BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch accused Israel on Wednesday of `indiscriminate` attacks on civilians during its recent war with Hezbollah, saying two deadly strikes in east Lebanon should be investigated as war crimes. A Nov 27 ceasefire sought to end more than a year of hostilities between the two sides that began with Iran-backed Hezbollah`s cross-border fire at Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.

More than 4,000 people were killed in Lebanon, most of them during two months of all-out war that erupted in September, according to Lebanese authorities.

Among the dead were hundreds of Hezbollah fighters and a slew of senior commanders. HRW said `two unlawful Israeli strikes` on the town of Yunin in the eastern Bekaa Valley that killed more than 30 people `were apparent indiscriminate attacks on civilians`.

`At least one of the attacks used an air-dropped bomb equipped with a United States-produced Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit,` it said. `The attacks should be investigated as war crimes.

On Sept 25, a strike `killed a family of 23 people, all Syrians, including 13 children`, HRW said, while another on Nov 1 on a two-storey house `killed 10 people, including two children, one of them a year old`. HRW said it `did not find any evidence of military activity or targets at either site` and that the Israeli army did not issue evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes. The rights watchdog said it had contacted the Israeli military about its findings but had `not received a response`. Agency has also contacted the military for comment on the report.

HRW`s Ramzi Kaiss said in the statement that `more and more evidence is emerging that Israeli forces repeatedly failed to protect civilians or adequately distinguish civilians from military targets during its strikes across Lebanon`.

Washington`s supply of weapons to Israel `has made the US complicit in their unlawful use`, HRW added. It urged the Lebanese government to give `the International Criminal Court jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute crimes` and provide `a path for justice for grieving families`.-AFP