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===By Hezbollah=== |
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Only the [[July 13]]-[[July 25|25]] [[2006]] time period is shown. The last missing picture relates to a 78-year-old [[Haifa]] resident who suffered a deadly [[heart attack]] when a rocket struck near him.]] |
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[[Image:Wounded_in_Haifa.JPG|right|thumb|300px|Casualty and bomb damage after a rocket attack on [[Haifa]], [[Israel]] by Hezbollah]] |
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Hezbollah has fired rockets, sometimes at a rate of more than 100 per day,<ref>Kraft, Dina. "Israelis Rally to Aid Displaced." ''International Herald Tribune''. 1 August 2006: 4.</ref> at civilian targets throughout the conflict, landing in all major cities of northern Israel including [[Haifa]], [[Nazareth]], [[Tiberias]], [[Nahariya]], [[Safed]], [[Afula]]<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2006/07/19/world/middleeast/20060719_MIDEAST_GRAPHIC.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1153331904-rs3WIKv7XWZoOl6M03+JNA Major Attacks in Lebanon, Israel and the Gaza Strip], ''[[New York Times]]</ref> [[Qiryat Shemona|Kiryat Shmona]], [[Karmiel]], and [[Maalot]], and dozens of [[kibbutz|kibbutzim]], [[moshav|moshavim]], and [[Arab citizens of Israel#Druze|Druze]] and [[Arab citizens of Israel|Arab]] villages. <ref>{{cite news|title=Safed: Man seriously injured in Katyusha attack|date=[[2006-07-14]]|publisher=[[Ynet]]|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3275609,00.html}}</ref> <ref>{{cite news|title=Safed: Man seriously injured in Katyusha attack|date=[[2006-07-14]]|publisher=[[Ynet]]|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3275609,00.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Anxious northern Israel endures rocket fire|date[[2006-07-14]]|publisher=[[CNN]]|url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/14/israel.anxiety.ap/index.html}}</ref><ref name=ynet4>{{cite news|title=Katyusha rockets hit Galilee|date=[[2006-07-13]]|publisher=[[Ynetnews]]|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3275440,00.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Northern Israel under attack; missile fired at Haifa|date=[[2006-07-14]]|publisher=[[Ynetnews]]|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3275229,00.html}}</ref> Hezbollah rocket attacks are responsible for all 28 civilian Israeli fatalities in the ongoing conflict, while causing no military fatalities. <ref>{{cite news|title=Israel-Hizbullah conflict: Victims of rocket attacks and IDF casualties|date=[[2006-07-12]]|publisher=[[MFA]]|url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Terrorism+from+Lebanon-+Hizbullah/Israel-Hizbullah+conflict-+Victims+of+rocket+attacks+and+IDF+casualties+July-Aug+2006.htm}}</ref> Because of the bombings by Hezbollah of Israel's northern cities, there is now a large [[Displaced person|displaced]] Israeli citizen population within Israel. "Israeli officials have estimated the number of displaced northern Israelis at 300,000 since the fighting began" on [[12 July]].<ref>Kraft, Dina. "Israelis Rally to Aid Displaced." ''International Herald Tribune''. 1 August 2006: 4.</ref> Many of the displaced Israelis are staying in Israel's southern most city, [[Eilat]], where hotels are overbooked. Therefore some are forced to camp out on the beach. Other families are staying in university dormatories in larger cities such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem or in guests houses in [[kibbutzim]] south of Haifa.<ref>Ibid.</ref> On [[02 August]] figures of 200 - 300 rockets aimed at fifteen targets inside Israel were reported. |
Hezbollah has fired rockets, sometimes at a rate of more than 100 per day,<ref>Kraft, Dina. "Israelis Rally to Aid Displaced." ''International Herald Tribune''. 1 August 2006: 4.</ref> at civilian targets throughout the conflict, landing in all major cities of northern Israel including [[Haifa]], [[Nazareth]], [[Tiberias]], [[Nahariya]], [[Safed]], [[Afula]]<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2006/07/19/world/middleeast/20060719_MIDEAST_GRAPHIC.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1153331904-rs3WIKv7XWZoOl6M03+JNA Major Attacks in Lebanon, Israel and the Gaza Strip], ''[[New York Times]]</ref> [[Qiryat Shemona|Kiryat Shmona]], [[Karmiel]], and [[Maalot]], and dozens of [[kibbutz|kibbutzim]], [[moshav|moshavim]], and [[Arab citizens of Israel#Druze|Druze]] and [[Arab citizens of Israel|Arab]] villages. <ref>{{cite news|title=Safed: Man seriously injured in Katyusha attack|date=[[2006-07-14]]|publisher=[[Ynet]]|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3275609,00.html}}</ref> <ref>{{cite news|title=Safed: Man seriously injured in Katyusha attack|date=[[2006-07-14]]|publisher=[[Ynet]]|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3275609,00.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Anxious northern Israel endures rocket fire|date[[2006-07-14]]|publisher=[[CNN]]|url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/14/israel.anxiety.ap/index.html}}</ref><ref name=ynet4>{{cite news|title=Katyusha rockets hit Galilee|date=[[2006-07-13]]|publisher=[[Ynetnews]]|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3275440,00.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Northern Israel under attack; missile fired at Haifa|date=[[2006-07-14]]|publisher=[[Ynetnews]]|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3275229,00.html}}</ref> Hezbollah rocket attacks are responsible for all 28 civilian Israeli fatalities in the ongoing conflict, while causing no military fatalities. <ref>{{cite news|title=Israel-Hizbullah conflict: Victims of rocket attacks and IDF casualties|date=[[2006-07-12]]|publisher=[[MFA]]|url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Terrorism+from+Lebanon-+Hizbullah/Israel-Hizbullah+conflict-+Victims+of+rocket+attacks+and+IDF+casualties+July-Aug+2006.htm}}</ref> Because of the bombings by Hezbollah of Israel's northern cities, there is now a large [[Displaced person|displaced]] Israeli citizen population within Israel. "Israeli officials have estimated the number of displaced northern Israelis at 300,000 since the fighting began" on [[12 July]].<ref>Kraft, Dina. "Israelis Rally to Aid Displaced." ''International Herald Tribune''. 1 August 2006: 4.</ref> Many of the displaced Israelis are staying in Israel's southern most city, [[Eilat]], where hotels are overbooked. Therefore some are forced to camp out on the beach. Other families are staying in university dormatories in larger cities such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem or in guests houses in [[kibbutzim]] south of Haifa.<ref>Ibid.</ref> On [[02 August]] figures of 200 - 300 rockets aimed at fifteen targets inside Israel were reported. |
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Revision as of 17:07, 4 August 2006
Attacks on civilian areas in Lebanon and Israel by combatants on both sides has been a major component in the conflict. Over one-third of the Israelis killed by Hezbollah have been civilians, and the vast majority of the Lebanese killed by Israeli forces have been civilians.[1]
Introduction
Israel, Lebanon, and the international community have all expressed grave concern over the damage to civilian life and property that has resulted from the current conflict. During a visit to Lebanon, UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland criticized both Israel's response to Hezbollah's rocket firing, and Hezbollah's deliberate blending among civilians as a form of self-protection and the resultant maximization of Lebanese civilian casualties.
