The United Nations has called for an investigation into an Israeli strike on a village in northern Lebanon which killed at least 21 people.
Monday’s strike on the village of Aitou destroyed an entire building housing people who fled the bombardment in southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Red Cross.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said 12 women and two children were among those killed.
The UN has “real concerns with respect to (International Humanitarian Law), so the laws of war and principles of distinction, proportion and proportionality,” OHCHR spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said on Tuesday.
He added that the agency was calling “for a prompt, independent and thorough investigation into this incident.”
More context: Aitou, about 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) north of Beirut, sits in the Zgharta district with a predominantly Christian population. It’s the first time the village has been struck since the current war began a year ago, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).
Photos from after the strike show damaged cars and houses reduced to rubble.
Later on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had struck what it claimed was a Hezbollah target in the area, adding that “the claim that Lebanese civilians were killed as a result of the strike is under review.”