. Human Rights Watch was also informed that, in the past, the Fijian peacekeepers had called upon Lebanese army soldiers stationed in a small office across the road from the base to help negotiate with the fighters, and that the Lebanese soldiers had in the past escorted the fighters away without incident.

Human Rights Watch obtained information about the guerrillas' military operations near the Qana base on April 18, prior to the Israeli artillery barrage. A Fijian sentry on duty at the time, who was interviewed in the presence of an officer, said that he recorded two Katyusha rockets and eight rounds of mortar fired from a secluded, low-lying spot near a small cemetery that is across the road, behind a block of homes and apartments, and situated below the Qana base. The sentry could not see the guerrillas themselves, because of their location in the valley, but observed their approximate location and the nature of the fire. He reported the incident, as required under standard operatingprocedures. The time was about 1:52 p.m. Within a few minutes, according to the officer, the base dispatched an interpreter to talk with the Lebanese Army, and members of Amal (a rival Shi'ite political movement that also carries out military activities against Israel and the SLA in south Lebanon), who were located across the road, to negotiate with the fighters to cease firing so close to the base. This mission was aborted because the Israeli retaliatory shelling of the area began. The sentry told Human Rights Watch that he recorded an incoming artillery shell from the southeast that appeared to hit at or close to the location from which the mortar had been fired. The shelling continued, he said, starting in the vicinity of the cemetery and then continuing toward the Qana base. "I phoned our boys when the shelling began. I counted thirty-seven rounds before the thirty-seventh hit the camp."189

Violations of International Humanitarian Law

For Lebanese guerrillas, one of the most relevant rules in the context of their military operations in south Lebanon is the one that requires their forces "to the maximum extent feasible...avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas."190 This rule clearly encompasses the positioning of mortars and Katyusha rocket launchers within or in close proximity to concentrations of civilians, including displaced civilians sheltered on U.N. bases.

Because they positioned and launched rockets and mortar shells from sites close to the Qana base on April 18, Lebanese guerrilla forces also bear responsibility for the civilian casualties caused by the massive Israeli retaliatory fire. The burden is on the guerrillas to explain the military necessity that required its forces to carry out military operations at these specific locations in such close proximity to a large number of civilians, particularly given their long experience with the predictability of Israeli counterfire in such circumstances. The rules of customary international humanitarian law require all parties to a conflict to take constant care to spare civilians in the conduct of military operations. In the days and hours leading up to the Qana massacre, the guerrillas exhibited a willful disregard for the safety of the civilian population.

Human Rights Watch is also deeply concerned about reports that Lebanese guerrillas on more than one occasion during Operation Grapes of Wrath targeted and injured U.N. peacekeepers who sought the cooperation of guerrillas to relocate military equipment and activities a safer distance from UNIFIL positions. In addition to the case of the Fijian officer described above, UNIFIL also reported that "two Nepalese soldiers were injured by Islamic Resistance elements in response to the Force's attempts to prevent the latter from launching rockets from the vicinity of UNIFIL positions."191 Such actions are unjustifiable and must be condemned.

Human Rights Watch/Middle East

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The staff includes Kenneth Roth, executive director; Susan Osnos, associate director; Michele Alexander, development director; Cynthia Brown, program director; Barbara Guglielmo, finance and administration director; Patrick Minges, publications director; Jeri Laber, special advisor; Lotte Leicht, Brussels office director; Susan Osnos, communications director; Jemera Rone, counsel; Wilder Tayler, general counsel; and Joanna Weschler, United Nations representative. Robert L. Bernstein is the chair of the board and Adrian W. DeWind is vice chair.

Its Middle East division was established in 1989 to monitor and promote the observance of internationally recognized human rights in the Middle East and North Africa. Hanny Megally is the executive director; Eric Goldstein is the research director, Joe Stork is the advocacy director; Virginia N. Sherry is associate director; Clarisa Bencomo, Elahé Sharifpour-Hicks, and Nejla Sammakia are research associates; Gamal Abouali is the Orville Schell fellow; Georgina Copty and Awali Samara are associates. Gary Sick is the chair of the advisory committee and Lisa Anderson and Bruce Rabb are vice chairs.

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Human Rights Watch requested statistics about Lebanon's economic losses during Operation Grapes of Wrath from the Lebanese government, in order to include the information in this report. Despite repeated requests to the Embassy of Lebanonin Washington, D.C., this information was not provided as this report went to press.