Israeli strikes on Lebanon kill 41 people (Reuters)

[allemand]

By Lin Noueihed

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Israeli strikes killed 41 people across Lebanon on Monday, including 10 civilians hit on a southern bridge, on the sixth day of a bombardment that has wreaked the heaviest destruction in Lebanon for over 20 years.

Rescuers also pulled nine bodies from the wreckage of a building in the southern city of Tire that was bombed on Sunday, raising the death toll since Israel's offensive began above 200.

The fighting was triggered when Hizbollah, the guerrilla group which is backed by Syria and Iran and is part of Lebanon's government, seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in a cross-border raid on northern Israel on Wednesday.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Security Council members would start work on a detailed agreement on deploying a multinational security force to south Lebanon.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-07-17T161110Z_01_L11538533_RTRUKOC_0_US-MIDEAST.xml

[partylessinOhio]

1. "including 10 civilians hit on a southern bridge" ???

Were they responding to those leaflets the Israelis dropped?

They are only numbers...that keep growing larger every day that Nero fiddles with the Poodle and PuTIN.

[cali]

2. OMG

This is just indefensible. Sure Israel has the right to defend itself, but to repeatedly bomb civilians in Lebanon? No way.

[KyndCulture]

3. FUCK I can't stand this.

[allemand]

4. Up to 400,000 people have been displaced, according to health officials

LONDON (AP)--The U.N.'s emergency relief coordinator appealed to all sides in the Middle East conflict Monday to halt attacks immediately, warning that hundreds of thousands of civilians are being caught in the crossfire.

Jan Egeland cited local estimates as saying that hundreds had died and many more had been injured -less than a week after the conflict erupted. "We're very worried it will escalate further," Egeland said. "They are going full speed toward the abyss." (...)

Egeland, who spoke to reporters after meetings in London, says U.N. organizations - such as UNICEF and the World Health Organization - have set up emergency relief teams. Blocked roads have hampered the efforts of organizers to get into Lebanon. In Lebanon, Egeland said ambulances on the ground have been unable to ferry the injured and hospitals do not have adequate fuel for generators. Further, local health officials have estimated some 400,000 people are displaced.

"The civilian population is supposed to be spared in any conflict. They are not - in this conflict," he said. "The attacks have to stop immediately."

http://www.easybourse.com/Website/dynamic/News.php?NewsID=24576?=fra&NewsRubrique=2

[sg_]

5. Question...

I havent been following the current situation in the MidEast too steadily, so can anyone clear this up for me.

Has Israel actually killed (m)any members or people in the leadership of Hizbollah?. All I keep seeing and hearing about are dead civilians during their operations in 'Hizbollah strongholds'.

Anyone clear this up/let me know?.

Cheers.

[daleo]

7. The closed to this I have heard

Is a quote in an article a day or two ago that said their had been something like 108 deaths, 104 of them civilian. I am sure the numbers have changed, but that's what the proportion was like. It was quite shocking.

[Ghost Dog]

9. Not according to Spanish mainstream press

correpondents in Lebanon. In fact (according to El País), seems the IDF or whoever only got around to more precisely targetting Hezbullah HQ in southern Beirut on Saturday, after bombarding civilian areas first (and continuing).

And see (UK Reuters) numbers posted below.

[Ghost Dog]

6. Humanitarian crisis looming in Lebanon - UN

http://today.reuters.co.uk/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-07-17T164223Z_01_L17714117_RTRUKOC_0_UK-MIDEAST-UN-EGELAND.xml
Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:42 PM BST

LONDON (Reuters) - Escalating violence threatens to create a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon as the death toll rises and hundreds of thousands of people flee their homes, U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said on Monday.

<snip>

Israel's campaign has killed 179 people, all but 13 of them civilians, and wounded more than 500. It has also destroyed much of Lebanon's civilian infrastructure. Twenty-four Israelis have been killed in the fighting, including 12 civilians hit in rocket attacks. "It is already a 'protection of civilians crisis'. We hear and see a population which feels trapped as they are subject to indiscriminate attacks," Egeland told Reuters. He called for an immediate cease-fire from both sides.

He said there were reports of tens or hundreds of thousands of displaced people. While many were sheltering in schools, thousands more were trying to escape to neighbouring Syria but were stopped by blocked or destroyed roads.

Egeland said there were also fears about the effects of energy cuts and the destruction of infrastructure on water, sewage and health. Hospitals were working but fuel was a problem and ambulances were unable to reach people in need of life-saving treatment.

Egeland said it was "heartbreaking" that Lebanon's infrastructure was being destroyed just as reconstruction work had ended after years of civil war.

/continued...

(See also: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1654697)

[4dsc]

8. In Pictures: Israeli Attacks Kill Civilians:

WArning: Graphic!! http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14014.htm

[grahamhgreen]

10. "The fighting was triggered when Hizbollah,...seized two Israeli soldiers"

"Remember what the Western public doesn't know is that a week before the kidnapping of the soldier the Israelis kidnapped a Palestinian doctor and his brother in Gaza, and this goes on all of the time. And I also have to let you know that the Palestinians are convinced, utterly convinced that this whole onslaught really isn't because of the captured soldier. This is a serious attempt by the Israelis to demolish the Hamas government."
<http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:3hfYvqwSl-8J:transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0607/03/i_ins.01.html+israel+kidnap+doctor&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=18&client=firefox-a>
CHOMSKY: "Gaza, itself, the latest phase, began on June 24. It was when Israel abducted two Gaza civilians, a doctor and his brother. We don't know their names. You don’t know the names of victims. They were taken to Israel, presumably, and nobody knows their fate. The next day, something happened, which we do know about, a lot. Militants in Gaza, probably Islamic Jihad, abducted an Israeli soldier across the border. That’s Corporal Gilad Shalit. And that's well known; first abduction is not. Then followed the escalation of Israeli attacks on Gaza, which I don’t have to repeat. It’s reported on adequately."
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/14/146258

Does anyone know where I can find out more about this story?

[Ghost Dog]

11. Also, to lead to attacks on Syria & Iran. nt

[indepat]

12. With the US supplying funding and advanced weaponry, Israel is assured

of a splendid kill and maiming ratio.