Israel pounds 'Hezbollah' bunker as Lebanon PM pleads for
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Israel pounds 'Hezbollah' bunker as Lebanon PM pleads for
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
AFP via Yahoo - Jul 19, 2006
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060719/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflict_060719224239
Israel pounds 'Hezbollah' bunker as Lebanon PM pleads for help
by Nayla Razzouk
BEIRUT (AFP) - Lebanon's prime minister made a desperate appeal for
international help after the deadliest day of the Israeli bombardment as
warplanes dropped over 20 tonnes of bombs on a bunker said to be used by
Hezbollah leaders.
Thousands of terrified foreigners, mainly Westerners, were being evacuated
by sea from Beirut to the neighbouring Mediterranean island of Cyprus,
fleeing a bombardment that has now killed 327 and displaced half-a-million
people.
Concerns mounted over the humanitarian situation, with the United Nations
warning of an impending "catastrophe" as Israel's relentless campaign to
defeat the Shiite Muslim militants of Hezbollah killed 72 people on its
eighth day.
"The country has been torn to shreds. Can the international community stand
by while such callous retribution by the state of Israel is inflicted on
us?," a bitter and emotional Prime Minister Fuad Siniora told foreign
ambassadors.
"You want to support the government of Lebanon? Let me tell you ... no
government can survive on the ruins of a nation," he said. "I hope you will
not let us down. We the Lebanese want life. We have chosen life. We refuse
to die."
In the latest Hezbollah attack on the Jewish state, two Arab-Israeli
children were killed and 37 people wounded when a Katyusha rocket fired
from Lebanon exploded in the northern Israeli town of Nazareth.
Another two Israeli soldiers were killed and nine wounded in border clashes
after ground troops went back into Lebanon to conduct "pinpoint" operations
against Hezbollah. One Hezbollah militant was also killed in the shootout.
Israel, which has made no secret of its desire to "liquidate" Hezbollah's
charismatic leader Hassan Nasrallah, would not disclose the targets of its
late night raid on the bunker in south Beirut or the results of the strike.
With still no sign of a ceasefire in sight, a senior Israel official vowed
after a security cabinet meeting its "intensive war" against Hezbollah
would go on as long the Jewish state deemed necessary.
Diplomatic efforts to end the bloodshed have yet to get off the ground,
with Israel's chief ally the United States refusing to back calls for a
ceasefire until Hezbollah halts its rocket attacks into northern Israel.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and EU foreign policy chief Javier
Solana were to meet in New York on Thursday with UN chief Kofi Annan, who
has proposed the creation of an international force to restore calm in
Lebanon.
Israel pressed on with a new wave of attacks from air and sea against
southern and eastern Lebanon, killing at least 72 people, flattening
houses, destroying roads and hitting trucks, police said.
Twenty-five people were killed and 26 wounded in a single village where
residents said 10 houses were turned to rubble by shelling from Israeli
gunboats and warplanes.
Eleven civilians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a four-storey
building in the eastern Lebanese village of Nabi Sheet, near the ancient
Roman city of Baalbek.
Israeli helicopters also fired rockets on a residential Christian district
in Beirut, the first direct strikes in the centre of the capital, raising
concerns about the evacuation operation underway at the nearby port.
Israel also continued its deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip, killing at
least 10 people Wednesday, bringing to 96 the number of Palestinians dead
since it launched an operation to retrieve a captive soldier and halt rocket
attacks. It also killed five others in a West Bank incursion into the city
of Nablus.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, on his second visit to the region in
days, called for an immediate solution to end the violence in both Gaza and
Lebanon, saying "every day counts."
Over the past week 28 Israelis have been killed, including civilians caught
in a barrage of rocket fire across the border and 12 soldiers.
Expressing alarm about the humanitarian situation in south Lebanon, UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said perpetrators in the
conflict could be held to account for war crimes.
"The scale of the killings in the region, and their predictability, could
engage the personal criminal responsibility of those involved, particularly
those in a position of command and control," she said.
In Beirut, hundreds of foreigners were waiting to be evacuated by sea while
three ships arrived on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, which lies just
100 miles (160 kilometres) to the west and is being used as the evacuation
hub.
More than 1,000 people, mostly Americans, arrived on Cyprus from Beirut on
a chartered cruise liner, with US diplomats seeking to help some 6,000
nationals exit Lebanon by Friday.
Britain is also hoping to evacuate about 5,000 of its nationals by the end
of the week.
"It's hell on earth, it's escalating day by day," said Joe Noujeim from
England as he arrived in Cyprus on a British destroyer, expressing relief
at finally getting out with his wife and three young children.
For many ordinary Lebanese there is little chance of such a rescue and
police said some 70 percent of the population of south Lebanon, which has
borne the brunt of the Israeli operation, had fled their homes to find
safer places.
The international airport has been knocked out, ports and roads bombed,
bridges destroyed, power stations set ablaze and houses turned to rubble in
scenes reminiscent of the country's devastating 1975-1990 civil war.
French President Jacques Chirac called for the creation of humanitarian
corridors, while Israel's offensive drew stinging criticism from The
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
"The high number of civilian casualties and the extent of damage to
essential public infrastructure raise serious questions regarding respect
for the principle of proportionality in the conduct of hostilities," ICRC
director of operations Pierre Kraehenbuehl said.
Rice is expected to travel to the region although she has been unwilling to
be drawn on a specific date, saying she would only come when it is
"helpful".
Israel, which has sent ground troops back into Lebanon for the first time
since it ended its occupation in May 2000, has been emboldened by strong
public support at home and the lack of a ceasefire call from its ally
Washington.
Amid fears the conflict in Lebanon and Gaza could spread across the region,
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said the Jewish state is not
planning to attack Iran or Syria, noting that it already has its "hands
full" with Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
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