NEW YORK CITY: The UN on Friday said the detonation of hand-held communication devices reportedly used by Hezbollah in Lebanon this week violated international law and could constitute a war crime.

A senior UN official separately warned on Friday that escalation between Israel and Iran-backed groups in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon could lead to an inevitable spiral into a wider regional conflict.

The explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies on Tuesday and Wednesday killed at least 37 people and wounded more than 3,000 others after they detonated in public areas filled with civilians across Lebanon.

Hezbollah quickly blamed Israel for the violence, but the Israeli government has not commented directly on the attacks.

“It is a war crime to commit violence intended to spread terror among civilians,” said the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.

Speaking to a UN Security Council briefing on the attacks called for by Algeria, Turk said he was “appalled by the breadth and impact of the attacks.”

He continued: “These attacks represent a new development in warfare, where communication tools become weapons simultaneously exploding across marketplaces, on street corners, and in homes as daily life unfolds.”

He told the council that this type of action “cannot be the new normal,” adding there was a need for an “independent, thorough, and transparent investigation” into the explosions.

“Those who ordered and carried out these attacks must be held to account. Let me be clear — this method of warfare may be new and unfamiliar. But international humanitarian and human rights law apply regardless and must be upheld,” he said.

The UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo told the council that the recent escalation risked “seeing a conflagration that could dwarf even the devastation and suffering witnessed so far” in the nearly year-long conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

“As we approach a full year of near-daily exchanges of fire across the Blue Line and bloodshed in Gaza, too many lives have been lost, too many people have been displaced, and too many livelihoods have been destroyed,” DiCarlo said.

“It is not too late to avoid such folly. There is still room for diplomacy, which must be used without delay.

“The secretary-general continues to urgently call on the parties to recommit to the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 and immediately return to a cessation of hostilities,” she added.

The Slovenian representative to the UN, Samuel Zbogar, who currently holds the presidency of the Security Council, expressed his “profound concern” over rising violence in the Middle East.

“We are stepping in a dangerous new territory and as new technology is being used and developed, we underline the need to respect the existing legal obligations,” he said.

“Civilian objects should not be weaponized. The international law is clear: use of booby traps is prohibited.

“We call for maximum restraint by all actors in the region. The circle of violence risks escalating into a wider conflict. We call on all parties, both state and non-state actors, to deescalate and refrain from any further retaliatory actions,” he added.

Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood echoed this and told the council that it was “imperative that even as facts emerge about the latest incidents — in which I reiterate, the US played no role — all parties refrain from any actions which could plunge the region into a devastating war.”

He added that Washington expected all parties to the conflict to “comply with international humanitarian law and take all reason steps to minimise harm to civilians.”

QABATIYAH: Footage of an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank showed a soldier pushing an apparently dead man off a rooftop in what the army described on Friday as a “serious incident.”
AFPTV footage of the operation in the town of Qabatiyah, near Jenin, on Thursday showed an Israeli soldier using his foot to roll the body toward the edge of the roof and then pushing him over while at least two other soldiers looked on.
Qabatiyah is in the northern West Bank, where the military has been carrying out large-scale raids since late August that the Palestinian Health Ministry says have left dozens dead.
Israel’s military said in a statement on Friday that four militants were killed “in an exchange of fire” in Qabatiyah, while three were killed in an air strike on a vehicle.
Asked about the footage showing a soldier pushing a body off a rooftop, the military said the action conflicted with its values.
“This is a serious incident that does not coincide with (the Israeli army) values and the expectations from Israeli soldiers. The incident is under review,” it said.
The White House on Friday described the footage as “deeply disturbing” and said it had demanded an explanation from Israel.
“We’ve seen that video, and we found it deeply disturbing. If it’s proven authentic, it clearly would depict abhorrent and egregious behavior by professional soldiers,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
Violence in the West Bank has surged alongside the war in Gaza sparked by Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Since that attack, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 682 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Since the large-scale raids began in late August, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have claimed at least 14 of the dead as their members.
The military said that one of those killed in Qabatiyah was Shadi Zakarneh and identified him as “responsible for directing and carrying out attacks in the northern West Bank area.”
It said he was “the head of the terrorist organization” in Qabatiyah but did not specify which group he belonged to.
Major Israeli operations in the West Bank are sometimes “at a scale not witnessed in the last two decades,” UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Sept. 9.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and its forces regularly make incursions into Palestinian communities, but residents say the current raids are an escalation.