Fianna Fail MEP Barry Andrews spoke to Sean Moncrieff about the growing unrest in Lebanon and what he sees as war crimes

Speaking on Moncrieff, Fianna Fail Barry Andrews said Israel strikes should be called out as ‘war crimes’. 

While the focus of the world is on Iran, another casualty of this war is Lebanon, who is also being attacked by Israel.

Since the war between Iran, Israel and the United States, Lebanon has been caught in the crossfire due to its location, at the cost of its civilian population. 

“You cannot have collective punishment of a population”, Mr Andrews said. 

“You cannot order ethnic cleansing. These vague warnings that are being issued, these vague notifications are leading to massive loss of civilian infrastructure as well, schools and hospitals. 

“So it's really the conduct of the war by Israel that is following a pattern we saw in Gaza. And that's really the fear that southern Lebanon will be turned into a new Gaza.”

He said that there were currently 73 international NGOs seeking to provide aid which was ineffective for something that should be called out as war crimes. 

“It’s far too many because it creates massive fragmentation and lack of effectiveness. 

“The secretary general of the UN, Antonio Guterress was in Beirut a couple of days ago and he launched an appeal for 300 million dollars, which is a tiny amount of money when you consider that a billion dollars is spent today by the Americans on the war in Iran.”

Antonio Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations. 

He said the strikes and constant bomb threats had caused massive relocations. 

“There's only one airline going in now, which is Middle East Airlines. People are flying out of Brussels and obviously all the Gulf countries are closed.

“It’s a lifeline for Beirut and it's keeping open under really, really stressful circumstances.

“When I was taking off this morning from Beirut, you could see out the window the smoke coming up from recent airstrikes that occurred overnight.”

He said the situation has been escalating quickly and intensified over the last “two weeks”. 

Israel is telling residents in southern Lebanon to evacuate. People are presumed to be heading towards Beirut, to the Catholic Maronite areas, to the sunny areas, to the Druze areas.

Main Image: Flames rise after an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, 28-9-24. Picture by: Alamy.com