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Lebanon: Heavy exchanges of fire continued

21 July 2006


Heavy exchanges of fire continued along the length of the Blue Line in the last 24 hours, with somewhat reduced intensity in the eastern sector. Hezbollah fired rockets from various locations, and the IDF continued the shelling and aerial bombardment of the south. The IDF and Hezbollah are engaged in exchanges on the ground inside Lebanese territory in the area of Marun Al Ras in the central sector, and Marwahin in the western sector. The IDF is present in these two areas since 19 July. There were also intensive cross border exchanges in the area of Alma Ash Shab close to the Mediterranean cost yesterday evening. 

Unexploded ordnance will hamper humanitarian relief and reconstruction in Lebanon

21 July 2006


Unexploded ordnance from recent armed conflict in Lebanon will pose a direct threat to communities and internally displaced persons, hamper humanitarian relief, impede the movement of peacekeeping forces, and hinder the already difficult task of reconstructing houses and essential infrastructure in the area, according to Max Gaylard, Director of the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Since 2002, nearly 59,000 landmines and more than 4,600 items of unexploded ordnance have been cleared from southern Lebanon 

UN Middle East envoy calls for united effort to defuse 'deep regional crisis'

21 July 2006


Regretting that his meetings with leaders in Lebanon and Israel found “serious obstacles” to a comprehensive ceasefire in the violence-racked region, a top United Nations envoy today called on the Security Council to unite in the coming days to dramatically reduce the devastating toll on civilians, and to quickly develop the framework for a political solution. “The Secretary-General and the Secretariat are working on the political, peacekeeping and humanitarian fronts to respond to this deep regional crisis,” said Vijay Nambiar. 

Film festival drops Israel as sponsor to protest attack

Jim Quilty 21 July 2006


The organizers of the 2006 Locarno International Film Festival have dropped the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a festival sponsor because of that country’s unremitting bombardment of civilian targets in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. The Israeli ministry was listed as a co-sponsor of one of the festival’s programs, called “Leopards of Tomorrow.” News of the sponsorship provoked a letter of protest from several Lebanese and Palestinian filmmakers and festival guests - who threatened to pull out of Locarno, which starts on August 2, if the links were maintained. 

Letting Lebanon Burn

21 July 2006


Israel is raining destruction upon Lebanon in a purely defensive operation, according to the White House and most of Congress. Even some CNN anchors, habituated to mechanical reporting of “Middle East violence,” sound slightly incredulous. With over 300 Lebanese dead and easily 500,000 displaced, with the Beirut airport, bridges and power plants disabled, the enormous assault is more than a “disproportionate response” to Hizballah’s July 12 seizure of two soldiers and killing of three others on Israeli soil. It is more than the “excessive use of force” that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan decries. 

ICRC calls on Israeli army to immediately leave Palestine Red Crescent premises in Nablus

20 July 2006


During a military operation in Nablus that began on the night of 18 July, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) occupied the premises of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), blocking the entrance and hindering the movement of ambulances, patients and staff. This action shows grave disregard by the IDF for its obligation to respect and protect medical units. Since 19 July, the ICRC has repeatedly raised this issue with the Israeli authorities and called on the IDF to immediately leave the premises of the PRCS. The PRCS runs emergency medical services and a rehabilitation centre for disabled children on its premises in Nablus. 

Western media fail to tell the real story in Lebanon

Marc J. Sirois 21 July 2006


One has to assume that what the decent Western journalists report is being heavily edited somewhere along the line before it gets to the consumer. This is presumably intended as a prophylactic against the inevitable charges of “anti-Semitism” and resultant drops in advertising revenues that will follow unvarnished coverage of Israeli brutality. The product of this regime of fear has been a generation of biased reporting that portrays the Jewish state as weak when it is very strong, moderate when it is frequently extremist, democratic when it is often theocratic, liberal when it is commonly draconian - in short, “Western” when it is anything but. 

Why We Are Staying

Patrick McGreevy Beirut 21 July 2006


It will be an emotional scene tomorrow saying “yalla bye” to our friends who are evacuating from this nasty little war. Most swear they will return. The campus of the American University of Beirut (AUB) will seem a different place then, though it is hard to imagine what it will be like. A handful of non-Lebanese faculty and staff have decided to remain. Betsy and I are among them. We have been together since 1972, and we made the decision together to stay together here. What could we be thinking? We do feel anger at what is happening to Lebanon. We don 

Thousands isolated in a sea of destruction

Olfat Mahmoud Borj El Barajneh refugee camp 21 July 2006


I am the director of the Women’s Humanitarian Organization in the camp. As the war started, people rushed to the supermarkets to supply with food but the supermarkets and shops were empty during the first hours. Immediately, the first idea that came up to my mind was how to aid my people in the camp and provide them with prompt assistance in response to the severe conditions the Palestinians were living before and during the war. Eighty percent of them are unemployed or have part-time jobs and sometimes seasonal jobs. They earn their livings on day by day basis. So the critical question is how they could manage through this hard situation. 

Israeli soldiers use civilians as human shields in Beit Hanun

20 July 2006


B’Tselem’s initial investigation indicates that, during an incursion by Israeli forces into Beit Hanun, in the northern Gaza Strip, on 17 July 2006, soldiers seized control of two buildings in the town and used residents as human shield. After seizing control of the buildings, the soldiers held six residents, two of them minors, on the staircases of the two buildings, at the entrance to rooms in which the soldiers positioned themselves, for some twelve hours. During this time, there were intense exchanges of gunfire between the soldiers and armed Palestinians.