IDF’s next destination: Sidon (Sunni town, full of refugees)

[allemand]

IDF’s next destination: Sidon ...

Meanwhile, on the battlefield, after massive IDF operations in Tyre and the surrounding area, the army planned to target the town of Sidon directly north of Tyre. On Saturday afternoon the IDF called on residents of the area to evacuate their homes immediately and move north.

The IDF said they warned residents in attempt to avoid civilian casualties.

“For your own personal safety, read the message and act accordingly,” read flyers scattered in the area. “In your area criminal terrorist activity is being carried out in the firing of missiles towards Israel. The IDF will use full force against the terror gangs starting very soon. For your own safety, you must immediately leave the area and move north. Whoever stays endangers their lives. (Signed) The State of Israel.”

Sources in the IDF explained that the call “was made for the personal safety of local residents, so they would not be in the area of the fighting, as Hizbullah operates from within civilian populations and exploits them as ‘human shields.’ The IDF does not see the population of Lebanon as an enemy, and does not wish to harm it.”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3286597,00.html

Oh, and did I mention that all roads out of Sidon have been repeatedly bombed and the bridges destroyed?

:mad:

[allemand]

1. Israel warns residents of Sidon (Reuters)

An Israeli army spokesman said leaflets dropped on Sidon, whose normal population of 100,000 has been swollen by refugees from war zones further south, had warned all residents to leave.

"We dropped leaflets warning residents to leave because the army will attack Hizbollah rocket launching sites in Sidon," he said. Other army officials confirmed the warning had been given.

A local official in Sidon, who asked not to be named, said Hizbollah's Shi'ite guerrillas were not present in the mainly Sunni Muslim city. One resident said he had seen a leaflet that warned people to leave, but that did not mention Sidon by name.

Lebanon says a million people, a quarter of the population, have been displaced by the war launched after Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060805/ts_nm/mideast1_dc_62

[leftchick]

2. did you see the refugee photo with the article?

god this makes me sick.....



Lebanese refugee children stand in a school courtyard in Sidon where they sought shelter after running away from their village in south Lebanon, August 2, 2006. (Ali Hashisho/Reuters)

[allemand]

3. It's absolutely cynical to ask them to "evacuate". They have nowhere to go

Where should they go, for chrissake? All the roads have been blocked.

Is that Israeli "humanitarianism"? Are massacres of civilians justified if they are announced beforehand?

:puke:

[Igel]

4. "Massive IDF operations"?

Either Ynet is wrong, we don't agree on the definition of 'massive', or a lot of news hasn't gotten out from the army doing the operation, or the army otherwise controlling the ground in Tyre.

[Ghost Dog]

5. IDF not controlling the ground in Tyre

This appears to be the picture: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14194639/


<snip>

Three weeks into Israel's war with Hezbollah, its forces are still fighting along a wrinkled strip of territory that stretches 50 yards to more than three miles inside Lebanon, far short of a zone Israeli forces said would soon expand deeper inside the country all along the border. U.N. officials said they estimate that at this pace, with guerrilla battles still pitched in border towns, Israel would need another month to reach the Litani River, a push that Israel's defense minister has urged his top army commanders to prepare for.

<snip>

U.N. officials believe the slow pace of the Israeli advance is designed to minimize casualties among the 10,000 soldiers. The advance has left Israeli troops in control of the border region, but confounded the U.N. officials who have tracked the fighting: Hezbollah has continued to fire missiles, and the Israeli military seems reluctant to occupy much territory in what it has described as an effort to eliminate Hezbollah's armed presence across the frontier.

"We see what they're doing on the ground," Morczynski said. "If you ask me what is the strategy, I don't know."

<snip>

He dismissed talk of occupying southern Lebanon to the Litani River, an advance that would risk extending Israeli supply lines and put them in fixed positions that would be most vulnerable to the kind of guerrilla raids that Hezbollah favors.

"Militarily, it's not possible to occupy that much land, judging from what we've seen so far," he said.

/...

[Igel]

17. I was referring to Hezb in a tongue-in-cheek manner.

They've been pretty good about controlling information flow from the S. of Lebanon, and even S. Beirut.

As good as the IDF has been controlling information flow from where they're fighting.

Still don't see the "massive" aspect to what was done, but nothing else has been forthcoming during the day.

[partylessinOhio]

6. These war criminals should be given the death penalty and may they

rot in hell.

:grr:

[bluedog]

7. what country has the spine to stand up against Israel

and the US????????? seems the US thinks its okay to bomb and kill innocents,,,,,,,oh wait......the US is doing that in Iraq....okay never mind..........

[SOS]

8. Sidon will be flattened

Some little-known background on Sidon:

Islamic Jihad member, brother die in Sidon car bomb
May. 26, 2006

BEIRUT: A leading member of Islamic Jihad and his brother were assassinated in Sidon Friday by a bomb placed in the trunk of a car outside their home. Mahmoud Majzoub, 27, a Lebanese citizen who joined Islamic Jihad under the nom de guerre Abu Hamza in 1998, was targeted by a remote-controlled bomb planted in a stolen Mercedes detonated when the men passed the car after exiting their home. Every Lebanese official and Palestinian faction in Lebanon blamed the killing on Israel, with Islamic Jihad's leader in the South Shakib al-Aein saying: "Israel has made a mistake."

http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/1728334.php

[AlamoDemoc]

9. The IDF said they warned residents in attempt to avoid civilian casualties

what a joke! this is the same IDF that slaughter civilians? IDF = Infant death forces.


K&R

[AlamoDemoc]

10. kick

:kick:

[IndianaGreen]

11. Israel will unite Shia and Sunni, the "great uniter"

Israel has already bombed Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Israel never misses an opportunity to kill Palestinians.

[jpkenny]

13. If they are not united now, they never will be. What the does it take?

[Karenina]

15. The slaughter in Gaza continues today

but something in my mind insists that they won't DARE bomb Sidon.

[wellst0nev0ter]

12. I Imagine One Day In The Future

Israelis will have to look at themselves with remorse and say "what have we done? What have we become?"

[jpkenny]

14. It's not ALL Israelis. But the ones who really know better, who are

more human and who have a conscience and a heart will be the most remorseful because they didn't use their maximum power to stop the carnage.

[wellst0nev0ter]

16. You're Right, It's Those Israelis Doing The Right Thing

that still gives me hope for that country.

[w4rma]

18. I guess they're following the refugees to finish them off.

Good military tactics, probably. But, lower than a snake evil.

[HamdenRice]

19. Makes no sense -- Sunnis don't join Hezbollah

Israel's actions are more and more stupefyingly illogical. Hezbollah is a Shiite militia. Sunnis don't join Hezbollah. During the Lebanese civil war, the small Sunni population generally depended on the PLO and fought against Hezbollah and Shiite Amal Militia.

Israel's motives must have nothing to do with Hezbollah at this point.