3 min readUpdated: Jun 11, 2026 12:38 PM IST
A team of investigators will be deployed to Lebanon next week to assess potential violations of international law by all parties involved in hostilities between Israel and Lebanon, United Nations human rights commissioner Volker Turk announced on Wednesday.
The announcement comes as 16 people were killed in Israeli air strikes on Tyre and its surrounding areas in southern Lebanon on the same day, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.
It comes a week after Israel and Lebanon agreed to renew their fragile ceasefire that would ban Hezbollah militants from “pilot” security zones built inside Lebanon, according to the Associated Press. However, Lebanon rejected the truce, citing its emphasis on a “complete cessation of Hezbollah fire and the evacuation of all Hezbollah operatives” without any mentions of halt on Israeli strikes, Al Jazeera reported.
What the UN said
Announcing the investigation, UN human rights chief Turk said, “It’s the first time that we are sending this assessment mission, and the idea is indeed to look at violations by all parties – violations of international law, violations of international human rights law, and to document this, and eventually to report back to you on our findings.”
In May, Lebanese Information Minister Paul Morcos had told Reuters that Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam, emphasised during a regular cabinet meeting the importance of continuing to document potential crimes and to submit them to the UN.
Morcos also informed Reuters about an agreement that was reached between Salam and the UN human rights chief at the time, entailing a visit to conduct investigations in Lebanon in the near future.
Escalating crisis in Lebanon
According to the Lebanon’s Ministry of Health, Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,696 people and injured 11,413 others since March 2, when the country was pulled into the war involving United States, Israel, and Iran.
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The attacks on Lebanon began after Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel, in response to consistent Israeli strikes on the country and the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Over 3,600 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon so far and more than one million Lebanese are displaced, according to the news agency.
The crisis is now threatening food security, with nearly one in four people in Lebanon — about 1.24 million people — expected to face emergency levels of food insecurity until August, a UN food security report from April stated.
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