Egeland expressed disapproval for Israel's response, calling it "disproportionate" and "a violation of international humanitarian law." He also criticized what he called Hezbollah's "cowardly blending" : "Consistently, from the Hezbollah heartland, my message was that Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending ... among women and children," he said. "I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men."[2][3]
Robert Fisk said "Hizbollah is killing more Israeli soldiers than civilians and the Israelis are killing far more Lebanese civilians than they are guerrillas. "[8]
Salon journalist Mitch Prothero, writing from Lebanon, challenges this view as a "myth", asserting that Hezbollah fighters assiduously avoid civilians for military reasons, so as not to be betrayed by collaborators.[4] Support for Hezbollah among much of the Lebanese population has also been cited as a factor in the consistent presence of the group in distinctly civilian areas.[5]
Louise Arbour, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed "grave concern over the continued killing and maiming of civilians in Lebanon, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory." She suggested that the actions of Israel and Hezbollah may constitute war crimes. [6][7][8] Arbour called for Israel to obey a "principle of proportionality" and said, "indiscriminate shelling of cities constitutes a foreseeable and unacceptable targeting of civilians ... Similarly, the bombardment of sites with alleged military significance, but resulting invariably in the killing of innocent civilians, is unjustifiable."
Amnesty International condemned both Israel and Hezbollah and called for UN intervention, stating "The past few days has seen a horrendous escalation in attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure. Yet the G8 leaders have failed conspicuously to uphold their moral and legal obligation to address such blatant breaches of international humanitarian law, which in some cases have amounted to war crimes."[9]
One day after the call for a ceasefire by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on 20 July a UN-run observation post located near Zarit, Israel near the Lebanese border was hit by direct fire during fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militia. The Israeli army claimed Hezbollah rockets hit the U.N. post; however, a U.N. officer said that the post "was hit by an Israeli artillery shell."[10]
By Israel
Strikes on Lebanon's civilian population and infrastructure include Beirut airport, ports, a lighthouse, grain silos,[11] bridges, roads, factories, medical and relief trucks,[12] mobile telephone and television stations,[13] fuel containers and service stations,[14] and the country's largest dairy farm Liban Lait.[15] UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland, called Israel's offensive "disproportionate" and "a violation of international humanitarian law." Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Senior Medical Correspondent, reported from Beirut, "It used to be that the Red Cross or the Red Crescent, or some sort of health care sign made you immune in some ways on a battlefield. Not so here. We're hearing stories, confirmed stories, now about ambulances actually being attacked. Hospitals actually being bombed, so much so, that they can no longer function."[16][17] The BBC reported that families evacuating the village of Marwahin in South Lebanon were struck on an open road by an Israeli missile attack; killing 17, many of them women and children.[18][19][20] Human Rights Watch called for an investigation into this incident.[21] There have been numerous reports of attacks on fleeing civilians; on 23 July 2006 three families fleeing Tyre at the command of the IDF were attacked by rockets fired from Israeli helicopters; all were prominently waving a white flag from their automobiles.[22][23]
An Israeli official stated that "Hezbollah has a huge arsenal and has fired 1,000 missiles at us. We are acting in self-defence. We are targeting only military objectives, including transport facilities that Hezbollah can use, but you have to remember that Hezbollah often hides in civilian areas. We sent flyers and gave other warnings to civilians to leave before our attacks."[24] Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Israel has no intention to harm Lebanese civilians, but warned that civilians who live near Hezbollah weapon caches were in danger: "Because we know that some of their rocket caches, which are fired at Israel, are hidden in private apartments, I call on these residents to leave their homes. He who lives near a rocket is likely to get hurt."[25]
On 30 July 2006 hit a residential building in Qana that housed refugees, which Israel said was near Hezbollah rocket launching sites; 54 people died, including 19 children.[26] The IDF said that "the building itself was not targeted."[27] The deadly airstrike, which followed Israeli attacks on two clearly marked Red Cross ambulances in Qana one week before on 24 July[28] and Israel's infamous Qana massacre in 1996, sparked angry denunciations in Lebanon. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora revoked U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's invitation to Lebanon and said, "Out of respect for the souls of our innocent martyrs and the remains of our children buried under the rubble of Qana, we scream out to our fellow Lebanese and to other Arab brothers and to the whole world to stand united in the face of the Israeli war criminals."[29]
The UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, has said that one third of the dead are children,[30] and declared that the "horrific" levelling of "block after block" of buildings in Beirut "makes it a violation of humanitarian law."[31][32] By Egeland's estimates, in his address to the United Nations Security Council, more than 500,000 Lebanese have been rendered internal refugees in Lebanon, as they have fled from the ongoing bombardments from Israel, and there is a mounting humanitarian situation in the country. [33]
An IDF source said that in the fighting with Hezbollah in the Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil, aerial attacks have been ruled out in favor of ground troops for fear of harming the few hundred civilians thought to remain. Nine Israeli soldiers were killed in the operation. [34] However, speaking on Israeli army radio, Justice Minister Haim Ramon - a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - said villages should be flattened by the Israeli air force before ground troops move in. "All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah," Mr Ramon said,[35]
Furthemore UN humanitarian coordinator Jan Egeland had appealed for a truce to allow casualties to be removed and food and medicine to be sent into the war zone, saying one third of the casualties in the conflict were children. But Israel rejected it.[9]
Comments made by IDF/Israeli Officials
Army Chief of Staff Dan Halutz
n 14 July IDF Army Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz during a press briefing interview said:
"Nothing is safe (in Lebanon), as simple as that."[36]
On 23 July Halutz was quoted as having said of the current situation:
"There will always be some terrorist to fire a missile. But I believe we'll be able to push them north and reduce the accuracy of their fire. The other side must reach the conclusion that the price it pays for continuing the [rocket] fire is intolerable."[37]
On 24 July it was reported that Halutz had issued orders to the IDF that were "retaliation strikes" on Lebanese infrastructure:
"Army chief of staff Dan Halutz has given the order to the air force to destroy 10 multi-storey buildings in the Dahaya [Dahieh] district in response to every rocket fired on Haifa," a senior air force officer told army radio on Monday [24th July].[38][39][40]
The same day the IAF/IDF confirmed it had destroyed ten buildings in Beirut including what it described as "a vital target" but the nature of the target was not released.[41] While the details of who originally issued the comments isn't known the consensus is that a "Senior Army Officer" was involved in communicating them to the Israeli media- the involvement of IDF Army Radio is unconfirmed but also undisputed.[42]
The report was condemned on 24 July by the Israeli group Association for Civil Rights in Israel who wrote to Israeli Defense Minister Peretz and Israeli Attorney General Menahem Mazuz to criticise the orders: "Striking civilians and civilian infrastructure and using intentional means of intimidation and terrorizing civilian populations is forbidden by international humanitarian law, and could be war crimes."[43] The group also condemned the "grave and illegal" attacks carried out on the Israeli civilian population by Hezbollah.[44]
Also on 24 July in response to the comments the IDF Spokesperson's Office released a statement to the effect that Israeli reporters had:
- misquoted the senior officer,
- that the quote was false, and
- that Halutz had never issued a "retaliation" directive.
