Israel’s displacement of civilians in Lebanon is a possible war crime

The Israeli tactics of mass expulsion of Lebanese civilians risk directly violating international law.

For the last two years, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has mapped Israel’s strategies of displacement in the occupied Palestinian territory, which have forced the people of entire refugee camps and neighbourhoods to flee, often under the immediate threat of air strikes or ongoing military operations.

We are now seeing the same tactics deployed in Lebanon.

Israeli evacuation orders include large swaths of the predominantly Shia population in southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of the capital, Beirut, roughly 15 percent of Lebanese territory.

People have sought refuge with friends and relatives or in government-run shelters, or have simply set up camp along the coastline of Beirut, itself the site of a recent Israeli strike .

In Gaza, the Israeli military forcibly displaced nearly all of its two million residents through an evacuation system that put people directly in harm’s way as they were pushed into ever smaller enclaves.

In both Gaza and the West Bank, Israel said it was targeting Palestinian militants and their infrastructure.

But this does not justify wholesale civilian displacement.

Israel is obliged to consider alternatives: mass displacement is a measure of last resort, and the authorities failed to show in Gaza and the West Bank that they had explored other ways to accomplish their military objectives and ensure that any displacement is temporary.

In fact, HRW found in both locations that the Israeli authorities, underlined by state policy, intentionally caused the massive, deliberate and long-term forced displacement of Palestinian civilians, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In both cases, senior Israeli officials have declared their aim to expel and keep Palestinians out of parts of Gaza and the West Bank.

So now in Lebanon, Israeli authorities may be starting the same process of forced displacement.

Several United Nations experts have raised the same alarm.

As the world watches scenes of mass displacement and destruction, countries with leverage over Israel should use it to halt ongoing atrocities, including by imposing targeted sanctions, suspending arms transfers, banning trade with illegal settlements, suspending preferential trade agreements, and supporting the International Criminal Court and its ongoing investigations, including by executing its arrest warrants.

The absence of accountability for violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza and the West Bank also needs to stop.

Without meaningful international pressure and credible prosecutions for war crimes and crimes against humanity, the Israeli authorities and their military will remain emboldened to pursue a strategy of forced displacement and permanent denial of return across the region.

The international community can and should do better.

Governments should urgently act to end the potential forced displacement of civilians in Lebanon, ensure their right to return, and prevent further attacks on Lebanese civilians.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.