Statement of Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Abdallah Bou Habib before the United Nations Security Council on the Situation in Lebanon and the Middle East
New York – September 20, 2024
Mr. President,
Your Excellencies,
No one in this world is safe anymore after the recent cyberattacks that occurred in Lebanon, surpassing all imagination and comprehension. These attacks resulted in thousands of innocent civilian casualties, including children, women, and the elderly. The responsibility of the Security Council is not only toward the innocent Lebanese victims who unjustly perished but also toward humanity as a whole. If this act of terrorism passes unnoticed by this Council, without accountability, with the perpetrators unidentified, unpunished, and without being forced to halt such assaults, the credibility of this Council, international law, and the Charter of Human Rights will be at grave risk. If you accept what has happened, you are consenting to open Pandora’s box, where other states and extremist groups will follow Israel’s example and target civilians indiscriminately using this lethal technology. No one will be able to prevent its future use to target civilian aircraft, trains, and other means, leading to indiscriminate killings and terrorizing of civilians.
Is this not terrorism in its purest form when an entire population is targeted in its cities, streets, markets, and homes, while civilians go about their daily lives, not fighting on battlefronts? It is enough to simply observe the identity of the victims to understand what has occurred. Are we now required to accept the extermination or incapacitation of the Lebanese people as collective punishment? We are right to ask: isn’t this the very scenario that senior Israeli officials have declared? Look at the horror of what happened in these images…
To shed light on what took place and its results, on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, Israel launched a wide-scale cyberattack targeting thousands of mobile devices known as pagers, leading to their explosion. The next day, on September 18, 2024, Israel once again detonated hundreds of wireless devices of another type. Additionally, on September 19, 2024, Israel terrorized the residents of Beirut and other areas by conducting low-altitude flights with fighter jets, repeatedly breaking the sound barrier, causing widespread panic, especially among children. Today, Israel launched a missile attack deep within one of the most densely populated areas of Beirut’s southern suburbs, destroying a residential building and, in an initial count, killing 12 people, including children, and wounding 66 others.
These attacks, thus far, have caused the deaths of dozens of people, including children and women, and have injured thousands, hundreds of whom are in critical condition. Hundreds more have suffered disfiguring injuries, lost limbs, or their sight entirely. This attack has overwhelmed hospitals and medical staff, placing them in an unprecedented state of emergency and stretching their capacities. It has also spread a wave of fear and panic among civilians across all Lebanese regions.
These attacks represent a dangerous and unprecedented precedent in the history of warfare, following a series of Israeli statements about launching a comprehensive war on Lebanon and returning it to the Stone Age. Israel did not stop at these attacks but followed them with official statements and a tweet by an advisor to its prime minister, which was quickly deleted, confirming their involvement and celebrating the success of this aggression. This deliberate act undermined the work of international mediators trying to broker a ceasefire in Gaza and southern Lebanon, as well as the Lebanese government’s efforts to de-escalate and exercise restraint.
In this context, we emphasize that the mass and treacherous detonation of thousands of remote communication devices, without regard for who carried them or who was near them, constitutes an unprecedented and barbaric method of warfare. Targeting thousands of people of all ages across densely populated areas in Lebanon, as they went about their daily lives in homes, streets, workplaces, and shopping centers, is terrorism in its purest form and a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and the Charter of Human Rights. Without a doubt, this act qualifies as a war crime.
The First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, concerning the protection of victims of armed conflicts, states in Article 35 that "the right of parties to the conflict to choose methods and means of warfare is not unlimited," meaning that the use of electronic explosions in communication devices as a method of warfare—an unconventional method—must be subject to international and humanitarian law, particularly the principle of protection (Article 48), which mandates the protection of civilian populations, and the principle of precaution (Article 57), which requires parties to take all necessary precautions in military operations to avoid civilian casualties and damage to civilian property. The protocol also prohibits acts of violence or threats of violence intended to spread terror among civilians (Article 51) and bans treachery in killing, injuring, or capturing an adversary (Article 37). Israel's actions in this terrorist aggression violated the basic principles of international humanitarian law by indiscriminately targeting civilians without military necessity, and the attack was disproportionate to any perceived threat.