Later that evening the Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF Spokesperson's Office retracted its original statement on the matter and then proceeded to issue a second statement claiming that the officer in question had made a mistake and was wrong in claiming that Halutz had issued such a "retaliation" directive.[45]
Comments by Israeli Justice Minister
On 27 July Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon, is reported to have said:
"All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hizbullah."[46][47]
When asked on Israeli Army radio whether villages in Southern Lebanon should be "wiped out", Ramon reportedly replied:
"These places are not villages. They are military bases in which Hezbollah people are hiding and from which they are operating."[48][49]
Comments by Israeli soldiers
IDF soldiers billeting at Metula in Israel who were preparing for service in Lebanon were interviewed by ABC reporter Jim Sciutto. One IDF soldier was quoted as telling the reporter:
"Over here, everybody is the army... Everybody is Hezbollah. There's no kids, women, nothing."[50]
Another soldier put it just as bluntly:
"We're going to shoot anything we see."[51]
Comments by Israeli Ambassador to the UN
During a speech he gave at a pro-Israel rally in New York on 19 July, Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, reportedly said:
"To those countries who claim that we are using disproportionate force, I have only this to say: You're damn right we are. Because if your cities were shelled the way ours were, if your citizens were terrorized the way ours are, you would use much more force than we are using"[52]
There are also reports that Mr.Gillerman went on to say:
"One who goes to sleep with rockets shouldn't be surprised if he doesn’t wake up in the morning."[53]
During the 30 July edition of Meet the Press, following the IDF airstrike on Qana, Dan Gillerman was interviewd by Tim Russert. Some of Gillerman's reaction included the comments:
"If Hezbollah wasn’t there [Qana], this would never have happened. And I wouldn’t put it beyond that vicious, brutal, cynical terrorist organization to have held those people there against their will after we’d repeatedly asked them to leave, so that they would actually be used as human shields, and maybe even, as farfetched as this may sound, for this to happen, because this serves nobody’s purpose, except Hezbollah and Iran.[54]
Yedioth Ahronoth (YNetNews.com)
It was reported that the print edition of Yedioth Ahronoth for 27th July, (also online as YNetNews.com), carried a banner headline quoting an unidentified General which read:
"Every village from which a Katyusha [rocket] is fired must be destroyed".
The newspaper, largest selling daily in Israel, went on to quote previous comments by the Israeli Justice Minister and summarized in its editorial what the Justice Minister and General were indicating:
"In other words, a village from which rockets are fired at Israel will simply be destroyed by fire. This decision should have been made and executed after the first Katyusha. But better late than never."[55][56]
Attacks on ambulances
It was reported on 26 July that "at least 10 Lebanese ambulances bearing the emblem of the international red cross have [...] become targets in Israeli air strikes",[57] resulting in the death of more than a dozen patients and emergency workers.[58][59][60][61] Additionally, an ambulance marked as belonging to the Shiite Amal militia was struck by Israeli aircraft fire near Tyre.[62][63]
According to CNN's Paula Zahn on 24 July, the Red Cross said that "an Israeli missile hit two clearly marked Red Cross ambulances that were parked inside the Lebanese town of Qana evacuating civilians—the wounded included a 60-year-old woman and 12-year-old boy who's now in a coma."[64]
Attacks on convoys and road network
A number of incidents of attack on civilian and UN convoys have been reported. The IDF has disputed involvement in some cases,[65][66] and has also alleged that no prior coordination took place before some affected convoys set out. These allegations have in turn been disputed.[67] There have also been reports that fear of aerial attack has prevented drivers from transporting humanitarian aid within Lebanon.[68][69] One estimate two weeks into the conflict placed the number of truck drivers who had died as a result of IDF/IAF airstrikes on convoys as "dozens".[70]
Reports of attacks (this is not a comprehensive listing):
- On 15 July, according to the UN, families in a convoy fleeing Marwahin were attacked by the IAF when on the coastal road to Tyre killing eighteen civilians including women and children.[71][72]
- On 23 July a single attack on a civilian vehicle fleeing Kafra by an IDF missile was killed three civilians and wounded sixteen. The Lebanese Red Cross in Tyre said ten vehicles carrying civilians and three or four motorcycles had been attacked by the IDF the same day making a total of forty-one injured (two critically), and three dead in attacks on convoys.[73]
- On 28 July an aid convoy was struck by the IAF as it returned from delivering humanitarian supplies to a Lebanese village. Two German journalists were reportedly injured in the attack.[65]
- On 30 July civilians and journalists were attacked, though it is unclear by whom. The IDF warned the journalists that their safety could not be guaranteed.[74]
- Other incidents: after an IDF leaflet drop on the town of Aitaroun it was reported that a three car convoy of residents fleeing the area, waving white flags, were attacked with bombs "10 meters in front of and behind the convoy, which raced on".[75] On 01 August outside Hermel a pickup truck loaded with cooking gas tanks was attacked after the driver pulled over and exited the vehicle.[76]
Aid convoys have also been prevented from accessing bombed areas to deliver aid because the IDF/IAF could not guarantee their safety from attack,[77] or because the IDF has been engaged in bombing of the roads.[78] A UN worker has also indicated that minivans are favoured by Hezbollah to transport weapons and this has lead to them being indiscriminately targeted by the IDF:
"The minivans are a target for Israel because they can take Katyusha rockets for Hizbullah, so they do not contemplate too long.. They just shoot it."[79]
The IDF is reported to have repeatedly warned residents via leaflets that they would consider minivans, trucks and motorcyles as targets for attack.[80]
Criticism of attacks on roads/convoys & Response
A preliminary UN report issued on the 23 July into Humanitarian problems arising from the conflict said:
"...#8226; Hundreds of bridges and virtually all road networks have been systematically destroyed, leaving entire communities in the south inaccessible."[81]
On 31 July the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, also highlighted the destruction of roads by the IDF and alluded to a cessation of aerial bombing when she said:
"Many people are simply unable to leave southern Lebanon because they have no transport, because roads have been destroyed, because they are ill or elderly, because they must care for others who are physically unable to make the journey, or because they simply have no where else to go. Many thousands of civilians will still be in Southern Lebanon after the suspension of air strikes is ended"[82]
A spokesman for the Israeli Government, Avi Pazner, responding to Jan Egeland, UN Emergency Relief Co-ordinator, calls for a 72-hour temporary cease-fire, said on 29 July that Israel had already opened safe corridors across Lebanon for humanitarian shipments to affected areas and claimed that Hezbollah were blocking these shipments to create a humanitarian aid crisis.
