AAAS Science and Human Rights Program

Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights

Lebanon: Destruction in Civilian Areas
Case Study Report

Summary

On July 12, 2006, the Lebanese political and paramilitary group Hezbollah killed eight Israeli soldiers and kidnapped two. Earlier in the morning, they had launched Katyusha rockets and mortars on the northern Israeli town of Shlomi. Israel responded by bombing Hezbollah posts and other areas in southern Lebanon and demanded the release of the two soldiers and the disarmament of Hezbollah. Hezbollah offered to exchange the soldiers for a large number of Lebanese, Palestinian, and other Arab prisoners currently held in Israel. These actions set off over a month of bloody attacks that left Southern Lebanon and large parts of Beirut devastated, and damaged parts of Northern Israel. Human Rights Watch reported that nearly 1,200 Lebanese and 39 Israelis had been killed, the vast majority of whom were civilians, and nearly half a million Lebanese and thousands of Israelis had fled their homes. The human rights organization established that both sides had violated international law in their indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and reported that Israel’s targeting of Lebanon's civilian infrastructure and its indiscriminate use of cluster munitions throughout Southern Lebanon had violated international humanitarian law.

Amnesty International asked the AAAS Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights project to attain images of damage to civilian infrastructure in both Northern Israel and Southern Lebanon. Amnesty International published a brief report examining whether destruction of civilian areas was deliberate or just a matter of "collateral damage."

Methods and Technologies

Project staff collected images from DigitalGlobe's Quickbird satellite for three areas of interest inside Lebanon: the city of Beirut and the towns of Sayda and Bint Jbeil. Imagery analysis was used to help corroborate reports by Amnesty International delegates documenting attacks. By obtaining before-and-after image sets, AAAS visually documented sites where human rights violations involving housing and infrastructure destruction have taken place.

Challenges

As the conflict between Lebanon and Israel unfolded, project staff found it challenging to keep up with and sort through large amounts of information and numerous ground reports of destruction. The access to instant real-time information detailing a modern conflict can easily overwhelm analysis efforts and confound the ability to use imagery analysis quickly as a means of corroborating reports. It became clear that, under such circumstances, it becomes necessary to make choices to limit focus to specific areas of destruction.

Although Amnesty International had requested imagery analysis of damage to towns in Israel attacked by Hezbollah, AAAS is unable to acquire imagery for northern Israel, as its quality is degraded in accordance with the Kyl-Bingaman Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997, Pub. Law No. 104-201, 110 Stat. 2422 (Sept. 23, 1996), at Div. A, Title X, Subtitle F, Section 1064, 110 Stat. 2653 (15 U.S.C. § 5621 note): Prohibition on Collection and Release of Detailed Satellite Imagery Relating to Israel. This amendment to the 1997 Defense Authorization Act prohibits private companies from selling high resolution satellite imagery of locations in Israel.

Results

AAAS acquired two images of Beirut City, Lebanon. The first image was acquired June 19, 2006 and the second, showing extensive destruction of the city, is from August 12, 2006, after the bombings. Project staff also acquired images of destruction in Bint Jbeil, a town in the south of Lebanon, showing destruction of the central market and commercial area, and where Amnesty International delegates report evidence of air-delivered munitions, artillery shelling and cluster bomb damage. These images can also be seen on the Amnesty International website.

Area 1: Beirut City

Area 2: Sayda

Area 3: Bint Jbeil

Further Applications

Despite restrictions on satellite imagery of Israel, project staff are working on attaining any useable imagery for towns attacked by Hezbollah, such as Haifa, Kiryat Shmona, Ma'alot, Nahariya, Karmiel, Safed, and others.

Further Sources