Mr. President,
It is now clear that Israel does not adhere to international law or humanitarian law, nor to resolutions issued by United Nations bodies. Israel has consistently ignored international legitimacy and human rights because it is used to not being held accountable, receiving only weak condemnations for its violations, which merely express regret. This emboldens Israel to disregard international decisions, none of which have been enforced against it since 1948. Consequently, Israel has become a rogue state. Nonetheless, we cannot accept this as the status quo. We cannot allow Israel to continue evading accountability and punishment. Israel has learned nothing from its repeated invasions of Lebanon over the decades, from which it has reaped only failures and defeats, the latest being its withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, leaving behind its weapons and equipment. This new adventure that Israel promises us will be nothing more than an ugly replica of its predecessors, repeating the same failures achieved in its futile war on Gaza and its children—nothing but misery, extremism, and destruction. This could also lead to a devastating regional war, unlike any seen before, in terms of the scale of its geography across the Middle East, the types of advanced and precise weaponry used, the scale of destruction, and the number of casualties.
Mr. President,
The voices of the Lebanese, government and people, have become hoarse from declaring that we are not war enthusiasts, nor are we seekers of vengeance. We demand justice, a diplomatic solution, and the return of displaced people to their villages. Let Israel know, no matter how great its military and technological power, that it will not return its displaced to their villages by force of arms, but instead, it will only displace those who have not yet been displaced if it expands its aggression. Israel has no place in this region unless it reconciles with its people, not just with their rulers, by granting the Palestinians their legitimate rights and the promised state, as this organization committed to more than 75 years ago. No matter how long it takes or how many sacrifices are made, rights will return to their rightful owners.
We come to you today not only to defend Lebanon and its innocent victims but to preserve our collective humanity, seeking clear and unequivocal condemnation of Israel's terrorist attacks, holding Israel fully accountable for planning and executing these acts, and recognizing this as a blatant violation of Lebanon's sovereignty, its territorial integrity, and a flagrant breach of the United Nations Charter and Resolution 1701 (2006). Lebanon also demands the cessation of Israel's war machine to avoid the outbreak of a devastating regional war and to preserve the credibility of the United Nations and its role in maintaining international peace and security, a role that Lebanon continues to believe in despite everything that has happened and is happening. We are not asking today for new resolutions that will remain mere ink on paper, as has unfortunately always been the case with regard to Israel and its interests.
Mr. President,
In conclusion, heartfelt thanks to our sister Algeria, representing the Arab group in the Security Council, for its unwavering support of Lebanon in both good times and bad.
I appeal to the members of this Council to stand on the right side of history, to defend justice and peace, and to support Lebanon in its quest for security and stability. We have arrived at the moment of truth, and we place ourselves at the disposal of the justice and credibility of the United Nations before the entire world. Either this Council compels Israel to stop its aggression, implement Resolutions 1701 and 2735, end its wars on all fronts, and facilitate the return of displaced people to their towns, or we will be mere witnesses to the great explosion looming on the horizon. Know that, before it is too late, this explosion will spare neither East nor West, and when that moment comes, regret will be of no use, and we will all return to the dark ages. War stands before you, and Resolutions 1701 and 2735 rest in your Council’s drawers. The choice is yours: will your esteemed Council act swiftly and decisively to stop the drums of war that are beating across the entire Middle East, or will we remain mere spectators watching the fireball roll on? The choice is yours: peace or fire. I have raised my voice from this podium, and I repeat for the third time, as we stand amid the conflict: ‘Give peace a chance’... ‘Give peace a chance’ before it is too late.
Has Israel not had its fill of wars, conflicts, killings, and destruction? Is it not time to shorten the distances and spare us all the suffering, to plant the seeds of a better future for our peoples, and to lift the burdens of this conflict from the coming generations? …Thank you."