Australia’s Lebanese is outraged at Israel’s attacks which have killed thousands and displaced millions. Is it genocide? Jude Manning reports.
Is a genocide modelled on Gaza about to happen in Lebanon?
Recent comments from Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz suggest Israeli action in southern Lebanon amounts to war crimes and potential genocide, concurrent with the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Katz said that southern Lebanon would “become Gaza.”
We will implement the Rafah model … and that’s what we did.
“The houses in 24 villages near the border in Lebanon are villages that were centuries old and were populated by Shiites. They were used by Hezbollah to turn them into outposts against the enemy … what we did was destroy them.”
He says the IDF has destroyed 90% of houses in these villages – 15,000 to 20,000 homes – using excavators and explosives.
The most recent conflict between Israel and Hezbollah broke out in March, after Hezbollah fired rockets at villages in northern Israel in response to US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
One million displaced
Since then, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health says the death toll from Israel’s attacks is 4,322, with 12,210 wounded. Over one million residents have been displaced, a fifth of Lebanon’s population. Lebanon’s National Council for Scientific Research estimate that over 68,000 housing units in Lebanon were damaged or destroyed from March 2 to May 17 2026.
At least 32 Israeli soldiers and four Israeli civilians have been killed by Hezbollah since the war began.
Members of the Lebanese community in Australia have been raising the alarm. Gamal Khier, secretary of the Lebanese Muslim Association, spoke to ABC Radio Melbourne in the wake of Israeli strikes in April.
“It feels like the whole world is suffering from amnesia at the moment. We’ve just seen a plausible genocide happening in Gaza, and we’re just sitting by idly,
while a plausible genocide is about to take place in Lebanon.
The Australian government has opposed Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. Foreign Minister Penny Wong signed a joint statement with counterparts of over a dozen nations including France and the UK. The statement condemns Hezbollah’s attack on Israel at the outset of the US-Israeli war on Iran, as well as Israel’s strikes on Lebanon on April 8, which killed at least 350 people, and insists Lebanon be included in any ceasefire deal.
The federal opposition has backed Israel’s continued military invasion of southern Lebanon. Shadow foreign affairs minister Ted O’Brien defended Israel’s right to military action in Lebanon on ABC Insiders.
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Lebanese community outrage
Many in the Lebanese community are outraged by the response of western governments, including Australia’s. Ahmad Malas, CEO of Muslim Aid Australia, told MWM, “This is the rollout of a doctrine tested in Gaza, now being exported to the region, and tolerated by the international community with absolutely no accountability.”
On Katz’s comments, Malas said “He’s describing collective punishment and mass displacement as policy. These aren’t ‘fringe’ remarks; they are very lucid – they’re statements of intent, made publicly, with no apparent concern for legal consequence.”
Asked if he would use the word genocide to describe what is taking place in southern Lebanon, he replied, “When officials publicly declare intent to render a territory uninhabitable, invoke a prior campaign widely accused of genocidal acts as their template, and systematically destroy civilian life in what Amnesty International has deemed to be ‘war crimes’, the question isn’t whether the word applies.
It’s why we’re still debating it instead of acting on it?
International organisations have expressed grave concerns about the war, with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch insisting Israeli actions be investigated as war crimes. Both liken the tactics seen in Lebanon to those used in Gaza.
Human Rights Watch has asserted that the mass expulsion of over one million Lebanese civilians is a possible war crime.
“Israeli evacuation orders include large swaths of the predominantly Shia population in southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of the capital, Beirut, roughly 15% of Lebanese territory … war is not a licence to expel people from their land.”
Often, homes and civilian infrastructure are destroyed, permanently preventing people’s return. A New York Times investigation reveals a pattern of controlled demolitions in southern Lebanon using explosives and excavators, methods described by experts as similar to those used in Gaza.
Israel rejects the characterisation of the demolitions as unlawful, and says it is targeting Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, which it claims is embedded in civilian areas.
Amnesty calls for investigation
Last week, Amnesty International said three air strikes in southern Lebanon in March that killed 24 civilians, 12 of them children, must also be investigated as war crimes.
Human Rights Groups have also verified the repeated use of white phosphorus in civilian and agricultural areas in Lebanon. The chemical ignites instantly when exposed to oxygen, and can cause severe burns, respiratory issues, and death.
White phosphorus has legitimate military uses; however, under international law, it is illegal to use it in and near populated areas because the damage is indiscriminate.
White phosphorus also has systemic and long-term effects: repeated strikes soak the soil with phosphoric acid and toxic metals, which can deplete soil fertility and agricultural productivity. Israel has denied its illegal use.
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