Air raid on Cana

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Location of Cana in Lebanon.
Depiction of the attack on Cana according to the CIA .

The air strike on Cana was an attack by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) on July 30, 2006 on the site of Cana in southern Lebanon. A three-story building collapsed after a bomb hit , killing 27 people.

The air strike took place at the end of the third week of the war. Immediately after the attack, the media reported that the attack had killed 54 people, including 37 children. The US NGO Human Rights Watch corrected these numbers on August 2, 2006 to 27. It relied on information from the hospital in Tire . However, these corrected figures included a victim that was mistakenly attributed to this attack.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) justified the attack by saying that Hezbollah had repeatedly launched Katyusha rockets from around the destroyed building .

Human Rights Watch doubted that Hezbollah militiamen operated from there. The organization relies on the statements of eyewitnesses as well as on its own assessment of the scene on the day after the attack and explicitly mentions the lack of military equipment and corresponding corpses.

The attack was a turning point in the course of the war due to international reactions.

Procedure according to the residents

The Israeli Air Force bombed around 1:00 a.m. Residents testified that part of the building collapsed immediately and, according to eyewitness reports, killed several young children. After the first air strike, some people had left the building to assess the damage and within ten minutes the building was hit by a second air strike, causing the walls to collapse and killing the residents who had not escaped.

In the days following the attack, conflicting versions of the timing had circulated, particularly when the building had collapsed. Local residents rejected claims by Israeli forces that the building did not collapse until hours after the attack.

Reports of the incident appeared in Arab media about seven hours after the attack. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz , the Arab media gave no information about when the building collapsed.

Delay in rescue

The Lebanese Red Cross in Tire received the first alarm call after the bombing at 7:00 a.m. According to the head of the Red Cross station in Tire, Sami Yazbuk, the previous bombing of the streets delayed the arrival of the Red Cross personnel. There are reports that the air strike continued during the rescue work.

Lebanese position

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the bombing of Cana made a ceasefire even more urgent. He called Israel a " war criminal " and canceled talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice . Siniora called the United Nations Security Council to hold an emergency meeting. AFP had reported, citing a Lebanese member of parliament, that 15 of the children killed were physically or mentally disabled and had been waiting to be removed. However, the report did not name the originator of this message. There are no indications of disabilities in the list of victims published by HRW.

Timeline according to Israeli information

A senior Israeli Air Force officer said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had targeted the area since July 28, 2006 and that the hit building was selected as a target based on intelligence. According to this, Hezbollah militiamen with Katyusha rockets and launch ramps had hidden inside. IDF officials also said they believed the building was "empty". "We warned the residents that we would attack there," said the officer. "We work on the assumption that the villages are empty and that whoever is there is connected to Hezbollah."

According to the IAF chief of staff, Brigadier General Amir Eshel, missiles hit the building shortly after midnight. He said that he did not know when the building collapsed, but "According to foreign press reports, and these are the reports we are referring to, the building collapsed at eight in the morning. We have no testimony regarding the timing of the collapse. If the house collapsed at midnight, it's hard for me to believe they waited eight hours to evacuate. "

  • Senior IAF officers testified that the collapse could have been caused by a missile that did not explode immediately or by a Hezbollah explosive device.

The IDF has not released any footage of the airstrike itself, but a video posted on the Israeli army website shows, according to the IDF, that some time before the incident in Kana, rockets were fired and launch pads were hidden in residential areas of the village.

Investigations of the attack

The airstrike and the resulting casualty rate, which was too high in the initial reports, sparked global outrage and, under pressure from public opinion, an investigation into the incident. Images by photographer Adnan Hajj played a not insignificant role. Reuters withdrew 920 photos taken by the freelancer a few days later because some of them had been edited with a photo editor. Others were accused of having been asked.

