NEW YORK – After a weekend of attacks and counter-attacks between Hezbollah and Israel along Israel’s northern border, Israel struck 1,300 targets in southern Lebanon on Monday, and Hezbollah launched more than 200 missiles into Israel in a sharply escalated offensive. T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights responded by warning against the escalation, which they say will only lead to more death and destruction, while not making Israelis or Lebanese any safer. They urged international actors to intervene and prevent an all-out war.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah, said:
“We are gravely concerned about this escalation in Israel’s ongoing conflict with Hezbollah. There is no question that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization that has and continues to commit war crimes, including by directing missiles at civilian areas in Israel and Israel-controlled areas. Hezbollah has also never withdrawn its forces north of the Litani River in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1701. However, a full-scale war with Hezbollah has the potential for catastrophic consequences for the people of both Israel and Lebanon. The two disastrous previous wars in Lebanon, in 1982 and 2006, should demonstrate to both parties the need to learn from the past and seek to quell tensions.
“Israel, too, has already committed war crimes in Lebanon, including by exploding the beepers and walkie talkies of hundreds of Hezbollah members last week. Those holding these devices were not actively engaged in combat, and Israel knowingly endangered civilians, including children, in proximity to the explosives. Regardless of whether Hezbollah follows international law, we insist that Israel live up to its obligations under international law.
“Maimonides wrote that war should never be waged without first offering peace (Hilkhot Melachim 6:1). The prospect of all-out war with Hezbollah, which has a stockpile of approximately 150,000 missiles and rockets — including many with the ability to hit targets throughout Israel — is in no one’s interests. A wider regional war would be devastating for both Israel and Lebanon and lead to further turmoil and death in the region. We appreciate the diplomatic efforts of the U.S. and France to end this current escalation of the conflict, so that Lebanese and Israeli citizens forced from their homes near the border can return home, and encourage the international community to continue these efforts with urgency.
“Finally, we cannot know for sure whether ending the war in Gaza would end the conflict in the North. But we do know that Hezbollah has committed to continuing its attacks as long as the war in Gaza continues. And we also know that both Gazan civilians and the hostages still being held by Hamas after nearly a year desperately need the war to end. We urge Netanyahu to listen to the hostage families and to the hundreds of thousands of Israeli protesters who demand that he make a deal and end the war.”
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About T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights brings the Torah’s ideals of human dignity, equality, and justice to life by empowering our network of over 2,300 rabbis and cantors to be moral voices and to lead Jewish communities in advancing democracy and human rights for all people in the United States, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.