"The problem is completely different. It is Hezbollah who is deliberately preventing the transfer of medical aid and of food to the population of southern Lebanon in order to create a humanitarian crisis, which they want to blame Israel for"[83]
Pazner provided no evidence for his claim and it was completely dismissed by UN humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, Mona Hammam, who said that convoys had encountered "no problems" from the Hezbollah side.[84] Criticism of IDF attacks on roads has also been voiced by UN staff in the region of South Lebanon who claim that IDF bombing of roads is making it impossible for people to flee the fighting. According to a UN spokesman in the area of Naqoura on 24 July.
"All the smaller roads leading to the coastal roads are destroyed.. In some areas you have people pushing cars by hand through obstacles made by a rocket or a bomb."[85]
Attacks on bridges, particularly attacks on highways/bridges linking Lebanon to Syria ongoing through July but increased around 1 August prevented an eight-truck convoy carrying food and other Humanitarian aid from reaching an estimated 900,000 refugees in Lebanon.[86] By the time of the attacks two of the four border crossings into Syria were closed because of damage- the main Beirut-Damascus highway was described by the Jerusalem Post as "impassable" due to previous attacks. Defense Minister Peretz said that attacks would continue on targets which he reportedly described as "convoys smuggling weapons across the border into Lebanon" but provided no evidence of smuggling taking place.[76]
While the IDF has allowed the entrance of ships carrying aid to Lebanon, it is reported that international agencies have not received guarantees from the Israeli government for, "the safe civilian passage to and from the southern most bombed Hezbollah zones in Lebanon".[87] For example, Shaista Aziz of Aid agency Oxfam was reported to have said on 30 July
"The Oxfam rapid response team only managed to get in yesterday... The reason was lack of security- the bombing. We have still been unable to get our aid workers to the south where they are desperately needed. We have to think extremely carefully about where we go and in what vehicles, because the Israelis are attacking vehicles over a certain length. It means that only 20 tonnes at a time is getting moved. On the Syrian border the World Food Programme is being forced to unload trucks of aid into smaller vehicles for safety."[88]
On 01 August it was reported that two out of the four border crossings to Syria had been closed due to previous IAF bombing throughout late July. Israeli Defense Minister Peretz indicated that the attacks were forming part of a campaign against what he reportedly described as:"convoys smuggling weapons across the border into Lebanon"[89]
Attacks on Journalists/Media
By 27 July, International Journalist representative body, Reporters without Borders, reported that, to its knowledge, the IDF had;
- killed a Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) technician during a strike against transmitting equipment in the Satka area of Beirut,
- reduced the premises of Al Manar, Hezbollah's TV station, to ruins, injuring three,
- inflicted injuries on a three-member New TV crew within Lebanon,[90] and
- killed a young woman photographer, Layal Nagib, near Tyre.
The IDF contend that the Al-Manar TV facilities bombed station represent the propaganda arm of Hezbollah and were a legitimate target for the IDF military. Various bodies dispute this saying that the station was a civilian facility.[91] A statement issued by the Israeli Foreign Ministry read:
"The Al-Manar station has for many years served as the main tool for propaganda and incitement by Hizbollah, and has also helped the organization recruit people into its ranks,"[92]
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists responded to the statement by saying:"While Al-Manar may serve a propaganda function for Hizbollah, it does not appear based on a monitoring of its broadcasts today to be serving any discernible military function".
Attacks on Homes
This is not a comprehensive listing:
- On 1 August it was reported that around 250 properties had been hit by IDF airstrikes in the Baalbek area. The BBC described many of the homes as having:"no apparent connection with Hezbollah."[93]
- On 2 August at least 12 people were killed in an air strike on the village of Jammaliyeh, near Baalbek. An IDF missile hit the home of the village's mayor, Hussein Jamaleddin, killing his son Ali, and six other relatives. The mayor, a reported political opponent of Hezbollah survived the attack and witnesses said the building had apparently been attacked "randomly".[94]
A policy of destroying homes which the IDF says belong to "terrorists" either by controlled demolition or bulldozer has also been criticised when employed by the IDF in the West Bank and Gaza strip.
Criticism of advance warnings
Both Hezbollah and IDF have attempted to pre-warn Israeli and Lebanese civilians of attacks on civilian areas. In the case of Hezbollah this has taken the form of mass texting mobile phones in areas that are to become targets, and Television via Al-Manar addresses.[citation needed] In the case of the IDF this has taken the form of Television addresses, leafleting of areas, and also mass texting.[citation needed]
Advance warning and the inference that those civilians who continue to remain in civilian areas are "terrorists" has been criticised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) who in a 30 July statement on the IDF's attack on Qana said:
Issuing advance warning to the civilian population of impending attacks in no way relieves a warring party of its obligations under the rules and principles of international humanitarian law. In particular, the principles of distinction and proportionality must be respected at all times... The ICRC once again urgently calls for a distinction to be drawn at all times between civilians and civilian objects on the one hand, and military objectives on the other. All necessary precautions must be taken to spare civilian life and objects and to ensure that the wounded have access to medical facilities."[95]
"Responsibility for the Israeli airstrikes that killed at least 54 civilians sheltering in a home in the Lebanese village of Qana rests squarely with the Israeli military", Human Rights Watch said, and added:
Just because the Israeli military warned the civilians of Qana to leave does not give it carte blanche to blindly attack.[96]
Environmental disaster caused by power plant bombing
Israel's strikes on the Jiyeh power plant on July 13 and July 15 has caused 25,000 tonnes of oil to spill into the Mediterranean ocean and may be the worst environmental disaster in Lebanon's history. A thick black coat of oil covers 80km of Lebanon's 200km of coastline, which is causing breathing problems, killing fish and threatening Lebanon's marine environment which is a habitat for the endangered green turtle. [97] [98] [99]
Use of phosphorus incendiary bomb
Lebanese President Émile Lahoud issued the claim on July 16 against Israel, under investigation but unconfirmed, that forces dropped "phosphorus incendiary bombs, which are a blatant violation of international laws ... against Lebanese civilians".[100][101][102] Information Minister Ghazi Aridi also said, "Israel is using internationally prohibited weapons against civilians."[100][101][103] Israel has denied President Lahoud and Minister Aridi's claims, and they remain unverified.[104]. Israel has also been accused of using Cluster munitions,[105] while Hezbollah has been accused of violating international law by using rockets packed with metal ball bearings.[106] As-Safir newspaper also ran a story about alleged use of unknown chemical weapons, citing a member of the "French Association of Cardiovascular Surgeons" [107].
