Considerable progress has been achieved in southern Lebanon since the Security Council resolution ending the conflict between Israel and Hizbollah, and most of the expected force of blue helmets to monitor the cessation of hostilities has now been deployed, the senior United Nations commander in Lebanon said today. Briefing reporters at UN Headquarters in New York, Maj.-Gen. Alain Pellegrini said the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has 7,200 soldiers on the ground, including a contingent of 1,500 Germans that is part of the taskforce designated to protect Lebanon’s maritime boundary. Read more about Most blue helmets now in place in southern Lebanon, says UN force chief
Wissam Arab pointed sadly at shredded nets and broken pieces of wood in the dirty water in Beirut’s Ouzai Harbour. It is all that remains of his work over the past 11 years. Arab’s fishing boat was destroyed in the July-August conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. It lies 15 metres deep in the Mediterranean Sea, now polluted after an Israeli air strike on a nearby power plant created a massive oil spill. His livelihood is in tatters, he said. “The sea was my friend. Now, even divers are scared of going under the water to check on my boat. It was drowned by one of the rockets that hit the harbour,” Arab told IRIN. Read more about Fishermen survive on handouts
Haddatha is a mess. Located close to Lebanon’s border with Israel, the village was heavily damaged during the five-week conflict that ravaged the eastern Mediterranean country this summer. The village centre is unrecognisable, with a mosque, shops and about 100 houses reduced to rubble. Some families have returned to rebuild their homes, but with winter approaching and their rural livelihoods destroyed others of Haddatha’s displaced inhabitants whose homes were ruined are staying away. One of the returnees, Mustafa Nasser sits in what is left of his family’s living room. Read more about Hardy souls return to clean up the mess in southern Lebanon
Thousands of children returned to school across Lebanon on Monday after a summer of war, destruction and displacement. “I am happy to be back in school,” said 11-year-old Fatima Aasi, who goes to school in her home town of Ansariyeh, 30km south of Beirut. “During the war we were very scared, but now I feel like things will be normal again.” After the United Nations-brokered ceasefire that ended the 34-day conflict between Israel and Hezbollah on 14 August, the Ministry of Education, in partnership with UNICEF, initiated a national back-to-school campaign with a commitment to ensuring that children in public schools could begin classes on October 16 - three weeks later than the usual start date. Read more about New school year gets underway with few hitches
The fighting may be over, for now, between Hezbollah and the Israeli army but the scars of the devastation caused in Lebanon may never heal. Beyond the destroyed buildings, collapsed bridges and the estimated million pieces of unexploded ordnance littering the countryside, are the personal stories of injury, disfigurement and disability. ‘There are children who have been left disabled by the war and are now in wheelchairs,’ said Nizar Amine of Christian Aid partner Mouvement Social, which is repairing three schools damaged by bombing in the southern Lebanese village of Srifa. Read more about Lebanon's new disabled
United Nations de-mining officials, already worried by up to 1 million pieces of unexploded ordnance in southern Lebanon left over from Israel’s 34-day war with Hizbollah, voiced concern today that the problem could worsen as winter weather embeds the munitions deeper into the ground. “This will make the job more dangerous since it becomes difficult to detect and clear the suspected contaminated areas,” UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Spokesman Alexander Ivanko said of the unexploded ordnance (UXOs) and cluster bomb units (CBUs) still remaining from this summer’s conflict. Read more about UN officials fear unexploded ordnance problem could worsen with winter
Business owners from four Arab villages in the north of Israel are waiting to see whether a court will grant them the same compensation as their Jewish Israeli counterparts for damage done during the recent war between Israel and the armed wing of Lebanon’s political party Hezbollah. Arab organisations in Israel say the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict [12 July to 14 August] may have hit Arab communities harder because they were generally poor to start with. The villages of Arab al-Aramshe, Fasuta, Ma’alia and Jesh, suffered serious damage during the conflict, but have been denied the full compensation package awarded to neighbouring Jewish villages. Read more about Arab villages want equal compensation
Local and international attention has focused on rebuilding southern Lebanon and parts of Beirut since the end of Israel’s military incursion, but this area in the north was also badly hit during the summer conflict. Israeli air strikes caused substantial damage to houses, farmland, industrial plants and infrastructure, while thousands of traumatised and scared civilians fled from the Bekaa Valley to neighbouring Syria. They started flooding back across the border right after the August 14 ceasefire was announced, but many returned to scenes of devastation in their home areas. Read more about Reaching out to worried families in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley
A detailed study presented by four UN experts to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday concludes that serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel during the recent conflict in Lebanon. In many instances, Israel failed to distinguish between military and civilian objectives; to fully apply the principle of proportionality; and to take all feasible precautions to minimize civilian injury and damage. The experts also concluded that Hezbollah violated humanitarian law in many instances by targeting civilian populations and by disregarding the principle of distinction. Read more about Major violations on both sides in Israel-Lebanon conflict, say UN experts
United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon have the authority to use force against hostile activity of any kind, whether in self-defence, to ensure their area of operations is not used for hostile activities or to resist attempts by force to prevent them from discharging their duties, according to guidelines published today. “Should the situation present any risk of resumption of hostile activities, UNIFIL rules of engagement allow UN forces to respond as required,” the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in a statement, laying out the terms of the Security Council mandate that established it in August to oversee the cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hizbollah. Read more about UN peacekeepers lay out rules of engagement, including use of force
