https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/09/exploding-pagers-and-radios-terr...Exploding pagers and radios: A terrifying violation of international law, say UN experts
19 September 2024
GENEVA (19 September 2024) – UN human rights experts* today condemned the malicious manipulation of thousands of electronic pagers and radios to explode simultaneously across Lebanon and Syria as “terrifying” violations of international law.
The attacks reportedly killed at least 32 people and maimed or injured 3,250, including 200 critically. Among the dead are a boy and a girl, as well as medical personnel. Around 500 people suffered severe eye injuries, including a diplomat. Others suffered grave injuries to their faces, hands and bodies.
“These attacks violate the human right to life, absent any indication that the victims posed an imminent lethal threat to anyone else at the time,” the experts said. “Such attacks require prompt, independent investigation to establish the truth and enable accountability for the crime of murder.
“We express our deepest solidarity to the victims of these attacks,” they said.
The pagers and radios were reportedly distributed mainly among people allegedly associated with the Hezbollah movement, which includes civilian and military personnel and is involved in an armed conflict with Israel along the border.
“To the extent that international humanitarian law applies, at the time of the attacks there was no way of knowing who possessed each device and who was nearby,” the experts said. “Simultaneous attacks by thousands of devices would inevitably violate humanitarian law, by failing to verify each target, and distinguish between protected civilians and those who could potentially be attacked for taking a direct part in hostilities.
“Such attacks could constitute war crimes of
murder, attacking civilians, and launching indiscriminate attacks,
in addition to violating the right to life,” the experts said.
Humanitarian law additionally prohibits the use of booby-traps disguised as apparently harmless portable objects where specifically designed and constructed with explosives – and this could include a modified civilian pager, the experts said. A booby-trap is a device designed to kill or injure, that functions unexpectedly when a person performs an apparently safe act, such as answering a pager.
“It is also a
war crime
to commit violence intended to spread terror among civilians, including to intimidate or deter them from supporting an adversary,” the experts warned. “A climate of fear now pervades everyday life in Lebanon,” they said.
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Hezbollah EXPLODING pager attack in Lebanon (Read 4368 times)