Investigation by the IDF

On August 2, 2006, the IDF said their investigation into the incident was completed. The report was not published, but handed over to Defense Minister Amir Peretz and the then Chief of the General Staff Dan Chalutz . This commented on the incident in a press release. Following the statement, the Israeli Army believed the building was empty, and Chalutz added, “It was attacked with two IDF bombs at 12.25am on Sunday. One of the bombs exploded, the other was apparently a dud. ”The statement accused Hezbollah of using human shields and noted that the Israeli army“ was operating according to information that the building was not inhabited by civilians but as one Hideout was used for 'terrorists'. ”Had it been known that civilians were in the building, Chalutz said,“ the attack would not have been carried out. ”The statement also contained the comment that the building was in the neighborhood“ closed Sites from which missiles were launched against Israel "and that before July 30 the IDF targeted" some other buildings in the area that were part of the infrastructure for 'terrorist activities'. "

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch called for an international investigation into the incident because the Israeli statement raised questions rather than answers. Such an investigation has not yet taken place. The organization criticized the IDF for stance that the attacks were legitimized after warning civilians to leave the area: "The warnings are not an excuse to blindly shoot anyone who is left behind . "

Human Rights Watch announced on August 2, 2006 that the original estimate of 54 people killed was based on a register that a total of 63 people had sought refuge in the basement. Only nine survivors were found by the rescue teams. Human Rights Watch corrected this statement after conducting its own research on the ground. Human Right Watch revealed that their own investigators did not find any destroyed military material in or near the building. “Similarly, none of the dozen of journalists, rescuers and international observers who visited Kana on July 30th and 31st saw any evidence of Hezbollah's military presence in or around the building. The rescuers did not recover any corpses that appeared to be Hezbollah fighters from the building or near the building. ”A later review found that the number of victims of the airstrike erroneously included a man who was involved in the specific one Day in Cana was killed elsewhere. As a result, 27 people were actually killed in the attack, including 16 children. Human Rights Watch believes that the initial hoax was not tampered with, but was caused by the confusion that prevailed at the time.

Details of the bomb

Part of the bomb with the English inscription FOR USE ON MK-84 GUIDED BOMB BSU-37 / B was reportedly dug out on the spot. Accordingly, it was a 2000-pound high-explosive bomb of the US standard type Mark 84 , which was equipped with a laser aiming device. In 2004 Israel received about 2500 of this type of bomb from the United States of America.

Reactions

The attack sparked international indignation. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan sharply condemned the attack. "Nothing can justify the bombing of Cana," said EU chief diplomat Javier Solana . The ICRC saw the attack as a violation of humanitarian law and Amnesty International accused Israel of " war crimes ".

Thousands of people demonstrated against Israel and the United States in downtown Beirut . Many of them stormed the United Nations representation there. The staff fled. A UN base was also attacked in Gaza City. Around 2,000 people first threw stones at the offices, then broke into the building and devastated it. Security forces were able to drive away the rioters.

Some commentators stressed that, similar to the 1996 artillery attack on Cana , the IDF had responded to repeated Hezbollah rocket attacks. Both incidents had resulted in increased pressure on Israel to declare a ceasefire. Kana's strategic location at the intersection of five major roads may have contributed to its repeated crossfire.

At times, speculation based on weblogs surfaced in the media that the incident in Cana was staged by Hezbollah. This assumption was refuted as unfounded. The Reuters news agency admitted, however, that photos it had published from Beirut had been manipulated. The collaboration with the Lebanese freelance photographer Adnan Hajj , who also provided photos of the 2006 air raid on Cana, was then ended.

On July 31, 2006, under US pressure, Israel agreed to suspend air strikes on southern Lebanon for up to 48 hours to allow civilians to escape and an investigation into the incident. However, the air strikes continued less than 24 hours later.

Israeli Position and Fourth Geneva Convention

After the Fourth Geneva Convention must

"[T] he presence of a protected person [...] cannot be exploited to make certain points or areas immune to military operations."

- Article 28 of the 4th Geneva Convention

Attacks on purely civilian facilities are strictly prohibited under the convention. Civil targets, such as houses, may be attacked if they are used militarily and the attacks are proportionate. The military benefit of the attacks must outweigh the danger to the civilian population.

The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed regret over the incident, but said the residents had been asked to leave the area. According to Olmert, Hezbollah used Kana to store and launch Katyusha rockets and abused the villagers as living shields: "We will not hesitate before Hezbollah and we will not stop the offensive because of the difficult circumstances."

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations accused Hezbollah of being to blame for the civilian victims. According to Dan Gillerman , Israel "has repeatedly called on the people of Cana to leave." Gillerman continued, "I wouldn't be surprised if Hezbollah forced them to stay."