Jawad Najem, a surgeon at a Tyre hospital, claims that he has treated patients with phosphorus burns. Other doctors in Southern Lebanon also suspect they are seeing phosphorus burns. The Israeli military says it is investigating the claims.[108].
On 24 July Lebanese President Émile Lahoud stated on France's RFI radio:"According to the Geneva Convention, when they use phosphorous bombs and laser bombs, is that allowed against civilians and children?" An IDF spokeswomen replied to the Lahoud's statement by saying:
"Everything the Israeli Defence Forces are using is legitimate"[109]
Amnesty International also warned against "reports that Israel has used incendiary weapons, such as white phosphorous shells" [110] It precised that:
"Protocol III on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Incendiary Weapons (a Protocol additional to the 1980 UN Convention on the Prohibition or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons) prohibits the use of such weapons against civilians. And it prohibits making any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by incendiary weapons. According to the ICRC, it is unclear whether this latter rule is customary law. Israel is not a party to Protocol III on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Incendiary Weapons." [110][111].
Use of Depleted Uranium munitions in civilian areas
Amnesty International criticized the use of Depleted Uranium warheads eg. GBU-28 "Bunker Buster" munitions and armour piercing artillery and sabot shells, because of its indiscriminate nature and toxic legacy of contamination.[112] The Jerusalem Post reported that GBU-28 "bunker buster" munitions are in use by the IDF against civilian infrastructure which the IDF claim houses Hezbollah.[113]
DU weapons have been cited in some studies as contributing factors in Gulf War syndrome and increases in birth defects amongst residents within contaminated areas- the issue of DU use has also been raised by the Lebanese Government in the past.[114]
By Hezbollah
Only the July 13-25 2006 time period is shown. The last missing picture relates to a 78-year-old Haifa resident who suffered a deadly heart attack when a rocket struck near him.]] Hezbollah has fired rockets, sometimes at a rate of more than 100 per day,[115] at civilian targets throughout the conflict, landing in all major cities of northern Israel including Haifa, Nazareth, Tiberias, Nahariya, Safed, Afula[116] Kiryat Shmona, Karmiel, and Maalot, and dozens of kibbutzim, moshavim, and Druze and Arab villages. [117] [118][119][120][121] Hezbollah rocket attacks are responsible for all 28 civilian Israeli fatalities in the ongoing conflict, while causing no military fatalities. [122] Because of the bombings by Hezbollah of Israel's northern cities, there is now a large displaced Israeli citizen population within Israel. "Israeli officials have estimated the number of displaced northern Israelis at 300,000 since the fighting began" on 12 July.[123] Many of the displaced Israelis are staying in Israel's southern most city, Eilat, where hotels are overbooked. Therefore some are forced to camp out on the beach. Other families are staying in university dormatories in larger cities such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem or in guests houses in kibbutzim south of Haifa.[124] On 02 August figures of 200 - 300 rockets aimed at fifteen targets inside Israel were reported.
Referring to the 2 day period immediately after the capture of the two IDF soldiers and the IDF response, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah stated: "In the beginning, we started to act calmly, we focused on Israel[i] military bases and we didn't attack any settlement, However, since the first day, the enemy attacked Lebanese towns and murdered civilians … Hezbollah militants had destroyed military bases, while the Israelis killed civilians and targeted Lebanon's infrastructure."[125]
Rockets also landed and resulted in casualties in the Israeli Arab population. 6 Muslim children and one Orthodox Christian man were killed.[126] Nasrallah has apologised for the first two Arab fatalities, two brothers aged 3 and 5 in the mixed city of Nazareth.[127][128]
Targets of rocket attacks included a post office [10] and two Israeli hospitals, according to the director general of the Israeli Ministry of Health, professor Avi Israeli.[17]
Human Rights Watch stated on 18 July that "Hezbollah's attacks [on Haifa] were at best indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas, at worst the deliberate targeting of civilians. Either way, they were serious violations of international humanitarian law and probable war crimes." The reasoning was that "the warheads used suggest a desire to maximize harm to civilians. Some of the rockets launched against Haifa over the past two days contained hundreds of metal ball bearings that are of limited use against military targets but cause great harm to civilians and civilian property. The ball bearings lodge in the body and cause serious harm."[129] According to Israeli sources, the ball bearings in the warheads are "capable of piercing a steel door".[130]
Hezbollah has also been criticized for deliberately maximizing civilian casualties in Lebanon by using the Lebanese civilian population as "human shields." Upon his visit to Lebanon, UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland, accused Hezbollah of "cowardly blending ... among women and children. I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men."[131][132] Other Western sources in Lebanon have disputed this claim, indicating that Hezbollah militant contact with and proximity to Lebanese civilian centers is routinely minimized as a precaution against infiltration. The "human shield" argument has often been characterized as an attempt to legitimize high civilian death tolls in Lebanon.[133]
Various reports have also emerged detailing such blending among civilians.National Public Radio correspondent Ivan Watson reported that Hezbollah in southern Beirut were operating in civilian clothes and unmarked vehicles.[134] Israeli military spokesman Capt. Eric Snider further noted that much of the weaponry threatening Israel was deliberately being stored among civilians: "A lot of the rockets are stored in people's homes in urban areas, fired from within villages and brought in from the Damascus-Beirut highway".[135]
The IDF reports that Hezbollah militants are preventing or impeding the evacuation of civilians from southern Lebanon despite warnings by Israel to do so, thereby keeping civilians inside the military theatre and exposing them to danger.[136]
Israeli Air Force issued warnings to civilians prior to military actions by way of leaflet droppings to evacuate areas in which it was intending to strike against Hezbollah strongholds. These leaflets indicate where and when it is unsafe to be in a particular area, giving civilian populations time to evacuate despite providing an early warning to the intended target, Hezbollah militants.[137] Also, general leaflets explaining Israel's desire not to bring harm to the Lebanese populace have been dropped, asking civilians to "Refrain from being located in places in relation to Hezbollah".[138][139]
New Republic reporter Annia Ciezadlo reported that Hezbollah kept Shia families in an abandoned underground parking garage in Haret Hreik, bringing them food and water, under the auspices of "keeping them safe from the enemy" but in actual fact preventing their evacuation from a combat zone. While the families were underground, under the impression that the garage somehow provided safety from bombs, Israeli UAVs searched above as armed Hezbollah went about their business just outside the parking garage.[140]
