HELD JERUSALEM: Human Rights Watch in its harshest condemnation of Israel since last summer's war with Hezbollah has charged that most of the Lebanese civilian casualties came from "indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes".

In a statement issued before HRW report release Thursday, the human rights organization said there was no basis to the Israeli claim that civilian casualties resulted from Hezbollah using civilians as shields.

Israel has said it attacked civilian areas because Hezbollah set up rocket launchers in villages and towns.

The 34-day war left more than 1,000 Lebanese martyred.

Israeli warplanes targeted Lebanese infrastructure, including bridges and Beirut Airport, and heavily damaged a neighborhood in Beirut known as a Hezbollah stronghold, as well as attacking Hezbollah centers in villages near the border.

Hezbollah fired nearly 4,000 rockets at northern Israel, killing 119 soldiers. In the fighting, 40 Israeli civilians were killed.

Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch executive director, said in the statement, "Israel wrongfully acted as if all civilians had heeded its warnings to evacuate southern Lebanon when it knew they had not, disregarding its continuing legal duty to distinguish between military targets and civilians."

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev rejected the report's findings.