Many victims of Israeli strike on north Lebanon were women and children, UN rights office says

GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday it had received reports that most of the 22 victims of an Israeli air strike on a building in northern Lebanon were women and children.

"What we are hearing is that amongst the 22 people killed were 12 women and two children," U.N. human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told a Geneva press briefing in response to a question about a strike on Aitou on Monday.

"We understand it was a four-story residential building that was struck. With these factors in mind, we have real concerns with respect to IHL (International Humanitarian Law), so the laws of war, and the principles of distinction proportion and proportionality," he said, calling for an investigation.

At the same press briefing, the U.N. refugee agency's Middle East Director Rema Jamous Imseis said that new Israeli evacuation orders to 20 villages in southern Lebanon meant that over a quarter of the country was now affected.

"Now we have over 25% of the country under a direct Israeli military evacuation order," she said. "People are heeding these calls to evacuate, and they're fleeing with almost nothing."

(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Madeline Chambers)