NEW YORK CITY: The United Nations has said that the detonation of hand-held communication devices reportedly used by Hezbollah in Lebanon this week violated global law and could be a war crime.
A senior UN official also warned on Friday that escalation between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel in Gaza and Lebanon could lead to an unavoidable spiral into a wider regional war. The blasts of pagers and walkie-talkies on Tuesday and Wednesday killed around 37 people and injured over 3,000 others following they detonated in public areas.
Hezbollah blamed Israel for the violence, but Israel has not commented directly on the strikes and attacks. The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that it was a war crime to carry out violence intended to spread fear and terror among civilian population. Speaking to a UNSC briefing on the assaults called for by Algeria, Turk stated that he was appalled by the extent and impact of the assaults.
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He added: “These assaults represent a new development in warfare, where the tools of communication become arms simultaneously exploding across markets, on street corners, as well as in homes as daily life unfolds.”
He further said that this type of action could not be the new normal, saying there was a need for an independent, transparent and thorough probe into the blasts.
