UN rapporteur says deadly Israel strikes on vehicles in Lebanon could be war crimes

A firefighter douses the flames of a fire that took over a cement manufacturing complex following a series of Israeli airstrikes, in the village of Ansar, near Doueir, southern Lebanon, on Oct. 16, 2025. (AFP)

• “Unless there is compelling evidence that those civilian objects have dual (military) objectives... the strikes are illegal,” said Tidball-Binz
• “The killings resulting from the attacks violate the right to life “

BEIRUT: A United Nations special rapporteur told AFP on Friday that deadly Israeli strikes on ostensibly civilian vehicles in Lebanon since last year’s ceasefire could amount to war crimes, despite Israel’s assertion they targeted Hezbollah members.
Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon in spite of the November 2024 truce, which sought to end more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed militant group that culminated in two months of open war.
The Israeli military usually says it targeted Hezbollah operatives or infrastructure with its strikes, dozens of which have killed people traveling on Lebanese roads in cars and on motorbikes, or occasionally using excavators.
“Unless there is compelling evidence that those civilian objects have dual (military) objectives... the strikes are illegal,” said Morris Tidball-Binz, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
“The killings resulting from the attacks violate the right to life and also the principles of precaution and proportionality and, in my opinion, also amount to war crimes,” he told AFP in a written statement.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency on Friday reported unspecified casualties in an Israeli strike targeting a car in the country’s south.
And on Thursday, some of the heaviest Israeli raids since the ceasefire hit south Lebanon, with the health ministry saying one person was killed and seven others wounded.
The Israeli military said it targeted Hezbollah infrastructure and facilities used by an NGO under US sanctions that Israel considers a cover for the militant group.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said the strikes targeted civilian facilities, condemning a ceasefire violation and “a systematic policy aimed at destroying productive infrastructure” and hindering the country’s recovery.
The south Lebanon water establishment said Friday the raids had completely destroyed its strategic fuel depot.
The stricken facility “contained half a million liters of fuel oil” used to operate electricity generators for water stations and wells, it said in a statement.
At a heavily damaged cement factory, sales manager Ali Khalifeh told AFP that “we are a 100 percent civilian complex.”
He said more than a dozen air strikes hit the site, which “produces asphalt and concrete. It’s one of the biggest asphalt mixers in Lebanon.”
An AFP correspondent overnight saw firefighters battling a huge blaze at the factory.
“We had a huge quantity of liquid tar,” Khalifeh said, adding: “That’s what blew up, in addition to the fuel oil and the diesel” and other fuel.
Last week, Israeli strikes targeted bulldozer and excavator yards in south Lebanon’s Al-Msayleh area, destroying more than 300 pieces of machinery.