Attacks on United Nations personnel
The United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) was created by the United Nations, to confirm Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, restore the international peace and security, and help the Lebanese Government restore its effective authority in the area. During the current (as in past conflicts; see Qana shelling) the peacekeeping force has come under attack from both sides, but mainly from Israeli forces.[11] About 50 members of the unarmed UNTSO are being evacuated to lightly armed UNIFIL positions for security reasons.[141]
The worst of these came on 25 July 2006, when four unarmed UNTSO peacekeepers from Austria, China, Finland and Canada were killed in an Israeli air strike on a UN observation post in southern Lebanon. According to the UN, the four had taken shelter in a bunker under the post. It had been shelled 14 times by Israeli artillery over a period of 6 hours, during which the post called an Israeli liasion officer ten times to call off the bombardement. Every time he promised to do so.[142] Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a statement from Rome that he was " ... shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defence Forces."[143] The site of the observation post was well known, and both sides in the conflict had the coordinates of the compound. In press releases by UNIFIL on 26 July and 27 July it is noted that Hezbollah had been firing from close to 4 UNIFIL positions in Alma ash Shab, Tibnin Brashit and At Tiri. [144][145] Ireland's Foreign Ministry said a senior Irish soldier working for the UN forces was in contact with the Israelis six times to warn them that their bombardment was endangering the lives of U.N. staff and on several occasions they were reassured that it will.[146][147]
According to an interview on CBC radio and multiple print sources, Retired Canadian Major General Lewis MacKenzie, referring to an email he had received a few days previously from the killed Canadian peacekeeper Major Paeta Hess-von Kruedener, stated that "...what he was telling us was Hezbollah fighters were all over his position and the IDF were (sic) targeting them and that's a favorite trick by people who don't have representation in the UN. They use the UN as shields knowing that they can't be punished for it." [12][13][14]
Use of wide dispersal pattern weapons
Of Israel, the Human Rights Watch has said that there is evidence that has Israel used Cluster munitions on civilians[148] and described them as "unacceptably inaccurate and unreliable weapons when used around civilians" and that "They should never be used in populated areas". Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of using cluster munitions in an attack on Bilda, a Lebanese village, on 19 July [149] which killed 1 civilian and injured 12, including seven children. The Israeli ambassador to Moscow dismissed the reports as "Hezbollah propaganda".[150]
Of Hezbollah, Human Rights Watch has said "Hezbollah has launched rockets toward Haifa that contained thousands of metal ball bearings. Human Rights Watch is of the view that neither weapon should be used in or near civilian areas as a matter of international law". [151]
Opinions on civilian attacks
Criticism has been directed at both sides for the heavy toll to civilians in both Israel and Lebanon.
Hezbollah has been condemned for its deliberate use of Lebanese civilians as “human shields,” acting specifically from heavily populated areas and blending with the civilian population. On 23 July 2006, upon a visit to Lebanon, U.N. Humanitarian Chief Jan Egeland criticized Hezbollah for this tactic, stating, “Consistently, from the Hezbollah heartland, my message was that Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending ... among women and children… I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men.”
Jonathan Cook has addressed Egeland's criticism, saying that Hezbollah’s fighters are not aliens recently arrived from training camps in Iran. They belong to and are strongly supported by the Shiite community, nearly half the country’s population, and many other Lebanese.So the Hezbollah militias live beside other civilians and do not hide there. [152] Contrary to both arguments, Mitch Prothero, writing on Salon.com, has argued that "My own reporting and that of other journalists reveals that in fact Hezbollah fighters -- as opposed to the much more numerous Hezbollah political members, and the vastly more numerous Hezbollah sympathizers -- avoid civilians. Much smarter and better trained than the PLO and Hamas fighters, they know that if they mingle with civilians, they will sooner or later be betrayed by collaborators -- as so many Palestinian militants have been." He proceeds to note that the targeting of civilian facilities may be the result of liberal definitions within the Israeli military as to what constitutes a Hezbollah target; Hezbollah's civilian wing is Lebanon's second largest employer, and its facilities include hospitals and schools, among other non-military assets. While employees may be on the Hezbollah payroll, they are not often if ever participants in or knowledgeable about Hezbollah military activity.[153]
Still others, however, have cited the fact that the IDF informed and urged Lebanese civilians to evacuate areas in which Hezbollah's infrastructure was being targeted. The New York Times noted that "Israel has been careful to drop leaflets warning civilians in southern Beirut and southern Lebanon where it knows that Hezbollah keeps stores of rockets and launchers in apartment houses, garages and homes."[154]
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described the war on Lebanon as part of "birth pangs of a new Middle East" and urged Israel to ignore calls for a ceasefire because it would be a "false promise if it simply returns us to the status quo."[155]
In response to American support and Israel's military tactics, Kim Howells, British Foreign Office minister, said in an interview with CNN, "I hope that the Americans understand what's happening to Lebanon: the destruction of the infrastructure, the death of so many children, and so many people. These have not been surgical strikes, and it's very, very difficult I think to understand the kind of military tactics that have been used. You know if they're chasing Hezbollah, well go for Hezbollah. You don't go for the entire Lebanese nation, and that's the difference."[156]
Charges of human rights violations have been directed at both Hezbollah and Israel. For instance, Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights has warned that Israel may be breaking international law and committing war crimes if it does not do more to protect civilians. "Indiscriminate shelling of cities constitutes a foreseeable and unacceptable targeting of civilians... Similarly, the bombardment of sites with alleged military significance, but resulting invariably in the killing of innocent civilians, is unjustifiable", said Arbour.[157]
Use of prohibited weapons to attack civilian targets
