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NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned this Wednesday that Israel’s deliberate attacks on buildings allegedly associated with the Al-Qadr al-Hassan Association, considered the financial wing of the Shiite militia party Hezbollah, amount to war crimes when working with civil infrastructure.

“Repeated attacks by the Israeli army on Lebanese financial institutions indicate a deliberate and unlawful attack on Hezbollah’s civilian wing. Designating a civilian institution as a military target because of its affiliation, rather than its effective contribution to the war effort, jeopardizes all commercial transactions during war,” condemned HRW Lebanon researcher Ramzi Qais.

Likewise, he stated that the Israeli army’s attacks on associations and groups offering services to hundreds of thousands of people because of their affiliation with Hezbollah “not only violate the laws of war, but also “They risk punishing those whose livelihoods depend on these services.”

The NGO recalled that since the Lebanese economic crisis in 2019, an increasing number of Lebanese have become clients of the association, which was sanctioned by Washington in 2007 for being used by Hezbollah to manage its financial activities. Israel, for its part, claims that the group provides financing, but not that it is directly involved in the armed conflict.

Thus, he emphasized that the use of a financial institution, association or bank by an armed group is not an effective contribution to the war effort and is therefore not a legitimate military objective under the laws of war.

Given this situation, HRW points out that Israel’s allies should suspend military aid and arms sales to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, given that they have been repeatedly used to commit crimes. serious violations of the laws of war.

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The Israeli attacks carried out on the night between Sunday and Monday hit about thirty offices belonging to the association and located in various parts of the country, but especially in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, as well as in the south and east of the country. .

Europe Press