Israel intensifies attacks

(Filed: 14/07/2006)


Israel has widened its attacks on Lebanon, bombing residential areas in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, and pounding the country's major airport for the second day running.
The main road from Beirut to Syria was also hit by this morning's air strikes, sparking fears that the dispute could grow into a regional conflict.
George W Bush has refused to press Israel to halt the strikes but said it should try to minimise the risk of casualties.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush "believes the Israelis have the right to protect themselves and that in doing that they should limit as much as possible so-called collateral damage not only to facilities but also to human lives".
Today's raids claimed the lives of three Lebanese civilians and wounded 55 others, bringing the death toll to 61 since Israel launched its offensive on Wednesday.
Fuad Saniora, the Lebanese prime minister, today issued a statement that President Bush had promised him to persuade Israel to halt its attacks, but there are no signs that the Israelis are relenting.
Tony Blair has refused to condemn either Hizbollah or the Israelis, but called for both sides to return to the negotiating table.
Speaking from Downing Street this morning, he said that only the "energy and commitment of the whole of the international community" could resolve the crisis.
Lebanese guerrillas have retaliated by continuing to fire rockets into northern Israel. Last night two rockets were said to have fallen as far south as the port city of Haifa.
Two people have been killed and 43 people wounded in Hizbollah's revenge rocket attacks.
Civilians and tourists are fleeing from both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border to avoid the tit-for-tat strikes.
Yesterday, Beirut international airport was closed after the runway was bombed and two military airports were attacked.
Helicopters attacked Hizbollah's al-Manar Television in Beirut and elsewhere. Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets over southern Shia suburbs of Beirut telling residents to stay away from Hizbollah offices "for your own safety".
Thousands of tourists, mostly Gulf Arabs on holiday in Lebanon, streamed out of the country heading for Damascus. In Israel, residents in the north were told to go into bomb shelters or move to safer areas.
Israel kept up its operations in Gaza, bombing the offices of Mahmoud Zahhar, the Hamas foreign minister, and killing an Islamic Jihad militant.
In the space of three weeks, Israel is now fighting a war on two fronts: Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the pro-Iranian Hizbollah in Lebanon, provoked by audacious militant attacks that succeeded in capturing three Israeli soldiers.
Daniel Ayalon, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, warned the militants' foreign sponsors, Iran and Syria, that they were "playing with fire".
In Jerusalem a senior spokesman said that Israel was in "intensive contacts" with foreign governments to ensure that Iran and Syria "understand that the price they will pay internationally for supporting terrorism will be unbearably high".
President Bush has blamed Hamas and Hizbollah for the violent escalation of the conflict.
He said that "Israel has a right to defend herself" but urged Israel to ensure that its actions did not endanger the Lebanese government of Prime Minister Siniora, who came to power in last year's elections after Syria's withdrawal from the country.
This is the worst conflict in Lebanon since Israel's fortnight-long bombardment of the country a decade ago and threatens to undermine the country's fragile recovery after 15 years of civil war.
The Israeli government decided to stage open-ended operations in Lebanon after Hizbollah fighters crossed the international border on Wednesday, ambushed a patrol, took two soldiers captive and disabled a tank that entered Lebanon in pursuit. Eight Israelis were killed. The two captives were named as Ehud Goldwasser, 31, and Eldad Regev, 26.
The attack followed a similarly audacious raid last month by Hamas, which dug a tunnel under Gaza's border fence and attacked an Israeli base from the rear, killing two soldiers and taking one, Gilad Shalit, 19, hostage.
Hizbollah and Hamas say they are prepared to barter the release of the soldiers for the freedom of Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. But Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, says he will not bargain, although Israel has done so in the past. Israel fears that Hizbollah may try to smuggle the soldiers to Iran.

The European Union denounced Israel's "disproportionate" use of force.
Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, said he would dispatch a mediation team and the Security Council is due to meet in emergency session today.

Tough question Tex.

I'd say they are enitled to smoke Hez.

Hez. is dug in with civi. pop. Rely on the same power grids as civi's and water etc....tough to get Hez. without effing the civi's and infrastructure.

They are certainly entitled to defend themselves. In doing so through the tactic of this heavy an assault though, they will stir things up to a hornets nest.

U.S. veto of the E.U. was interesting. Don't like it.

__________________
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Bumble Bees Die to sting you

Roger that, Common Sence.
No one should be able to dictate how much conventional force one nation uses against its enemy(especially the enemy). Hezbollah committed an act of war by attacking a nation's military, they should reasonably expect to feel that nation's wrath. What the hell did they think was gonna happen? The only resolution Coffin Anon and UN council members should be considering is one that would make it a war crime to launch a guerilla war from within populated areas. Every civilian death in the conflict is a direct result of this practice; in Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Palestine--it's a friggin epidemic--that's why civilians are suffering now.

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Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. A. Einstein
What good fortune for those in power that people do not think. A. Hitler

Good effin idea. The war crime thing.

War crime, to embed yourself with civi's. Awesome.

I bet no one at the U.N. has mentioned that.

