Pointing to the mass forced displacement of at least 1 million Lebanese people, the denial of returns, and the widespread destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure since the Israel Defense Forces began attacking the armed group Hezbollah in the regional conflict stemming from the Israeli-US war on Iran, the United Nations’ top human rights official reported Monday that the assault on Lebanon could amount to “war crimes.”

Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, spoke after a trip to Lebanon where he met with government representatives, local and international civil society groups, and people who have been forced to flee their homes due to the conflict, in which Israel is continuing to occupy parts of southern Lebanon and to attack residential neighborhoods despite a ceasefire that was brokered on June 26.

“The Israeli military continues to kill and injure people in Lebanon, with continued airstrikes and ground operations,” said Türk. “My office has recorded large-scale violations of international humanitarian law, some possibly amounting to war crimes. Under certain circumstances, they may also constitute crimes under international law.”

When Israel began retaliating against Hezbollah on March 2 for the group’s attacks that had been in response to the war on Iran, the IDF issued “evacuation warnings to residents of more than 53 villages and densely populated areas in Lebanon and intensified airstrikes forced families across Lebanon to flee within minutes,” according to the UN Refugee Agency.

Israeli officials have said they aim to model their operations in Lebanon on the destruction of Gaza over the past 32 months. The IDF has also established a self-declared “security zone,” advancing six miles into Lebanon and taking control of about one-fifth of the country’s territory, first ordering people in southern Lebanon to move north of the Litani River and then pushing past that point.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz recently boasted about the IDF’s demolishing of 24 villages “that had existed for hundreds of years,” saying: "The army systematically flattened the villages with bulldozers and explosives. 90% of the houses are gone. Between 15,000 and 20,000 homes have been destroyed.”

On Sunday the Lebanese military said Israeli forces were continuing shelling in the southern part of the country, preventing the military from taking control of the villages there as the agreement reached last month had stipulated.

Al Jazeera reported that residents of the town of Zawtar al-Gharbiya “had returned to homes of rubble” after having been displaced.

More than 4,300 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli attacks and more than 12,000 have been injured. More than 135 healthcare workers are among those who have been killed, Türk emphasized on Monday, as well as a number of journalists and media workers.

“I am struck by the widespread damage and compounded suffering that I have seen," Türk said. “The trauma, frustration, and despair are palpable—but so too is the demand for justice, which I heard resoundingly.”

The human rights official spoke about a victim he met during his visit to a school that had been repurposed as a shelter for about 1,000 people who’d fled violence. The man had lost his mother and brother in Israeli strikes on their residential building in Beirut, and was determined to seek justice and accountability.

“Even from this darkness, there is an opportunity. We are mobilizing in a way that we have not done before, through documenting [violations]," the man told Türk.

Türk also heard about how “ongoing demolitions have flattened homes, schools, healthcare facilities, water distribution networks, electricity infrastructure, places of worship, and agricultural land.”

The official gave his assessment of Israel’s destruction of Lebanon days after Israel and its top military funder, the US, attempted unsuccessfully to sink his nomination to serve a second term as the UN’s human rights commissioner.

Türk has condemned Israel’s US-backed destruction of Gaza, the war on Iran, and President Donald Trump’s “abuse and denigration of migrants and refugees” in the US.

Despite the powerful countries’ objections and attempts to delay the vote, UN member states on Friday voted 144-10, with 13 abstentions, to give Türk another four-year term.

“Human rights are the antidote to today’s turbulence and defeatism," said Türk after the vote. “I will give my all for the rights of everyone, everywhere.”

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