Amnesty International has called on states to investigate three Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon in March as possible war crimes, after its own inquiry concluded the attacks killed 24 civilians, among them 12 children, and destroyed entire families. The London-based organisation said the strikes, which hit civilian homes in the districts of Tyre, Sidon and Nabatieh between 6 and 13 March, constituted either direct attacks on civilians or indiscriminate attacks, based on interviews with 15 survivors, relatives, medics and local officials, as well as satellite imagery and social media analysis.

Israeli authorities, responding to Amnesty’s queries about nine attacks including the three under scrutiny, said some operations had targeted Hezbollah military objectives and that other cases had been referred for internal examination. They stated a commitment to mitigating civilian harm and accused the Iran-backed group of using civilian infrastructure. However, Amnesty noted that the Israeli military did not provide specific information on the intended targets of the three strikes, despite follow-up requests. The rights group said it had reasonable grounds to conclude that Israeli forces violated international humanitarian law by failing to distinguish between civilians and military objectives, directing attacks against civilians or civilian objects, or failing to take all feasible precautions to minimise harm.

The strikes occurred in the opening weeks of a conflict that began on 2 March when Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel in support of its backer Iran, triggering large-scale Israeli air and ground operations. Lebanese authorities say the campaign killed more than 4,300 people, including over 250 children. A ceasefire took effect on 21 June, following a memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran on 17 June, and a US-backed framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel on 26 June aimed at a permanent end to hostilities. Yet Israeli troops remain deployed in a zone up to 10 kilometres inside Lebanese territory, and intermittent strikes continue, with Lebanese health officials reporting 65 deaths in the first 10 days of the truce alone. In Gaza, where a separate ceasefire has been in place since October 2025, Palestinian health officials say Israeli fire has killed at least 1,084 people since the truce began, including eight on 9 July, among them two children.

Amnesty’s deputy regional director, Kristine Beckerle, said the obliteration of entire families in a single week demonstrated a callous disregard for civilian lives, and urged all states to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel and to use universal and extraterritorial jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute those responsible. The Israeli military has not publicly detailed the targeting rationale for the three strikes, and the internal examination process remains opaque. Viewed from European and Middle Eastern capitals, the report adds to mounting international legal scrutiny of Israel’s conduct during the Lebanon campaign, even as the diplomatic architecture of the ceasefire remains fragile and dependent on continued US-Iranian engagement.