Amnesty International on Thursday called for three Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon to be investigated as war crimes, after its own inquiry concluded that 24 civilians, including 12 children, were killed in attacks on residential buildings between 6 and 13 March. The London-based organisation said it had “reasonable grounds” to find that Israeli forces violated international humanitarian law in each strike, either by failing to distinguish between civilians and military objectives, by directly targeting civilians, or by not taking all feasible precautions to minimise harm. The report, based on interviews with 15 survivors, relatives, medics, journalists and local officials, examined strikes in the districts of Tyre, Sidon and Nabatieh.

Responding to Amnesty’s queries about nine attacks, including the three under scrutiny, Israeli authorities stated that some operations had targeted Hezbollah military objectives, while other cases had been referred for internal examination. The military said it remained committed to mitigating civilian harm, but according to Amnesty it did not provide specific information on the intended targets of the three strikes, despite follow-up requests. Kristine Beckerle, Amnesty’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, described the attacks as “wiping out entire families” and urged states to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel and to use universal and extraterritorial jurisdiction to pursue prosecutions.

The strikes occurred in the opening weeks of the conflict that erupted on 2 March, when Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel in support of its backer Iran. Israel responded with large-scale airstrikes and a ground invasion that, according to Lebanese authorities, have killed more than 4,300 people, including over 250 children. A ceasefire brokered by Washington and Tehran came into effect on 21 June, followed by a US-backed framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel on 26 June aimed at a permanent end to hostilities. Yet Israeli forces remain deployed up to ten kilometres inside Lebanese territory, and intermittent strikes on southern Lebanon have continued, some of them fatal. Lebanese security sources and local media have recorded dozens of Israeli violations since the truce began, including air raids, artillery shelling and ground incursions.

Viewed from Beirut, the Amnesty findings reinforce long-standing accusations that Israel’s rules of engagement fail to protect civilians. In Gaza, where a separate ceasefire has been in place since October 2025, Palestinian health officials report that at least 1,084 people have been killed in Israeli military actions since the truce took hold, with total deaths since October 2023 exceeding 73,000. On 9 July, medical sources said eight Palestinians, including two children, were killed in a series of airstrikes and shootings across the enclave, while an Israeli strike in Gaza City killed a prominent aid official organising public World Cup screenings. The Israeli military said that incident had targeted a Hamas militant and that the aid worker was not the intended target. The Amnesty dossier now adds to a growing body of documentation that international legal experts say could form the basis for future accountability proceedings, though no state has yet announced concrete steps to launch a formal investigation.