Femena expresses deep concern over the rising military escalation between Israel and Hezbollah over the past few days. According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, at least 569 people have been killed, including 50 children, and 1,835 have been wounded in Israel’s intense bombardment of different regions in Lebanon. Monday marked Lebanon’s highest daily death toll since the end of the 1975-90 civil war. Israel’s heaviest barrage in almost a year of cross-border clashes has led to the displacement of tens of thousands of people from south Lebanon, who fled along the main road towards Beirut. The Lebanese government has allocated nearly 150 public schools as shelters for those fleeing violence.
The intensive bombardments across Lebanon over the past few days came after the detonation of pagers and walkie-talkies of Hezbollah members last week, an indiscriminate act widely believed to have been orchestrated by Israel. The detonations killed nearly 40 people and wounded more than 3,000, including children and innocent bystanders, and overwhelmed hospitals across the country. Hezbollah has targeted military facilities in northern Israel and vows to maintain its strikes in solidarity with the Palestinians. Over the past year, Hezbollah has launched hundreds of rockets into north Israel, causing the authorities to order the evacuation of border villages. However, the hundreds of rockets and drones it has fired into Israel have caused few casualties, by comparison. Mounting escalations in strikes and counterstrikes have raised serious concerns over a full-fledged war.
World leaders gathered on Tuesday for their annual meeting at the U.N. General Assembly amidst rising global tensions and major wars, including those taking place in Gaza and Lebanon which threaten a wider conflict in the Middle East. While leaders discussed the escalating situation, it is critical to note that a sustainable peace cannot be achieved without addressing the international crimes committed by all factions to the conflict, but of which Israel holds the highest responsibility, with over 41,000 killed and 95,921 people wounded in Gaza alone, most of whom are women and children.
We call on the international community to hold all actors accountable for the wide array of atrocities committed, as well as place an embargo on the supply of weapons to Israel by Western governments, particularly the US and Germany. The arms embargo has been backed by UN experts, who state that weapon transfers to Israel are likely to violate international humanitarian law. The urgent demand for an arms embargo is consolidated by the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) January 2024 ruling concerning the plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and the continued impacts on civilians.
We reiterate that a positive peace can only be achieved if the rights and dignity of all those residing in the region are respected and protected. This calls for a just peace plan for Palestine and Lebanon and the immediate end of Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as well as East Jerusalem. Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories has been deemed unlawful by the ICJ, as well as through a recent UNGA resolution where members voted overwhelmingly to end the occupation of Palestinian territories. We also demand that Israel refrain from a ground invasion and the reoccupation of southern Lebanon to create a “buffer” zone.