BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Wednesday condemned Israel’s “systematic destruction” in the country’s south as a violation of international law, as Israel’s defense minister said its military was “destroying all the houses” there.
Salam said Israeli “attacks, incursions, demolitions and the systematic destruction of homes,” infrastructure, government buildings and places of worship “represent a serious violation of the principles and rules of international law and international humanitarian law.”
Claiming that villages and towns “are entirely ‘military facilities’ does not stand up to any logic and cannot be used as an excuse for destroying them, displacing their inhabitants and preventing them from returning,” he said in a statement.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz visited southern Lebanon on Wednesday, vowing to keep troops in a so-called “security zone” there and saying the Israeli military was “destroying the underground infrastructure” in the area and “destroying all the houses.”
Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in March by attacking Israel, which responded with heavy airstrikes and a ground invasion that Lebanese authorities say have killed more than 4,300 people.