Human Rights Watch criticised Hezbollah's attacks on Israeli civilian areas on 18 July, in part because "the warheads used suggest a desire to maximize harm to civilians. Some of the rockets launched against Haifa over the past two days contained hundreds of metal ball bearings that are of limited use against military targets but cause great harm to civilians and civilian property. The ball bearings lodge in the body and cause serious harm." [158] Such warheads are banned by international laws; Human Rights Watch describes the Hezbolla warheads as "serious violations of international humanitarian law and probable war crimes". [158] According to Israeli sources, the ball bearings in the warheads are "capable of piercing a steel door". [159]
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud claimed Israeli forces have dropped "phosphorus incendiary bombs, which are a blatant violation of international laws ... against Lebanese civilians".[100] Jawad Najem, a surgeon at a Tyre hospital, claims that he has treated patients with phosphorus burns. Other doctors in Southern Lebanon also suspect they are seeing phosphorus burns. The Israeli military says it is investigating the claims. [160][161]
Environmental consequences of attacks
- IDF strikes on the Jiyeh power plant on 13 July and 15 July caused 25,000 tonnes of oil to spill into the Mediterranean and constitutes an environmental disaster for the region. At present an oil slick covers 80km of Lebanon's 200km coastline. The slick is reportedly causing breathing problems, killing fish, and threatening the habitat of the endangered green sea turtle. [162]
- Amnesty International criticized the IDF for its use of depleted uranium warheads (e.g., GBU-28 "Bunker Buster" munitions which is delivered by U.S. during the conflict[163] , armour-piercing artillery and sabot shells) because of their indiscriminate nature and potential toxic environmental contamination.[164] GBU-28 munitions are in use by the IDF in Lebanon against infrastructure which the IDF claim houses Hezbollah.[165]
Strikes on Lebanon's civilian population and infrastructure include Beirut airport, sea ports, a lighthouse, grain silos,[170] bridges, roads, factories, medical and relief trucks,[171] mobile telephone and television stations,[172] fuel containers and service stations,[173] and the country's largest dairy farm Liban Lait.[174] There have been reports of incidents involving attacks on residential buildings,[175][176] ambulances,[177] fleeing civilians,[178] and United Nations posts and personnel,[179]. The Israeli government insists these attacks are accidental.
On 30 July 2006 an Israeli airstrike hit next to a residential building in Qana housing refugees which subsequently collapsed.[180] Israel said it was near Hezbollah rocket launching sites and raised questions about a nearly eight hour gap between the bombing and the building's collapse;[181]; 28 people died, 16 of which were children, and 13 are missing according to Human Rights Watch[182]. The Guardian said that fragments from the same precision-guided bombs suspected of killing four UN observers five days before were found.[183][184]
But as Senior Emergencies Researcher for Human Rights Watch,Peter Bouckaert,Reports "Not only has Israel failed to distinguish between military and civilian targets; its own officials suggest that they have decided any civilian still in the south is fair game."[185]
Both Hezbollah and IDF have attempted to pre-warn Israeli and Lebanese civilians of attacks on civilian areas. In the case of Hezbollah this has taken the form of mass texting mobile phones in areas that are to become targets, and Television via Al-Manar addresses.[citation needed] In the case of the IDF this has taken the form of Television addresses, leafleting of areas, and also mass texting.[citation needed]
Hezbollah has fired rockets at civilian targets throughout the conflict, landing in all major cities of northern Israel including Haifa, Nazareth, Tiberias, Nahariya, Safed, Afula[186] Kiryat Shmona, Beit She'an, Karmiel, and Maalot, and dozens of kibbutzim, moshavim, and Druze and Arab villages, as well as the northern West Bank.[187][188] Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah denied this, saying "In the beginning, we started to act calmly, we focused on Israel[i] military bases and we didn't attack any settlement, However, since the first day, the enemy attacked Lebanese towns and murdered civilians … Hezbollah militants had destroyed military bases, while the Israelis killed civilians and targeted Lebanon's infrastructure."[189]
Environmental consequences of attacks
- IDF strikes on the Jiyeh power plant on 13 July and 15 July caused 25,000 tonnes of oil to spill into the Mediterranean and constitutes an environmental disaster for the region. At present a 10km wide oil slick covers 80km of Lebanon's and 10km of Syrias coastline, moving north towards towards Turkey and Cyprus. The slick is reportedly causing breathing problems, killing fish, and threatening the habitat of the endangered green sea turtle. [190]
- Hezbollah rockets have caused numerous forest fires inside Northern Israel.[191]
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(help) - ^ "Israeli Cluster Munitions Hit Civilians in Lebanon". HRW. 2006-07-24.
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(help) - ^ "Questions and Answers on Hostilities Between Israel and Hezbollah". Human Rights Watch. 2006-07-28.
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(help) - ^ "Israeli Agression on Lebanon", July 19 and 21, 2006, in As-Safir, Retrieved on 2006-08-03.
- ^ "Israel urged to shun cluster bomb". BBC. 2006-07-25.
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(help) - ^ "Lebanon president says Israel uses phosphorous arms". Reuters. 2006-07-16.
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(help) - ^ a b "Obligations under international humanitarian law of the parties to the conflict in Israel and Lebanon". Amnesty International. 2006-07-26.
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(help) Section 8.4 - ^ Israeli WMD Chemical Weapon dropped on children in Lebanon identified
- ^ "Obligations under international humanitarian law of the parties to the conflict in Israel and Lebanon". Amnesty International. 2006-07-26.
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(help) - ^ "Hizbullah chain of command still intact". Jerusalem Post. 2006-07-15.
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(help) - ^ "Lebanon to Present Files to UN on Israel's Use of DU Weapons". Peoples Daily China. 2006-07-20.
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(help) - ^ Kraft, Dina. "Israelis Rally to Aid Displaced." International Herald Tribune. 1 August 2006: 4.
- ^ Major Attacks in Lebanon, Israel and the Gaza Strip, New York Times
- ^ "Safed: Man seriously injured in Katyusha attack". Ynet. 2006-07-14.
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(help) - ^ "Safed: Man seriously injured in Katyusha attack". Ynet. 2006-07-14.
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(help) - ^ "Anxious northern Israel endures rocket fire". CNN.
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(help) - ^ "Northern Israel under attack; missile fired at Haifa". Ynetnews. 2006-07-14.
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(help) - ^ "Israel-Hizbullah conflict: Victims of rocket attacks and IDF casualties". MFA. 2006-07-12.
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(help) - ^ Kraft, Dina. "Israelis Rally to Aid Displaced." International Herald Tribune. 1 August 2006: 4.
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ "Hizbullah leader promises enemy 'more surprises'".
- ^ "Israel-Hizbullah conflict: Victims of rocket attacks and IDF casualties". MFA. 2006-07-12.