__________________
Humans, a renewable resource?
Bumble Bees Die to sting you

Hizbullah leader vows 'open war' on Israel

Irish Times


Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to wage "open war" on Israel yesterday after it bombed his home and headquarters in southern Beirut, while in Israel the army chief warned that the Shia organisation had rockets that could reach Israeli cities up to 20km (12 miles)north of Tel Aviv. Peter Hirschberg reports from Jerusalem

Nasrallah quickly ended speculation in Israel over whether he had been hit in the strike, issuing a defiant statement in a telephone message broadcast on Hizbullah television. "You wanted open war. We are going to (wage) open war," he declared.


Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has criticised the "disproportionate" Israeli response to the kidnappings of its soldiers,saying the crisis can only be resolved through dialogue.

He condemned the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers and citizens but said: "There are ways around dealing with that situation, not blowing ordinary civilians out of existence."

Mr Ahern said he would attend an EU foreign ministers meeting next Monday at which EU High Representative Javier Solana would report from weekend talks in Israel.

In his telephone address, Nasrallah said an Israeli vessel off the coast of Lebanon had been hit and was ablaze. "Look at it burn," he said. "It will sink and along with it dozens of Zionist soldiers."

Al Jazeera television reported that four Israeli sailors on the ship were missing and Israel confirmed that the ship had been badly damaged when it was hit by an explosives-laden drone. The army would not comment on whether there had been any casualties.

Two Israelis - a woman and her five-year-old grandson - were killed yesterday evening when a rocket fired from Lebanon struck their home in northern Israel. After firing over 100 rockets into Israel on Thursday, Hizbullah militants had fired a further 60 by yesterday evening, confining many residents in northern Israel to bomb shelters.

After rockets landed on Thursday evening in the port city of Haifa - the furthest south a rocket from Lebanon has ever landed in Israel - Israeli planes overnight bombed buildings in a suburb in south Beirut known as a Hizbullah stronghold. Planes also hit bridges in Beirut as well as the Beirut-Damascus highway, tightening an air and sea blockade Israel imposed on Lebanon after Hizbullah militants attacked an Israeli border patrol on Wednesday, killing three soldiers and seizing two, whom they are now holding captive.

Rockets fired by Hizbullah have killed four Israelis so far and injured dozens. Army chief Lieut Gen Dan Halutz revealed yesterday that Hizbullah had rockets "with a range of 70 kilometers, or maybe more". That would put cities like Netanya and Hadera, some 20 to 30 kilometers north of Tel Aviv, in range of the Shia group's rockets.

In his phone address, Nasrallah threatened to "reach Haifa, and believe me, even beyond Haifa".

Halutz said the Israeli operation would be ongoing and that the military would continue to strike "as much as is necessary, in order to clarify that the state of Israel cannot and doesn't want to continue with a reality in which rockets are fired at it daily."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert outlined Israel's terms for a ceasefire yesterday when he told UN secretary general Kofi Annan that the military offensive would continue until Hizbullah had been disarmed and the Lebanese government had deployed its forces in the Hizbullah-controlled south of the country.

While Israel faced growing international opprobrium as civilian casualties in Lebanon mounted, the White House said yesterday that President Bush would not pressure Israel to halt its military operation.

"No. The president is not going to make military decisions for Israel," White House spokesman Tony Snow said when asked whether Mr Bush would accede to a Lebanese request to get Israel to halt its offensive.

__________________
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Bumble Bees Die to sting you

Ironic that we convinced Lebanon to go Democratic and convinced Palistine to do the same...and now they are both at War with Israel.

Democracy doesn't equal friend. Remember that conversation Tex? About democracies going to war with each other.......maybe we get to see it for the first time.

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Humans, a renewable resource?
Bumble Bees Die to sting you

Iran gives over 100,000 million a year to Hezbollah. Saudi Arabia made a statement severe condemning Syria because they know Syria has their hands in this. there was great fear by the radicals that peace and democracy was developing. The kidnappings was all about provoking Israel. If Israel did use restraint, Kidnappings and rockets would have continued until Israel did what they are doing now. Israel is fighting the same enemy we are fighting. This enemy only understands ruthlessness. Go Israel! Kill the terrorists!
The Bush administration pressured Israel to give up land for peace. This only made Israel more vulnerable. Pacifying terrorists never has worked. I wonder how long before U.S, hostages are taken? We need to get our peole out asap!
The best way to fight these radicals is to drill for oil off the coast and in Alaska like there is no tomorrow. More supply means lower prices and Iran doesn't have the money for nuclear ambitions and funding Hezbollah. Washington is too corrupt to do this.

U.S. veto of the E.U. was interesting. Don't like it.

What do you want? A resolution that says all Israelis should start marching to the sea? Or a resolution that says rockets and kidnappings are acceptable living conditions?. How about a resolution that makes the president of Iran world dictator?

It is time for Israel to be totally ruthless. Ruthlessness is all these freaks understand.

My comment wasn't to say that I disagreed with the U.S. veto. It's just no good that the E.U. and the U.S. are on different ground. Unity would be better, and less nerve rattling. That's all.

I want to be a fly on the wall in St. Petersburg.

__________________
Humans, a renewable resource?
Bumble Bees Die to sting you

yes ,I remember .
There's only one true democracy in the middle east at present .Thats Israel . Don't forget N. Korea is the "Democratic Republic of North Korea "...... Kind of re-defines the definition doesn't it ..