See also

Web links

Commons : Lebanon War 2006  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Why They Died: Civilian Deaths in Lebanon during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War . (PDF; 2.42 MB) Human Rights Watch , September 2007. Volume 19, no. 5 (E), pp. 119–123 (English)
  2. ^ Dozens killed in Lebanon air raid . BBC , July 30, 2006
  3. ↑ a b Israel / Lebanon: Qana Death Toll at 28 . Human Rights Watch , August 2, 2006
  4. ↑ Lebanon / Israel: IDF Fails to Explain Qana Bombing . Human Rights Watch , Aug. 3, 2006
  5. ↑ Devastating mistakes . Tagesspiegel , August 2, 2006
  6. ↑ a b UN 'They found them huddled together' . ( August 21, 2006 memento on the Internet Archive ) The Guardian , July 31, 2006
  7. ^ Inside a death house .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. The Australian , August 4, 2006@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.theaustralian.news.com.au  
  8. ↑ What really happened in Cana? FAZ , August 3, 2006
  9. ↑ Qana villagers refute IDF claims building fell hours after strike . Haaretz , July 31, 2006
  10. ↑ Testimonies from Qana: the building was struck twice in ten minutes .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Haaretz , July 30, 2006 (Hebrew)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.haaretz.co.il  
  11. ↑ a b c It was like a huge earthquake . Tagesschau archive, July 30, 2006
  12. ↑ 15 disabled children killed in Qana . ( Memento of the original from May 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. The Australian , July 31, 2006 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.theaustralian.news.com.au
  13. ↑ Kana collapse was hours after attack .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Jerusalem Post , July 30, 2006@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / fr.jpost.com  
  14. ↑ IDF says it may not be responsible for Qana deaths . ( Memento of the original from August 3, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Haaretz , August 1, 2006 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.haaretz.com
  15. ↑ Kana collapse was hours after attack .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Jerusalem Post , July 30, 2006@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / fr.jpost.com  
  16. ↑ Israel agrees to a two-day ceasefire .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. aargauerzeitung.ch, July 30, 2006@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.aargauerzeitung.ch  
  17. ↑ 55363.wmv ( English ) Israeli Army. Archived from the original on February 28, 2008. Retrieved August 27, 2019.
  18. ↑ IDF: 150 rockets fired from Qana at Israeli cities . ( Memento of the original from February 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Jerusalem Post , July 30, 2006 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / fr.jpost.com
  19. ↑ Reuters withdraws all photos by Lebanese freelance . Reuters , August 7, 2006
  20. ↑ Completion of inquiry into July 30th incident in Qana . Israel Defense Forces , August 2, 2006
  21. ↑ IDF: Intel. failure caused Kana deaths . ( Memento of the original from August 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Jerusalem Post @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / fr.jpost.com
  22. ↑ IDF: We assumed building in Qana to be empty . Ynetnews , August 2, 2006
  23. ↑ Lebanon / Israel: IDF Fails to Explain Qana Bombing . Human Rights Watch , Aug. 3, 2006
  24. ^ Photo of the bombshell cryptologon.com, Associated Press
  25. ↑ Annan: We must strongly condemn this act . In: FAZ , July 30, 2006
  26. ↑ Kana: ICRC alarms about disregard for humanitarian law . ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Basler Zeitung , July 31, 2006 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.baz.ch
  27. ↑ Amnesty accuses Israel of war crimes . Focus -online, August 1, 2006
  28. ^ Qana makes grim history again . BBC News , July 31, 2006; Retrieved August 4, 2006
  29. ↑ Advice of the False Guardians. How bloggers do propaganda in the Lebanon war . In: Die Zeit , No. 33/2006.
  30. ↑ Reuters withdraws all photos by freelancer . ( Memento of the original from October 25, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Reuters , August 7, 2006 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / today.reuters.com
  31. ^ Israel halts fire for Qana probe . BBC , July 31, 2006
  32. ^ Israeli strikes resume after brief lull . Associated Press via Yahoo , July 31, 2006
  33. ↑ English version of the 4th Geneva Convention (Wikisource)
  34. ↑ Israeli warplanes strike targets deep in Lebanon . MSNBC , July 31, 2006
  35. ↑ Israeli warplanes strike targets deep in Lebanon . MSNBC , July 31, 2006
  36. ↑ Headlines for July 31, 2006. ( Memento of the original from November 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Democracy Now , July 31, 2006 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.democracynow.org