The Mansouri attack occurred on 13 April 1996, when an

Israel Defence Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, an ...

helicopter attacked an ambulance in Mansouri, a village in

Southern Lebanon Southern Lebanon () is the area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. The two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s. The Rashaya and Western Beqaa districts, the southernmost distr ...

, killing two women and four children.

Attack

At 1:30 PM, Abbas Jiha, a farmer and volunteer ambulance driver, was driving a

Volvo The Volvo Group (; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of truck ...

vehicle, with the word "ambulance" written in red. He was taking wounded people as well as four of his children to Sidon. A United States-made Israeli

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

helicopter followed the car and fired two missiles at it. The attack killed 6 civilians out of the 13 passengers who were escaping the village.https://www.btselem.org/sites/default/files/israeli_violations_of_human_rights_of_lebanese_civilians.pdf Page 76 The children ages ranged from 7 months to 9 years.

Aftermath

Although Israeli officials admitted that the vehicle was targeted, Major General

Moshe Ya'alon Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon (; born Moshe Smilansky; 24 June 1950) is an Israeli politician and former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, who also served as Israel's Defense Minister under Benjamin Netanyahu from 2013 until his resignation ...

claimed that it was "used by fighters to flee", but an investigation by

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

found no connection between anyone of them to Hezbollah.

Robert Fisk Robert William Fisk (12 July 194630 October 2020) was an English writer and journalist. He was critical of United States foreign policy in the Middle East, and the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians. As an international correspo ...

said that Israel broke the

Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, The original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are international humanitarian laws consisting of four treaties and three additional protocols that establish international legal standards for humanitarian t ...

, which protect civilians even if they were around "armed antagonists". B'Tselem called it a "blatant violation of the laws of war".

References

{{Reflist

External links

Footage
1996 in Lebanon April 1996 in Lebanon Operation Grapes of Wrath South Lebanon conflict (1985–2000) Tyre District Israeli war crimes in Lebanon Violations of medical neutrality during the Arab–Israeli conflict Helicopter attacks Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon Attacks on ambulances Targeted killing by Israel 1996 road incidents Road incidents in Lebanon

Attack

Aftermath

See also

References

External links