Fighting between Israel and Hizbollah intensifies - UN positions hit again

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UN News Centre

13 August 2006 – On the eve of a planned cessation of hostilities set to end the fighting that has engulfed Lebanon and northern Israel for the past month, violence in the region intensified today, according to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which sustained extensive material damage but suffered no additional casualties.

Today, UNIFIL reported that over the past 24 hours, fighting worsened throughout southern Lebanon. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) “intensified shelling and aerial bombardment across the south,” while Hizbollah “fired rockets in significant numbers.”

There were five incidents of firing from the Israeli side directly inside UNIFIL positions in the areas of At Tiri, Bayt Yahun and Tibnin (3) yesterday and this morning, and one incident of firing from the Hizbollah side directly inside a UNIFIL position in the area of Ghanduriyah yesterday.

The impacts caused extensive material damage in all the positions, but no casualties, the mission said in a news release. There were nine other incidents of firing from the Israeli side close to UN positions in the areas of At Tiri (4), Ghanduriyah (2), Brashit, Tibnin and Ibil as Saqi.

“UNIFIL strongly protested all the incidents to the Israeli and Lebanese authorities respectively.”

The Force's freedom of movement and the ability to re-supply positions and provide humanitarian assistance were denied because of the lack of security clearance from the IDF and due to the intensive hostilities on the ground. For a week now, a humanitarian convoy to distribute food to the villages in the western sector, and other humanitarian activities planned by UNIFIL, could not proceed because the IDF has denied consent.


http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=19499&Cr=Leban&Cr1=

[Lerkfish]

1. I"m like a broken record: BOTH sides should stop

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2. of course.

I do wonder who Hizbollah is going to allow themselves to be accountable to. Funny having to say it that way, but it's true. They have made themselves accountable to no one. No one in Lebanon asked them to 'defend' them against Israel, seize soldiers, etc.

But, I hold a special revulsion of Israel's assaults which have killed almost a thousand Lebanese civilians without any noticible effect on Hizbollah's ability to launch rockets into Israel. Now they say they have the authority to continue these strikes under truce. In these killings, Israel has decided that their stated target, and the lives of innocent Israelis are more important than Lebanese innocents caught in the way of their reprisals and 'defenses.'

I don't expect much from cretins who would order the indiscriminate flinging of mostly unguided rockets into Israeli towns and cities, but I do expect restraint and humanity from those who profess to be so concerned with 'defending' their own innocents.

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3. your expectations will be unrewarded. Israel has no apparent intention

of restraint.

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4. that's why there are now demands from many quarters

[Lerkfish]

5. honestly, though, WHO will enforce those demands? As long as the US

supports Israel, who will stop them, short of precipitating world war?

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6. the aim of the international community is to make good on diplomacy

so they can obviate the need for an aggressive military response to the threat from Hizbolla's missiles.

As for 'stopping' Israel, short of war, there are numerous levers the US should be able to exercise (if they are willing and commited) to hold Israel back from these extremes.

I recognize that there isn't much in Israel's statements or actions to be hopeful that they will independently restrain themselves from the vicious assaults on Lebanon and its infrastructure that they've employed in this latest conflict. That's why it is so important that the UN mission assert themselves with as much authority as they can manage; not just in holding Israel accountable, but in making certain that they use every lever they possess to disarm and neutralize the military component of Hizbollah so Israel has no further pretext to justify the continued assaults.