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(help) - ^ "Rocket kills two boys in Nazareth". AP. 2006-07-19.
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(help) - ^ "Hezbollah leader apologizes for attack's child victims". CNN. 2006-07-21.
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(help) - ^ "Lebanon: Hezbollah Rocket Attacks on Haifa Designed to Kill Civilians". Human Rights Watch. 2006-07-18.
- ^ "ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH TRADE FIERCE ROCKET ATTACKS; PANIC IN HAIFA: Residents run for cover as explosions, sirens sound in worst-hit Israeli city". San Francisco Chronicle. 2006-07-17.
- ^ "UN humanitarian chief blasts Hizbullah". 2006-07-25.
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(help); Unknown parameter|pulisher=
ignored (|publisher=
suggested) (help) - ^ "U.N. Exec Blames Hezbollah for Deaths". Forbes. 2006-07-24.
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(help) - ^ [2]
- ^ "Violence May Aid Hezbollah in Lebanon". NPR. 2006-07-18.
- ^ "Military analysts question Israeli bombing". Associated Press. 2006-07-20.
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(help) - ^ "IDF: Hizbullah preventing civilians from leaving villages in southern Lebanon". Ynetnews. 2006-07-18.
- ^ "With Israeli Use of Force, Debate Over Proportion". New York Times. 2006-07-19.
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(help) - ^ "Israel Leaflets Warning to the Lebanese People".
- ^ "Hundred Thousand New warning leaflets dropped on downtown Beirut".
- ^ "Entombed". TNR. 2006-07-20.
- ^ "UN removes observers from border". The Jerusalem Post. 2006-07-28.
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(help) - ^ http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,428698,00.html
- ^ "Israel troops 'ignored' UN plea". BBC News. 2006-07-26.
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(help) - ^ UNIFIL (2006-07-26). "United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon: Press Release 26, July 2006" (PDF). United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
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(help) - ^ UNIFIL (2006-07-27). "United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon: Press Release 27, July 2006" (PDF). United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
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(help) - ^ "Israel promises full probe into UN deaths". cbc.ca. 2006-07-26.
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(help) - ^ "Olmert orders investigation into deadly IAF strike on UN base". Haaretz.com. 2006-07-26.
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(help) - ^ "Israeli Cluster Munitions Hit Civilians in Lebanon". HRW. 2006-07-24.
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(help) - ^ "Middle East: Rice Calls For A 'New Middle East'". Radio Free Europe. 2006-07-25.
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(help) - ^ "Israeli Ambassador to Moscow Dismisses Use of Cluster Munitions in Lebanon as "Hezbollah Propaganda"". MOSNews.com. 2006-07-26.
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(help) - ^ "Questions and Answers on Hostilities Between Israel and Hezbollah". Human Rights Watch. 2006-07-28.
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(help) - ^ [3]
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- ^ "CNN International Live". CNN. 2006-07-22.
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(help) - ^ "UN warning on Mid-East war crimes". BBC News. 2006-07-20.
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(help) - ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
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was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH TRADE FIERCE ROCKET ATTACKS; PANIC IN HAIFA: Residents run for cover as explosions, sirens sound in worst-hit Israeli city". San Francisco Chronicle. 2006-07-17.
- ^ "Israel urged to shun cluster bomb". BBC. 2006-07-25.
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(help) - ^ "Israel, Lebanon Wage War Of Words". CBS News. 2006-07-16.
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(help) - ^ "Environmental disaster in Lebanon war". United Press International. 2006-07-29.
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(help) - ^ Israel to get U.S. "bunker buster" bombs - report, Reuters, 24 July, 2006
- ^ "Obligations under international humanitarian law of the parties to the conflict in Israel and Lebanon". Amnesty International. 2006-07-26.
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(help) - ^ "Hizbullah chain of command still intact". Jerusalem Post. 2006-07-15.
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(help) - ^ %5b%5bBBC News%5d%5d "In pictures: Conflict enters fourth week: Picture 8: "Some Hezbollah rockets have started forest fires in Israel"". 2006-08-02.
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(help) - ^ "Rockets rain down on Israelis near border Half the residents of Kiryat Shemona have fled southward". San Francisco Chronicle. 2006-07-31.
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at position 42 (help) - ^ "Lies, damn lies - and war pictures", Guardian, July 20, 2006
- ^ "Putting things in perspective", On the Face, July 20, 2006
- ^ "Howard says Lebanon evacuation possible by ferry". ABC. 2006-07-16.
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(help) - ^ "UAE aid truck bombed by Israel". Gulfnews. 2006-07-18.
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(help) - ^ "Israel hits Lebanon telecoms, plans more incursions". Reuters. 2006-07-22.
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(help) - ^ "By the numbers: heavy damage to infrastructure". FT.com. 2006-07-18. Retrieved 2006-07-19.
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(help) - ^ "Mayhem in middle east: it gets worse". The Daily Mirror. 2006-07-20.
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(help) - ^ "Israeli air attack kills 60 civilians, including 37 children". CNN. 2006-07-31.
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(help) - ^ "'10 buildings for each rocket'". News24/AFP. 2006-07-24.
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(help) - ^ "CNN Live Saturday". CNN. 2006-07-22.
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(help) - ^ "To Flee or to Stay? Family Chooses Too Late and Pays Dearly". New York Times. 2006-07-24.
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(help) - ^ "Israel troops 'ignored' UN plea". BBC. 07-26-06.
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(help) - ^ "Israel suspends bombings after deadly strike". International Herald Tribune. 2006-07-30.
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(help) - ^ "IDF: Qana building fell hours after strike". Ynet. 2006-07-30.
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(help) - ^ http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N02345278.htm, Reuters, August 2, 2006
- ^ "UN 'They found them huddled together'". The Guardian. 2006-07-31.
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(help) - ^ "Israel halts airstrikes for 48 hours". CNN. 2006-07-31.
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(help) - ^ [7]
- ^ Major Attacks in Lebanon, Israel and the Gaza Strip, New York Times
- ^ "Safed: Man seriously injured in Katyusha attack". Ynet. 2006-07-14.
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(help) - ^ "Long-range rocket lands near Jenin". Ynet. 2006-08-02.
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(help) - ^ "Hizbullah leader promises enemy 'more surprises'". Islamic Resistance Lebanon. July 17 2006.
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(help) - ^ "Amid the fighting in Lebanon, a budding ecological disaster". Globe and Mail. 2006-07-28.
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(help) - ^ %5b%5bBBC News%5d%5d "In pictures: Conflict enters fourth week: Picture 8: "Some Hezbollah rockets have started forest fires in Israel"". 2006-08-02.
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(help)
See also
External links
Pictures: