Buchanan: No, it's not our war
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'Why is there not a murmur of protest from Washington?'
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1188890.ece
By Kim Sengupta in Nicosia
Published: 21 July 2006
Outside the cavernous US government-run holding centre in Nicosia, Mohammed Shami shook his head. "I feel embarrassed to be an American. They have given Israel the green light to destroy Lebanon. What they are doing is wrong; it is immoral."
Mr Shami, who is of Lebanese-American descent, arrived here with 1,000 fellow Americans early yesterday, part of the exodus to Cyprus expected to reach more than 80,000 people fleeing the ferocity of the conflict in Lebanon.
For Mr Shami and others from the successful and settled Lebanese community in the US the relief at escaping the violence is mixed with deep feelings of anger and guilt at the actions of their government.
"My father is of Lebanese birth and my mother is American", said Mr Shami, a 21-year-old student from Michigan. " I am very proud of my mother and the American people. All I can say is that most American people are not like Condoleezza Rice, they are not like George Bush; they have a sense of decency."
There are 25,000 US nationals in Lebanon and they will arrive in Cyprus at 2,000 a day. The 2,300-strong 24th Marine Expeditionary Force is offshore with assault ships and destroyers. The purported reason for such a heavy military presence is to "help the civic powers" in the evacuation. But US diplomats privately acknowledge fear of an attack by Hizbollah. The first batch of Americans who came, on chartered ferry, the Orient Queen, are staying at the International State Fair complex in Nicosia, two huge halls with 1,152 orange camp-beds.
For many, the 10-hour journey out was fraught. More than 100 had forced their way out of the ship at the port of Larnaca after waiting more than an hour in stifling heat. Some objected to the barrack-like accommodation and the basic facilities. "I was hungry and when I tried to get food at four in the morning they stopped me," said a tearful woman. "Now I am told I am not on the list to go out tonight. We have to put up with more of this."
Mona al-Makki, 48, from Chicago, holding her three-year-old niece, Samira, on her knees, added: "I know they are having to look after a huge number of people, but this is not a place you want to spend any amount of time.
"I guess our attitudes are coloured because while we are sitting here, good homes belonging to our relations in Beirut have been destroyed by the Israelis without a murmur of protest from our President. I was asking, 'Why the hell is no one in Washington doing anything about this?' "
Gabriel Mansouraty left Beirut in 1981 during fierce fighting that led to an Israeli invasion. He settled in El Paso, Texas, as a manager of a plastics company, and took his American wife and two sons to Lebanon to show how the land of his birth had made a success of itself after years of strife.
"None of my family had seen Lebanon and I have not been back for 25 years," said 53-year-old Mr Mansouraty. "I was amazed by what has been achieved, the new buildings, the restaurants, the roads the great lifestyle. One only really appreciates that if one knew how devastated the place was. And now this.
"The Israelis have destroyed the buildings, the roads and that lifestyle. They have put the country back 30 years. I cannot believe this all happened because of the capture of two soldiers. This must have been months in planning.
"The only good thing is this; back in 1981 it was Christians fighting Muslims with the Israelis instigating much of it. This time the Israelis have united the people. I stayed in a Christian neighbourhood and people there opened up their homes to the Muslims."
Emile Maroud, also a Christian, believes there is an Israeli agenda aimed at stopping Lebanon making progress. He said: "I had no time for the PLO and I have no time for Hizbollah. But this is about more than that. Israel does not want to see another modern, progressive state in the region."
A Royal Navy assault ship, HMS Bulwark, has evacuated more than 2,000 British and dual-nationals. Martin and Denise Carlin, from Burnley, in Lancashire, were visiting their daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren.
Mrs Carlin, 48, said "It has been a nightmare. It was a war zone. I won't be back for a long time, if at all. This has really put me off."
The conflict: Day nine
* US marines land on Lebanese soil for the first time in 20 years to assist with evacuation of more than 1000 Americans. The US military pulled out of Lebanon in 1983 after a suicide bomber destroyed a barracks in Beirut killing 241 service personnel. British citizens continue to be evacuated.
* Fierce fighting breaks out on the Lebanese side of the border after an Israeli patrol is ambushed by Hizbollah fighters. Al-Jazeera says four Israeli soldiers were killed. Israeli military says it sustained six casualties.
* Hizbollah fire 30 rockets into northern Israel but no casualties are reported. Israeli jets drop 23 tonnes of explosives on a bunker in south Beirut hoping to assassinate Hizbollah's leader.
* Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, whose country holds the EU presidency, calls for a ceasefire to the conflict and expresses 'grave concern' over humanitarian situation. EU gives Lebanon
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1188890.ece
By Kim Sengupta in Nicosia
Published: 21 July 2006
Outside the cavernous US government-run holding centre in Nicosia, Mohammed Shami shook his head. "I feel embarrassed to be an American. They have given Israel the green light to destroy Lebanon. What they are doing is wrong; it is immoral."
Mr Shami, who is of Lebanese-American descent, arrived here with 1,000 fellow Americans early yesterday, part of the exodus to Cyprus expected to reach more than 80,000 people fleeing the ferocity of the conflict in Lebanon.
For Mr Shami and others from the successful and settled Lebanese community in the US the relief at escaping the violence is mixed with deep feelings of anger and guilt at the actions of their government.
"My father is of Lebanese birth and my mother is American", said Mr Shami, a 21-year-old student from Michigan. " I am very proud of my mother and the American people. All I can say is that most American people are not like Condoleezza Rice, they are not like George Bush; they have a sense of decency."
There are 25,000 US nationals in Lebanon and they will arrive in Cyprus at 2,000 a day. The 2,300-strong 24th Marine Expeditionary Force is offshore with assault ships and destroyers. The purported reason for such a heavy military presence is to "help the civic powers" in the evacuation. But US diplomats privately acknowledge fear of an attack by Hizbollah. The first batch of Americans who came, on chartered ferry, the Orient Queen, are staying at the International State Fair complex in Nicosia, two huge halls with 1,152 orange camp-beds.
For many, the 10-hour journey out was fraught. More than 100 had forced their way out of the ship at the port of Larnaca after waiting more than an hour in stifling heat. Some objected to the barrack-like accommodation and the basic facilities. "I was hungry and when I tried to get food at four in the morning they stopped me," said a tearful woman. "Now I am told I am not on the list to go out tonight. We have to put up with more of this."
Mona al-Makki, 48, from Chicago, holding her three-year-old niece, Samira, on her knees, added: "I know they are having to look after a huge number of people, but this is not a place you want to spend any amount of time.
"I guess our attitudes are coloured because while we are sitting here, good homes belonging to our relations in Beirut have been destroyed by the Israelis without a murmur of protest from our President. I was asking, 'Why the hell is no one in Washington doing anything about this?' "
Gabriel Mansouraty left Beirut in 1981 during fierce fighting that led to an Israeli invasion. He settled in El Paso, Texas, as a manager of a plastics company, and took his American wife and two sons to Lebanon to show how the land of his birth had made a success of itself after years of strife.
"None of my family had seen Lebanon and I have not been back for 25 years," said 53-year-old Mr Mansouraty. "I was amazed by what has been achieved, the new buildings, the restaurants, the roads the great lifestyle. One only really appreciates that if one knew how devastated the place was. And now this.
"The Israelis have destroyed the buildings, the roads and that lifestyle. They have put the country back 30 years. I cannot believe this all happened because of the capture of two soldiers. This must have been months in planning.
"The only good thing is this; back in 1981 it was Christians fighting Muslims with the Israelis instigating much of it. This time the Israelis have united the people. I stayed in a Christian neighbourhood and people there opened up their homes to the Muslims."
Emile Maroud, also a Christian, believes there is an Israeli agenda aimed at stopping Lebanon making progress. He said: "I had no time for the PLO and I have no time for Hizbollah. But this is about more than that. Israel does not want to see another modern, progressive state in the region."
A Royal Navy assault ship, HMS Bulwark, has evacuated more than 2,000 British and dual-nationals. Martin and Denise Carlin, from Burnley, in Lancashire, were visiting their daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren.
Mrs Carlin, 48, said "It has been a nightmare. It was a war zone. I won't be back for a long time, if at all. This has really put me off."
The conflict: Day nine
* US marines land on Lebanese soil for the first time in 20 years to assist with evacuation of more than 1000 Americans. The US military pulled out of Lebanon in 1983 after a suicide bomber destroyed a barracks in Beirut killing 241 service personnel. British citizens continue to be evacuated.
* Fierce fighting breaks out on the Lebanese side of the border after an Israeli patrol is ambushed by Hizbollah fighters. Al-Jazeera says four Israeli soldiers were killed. Israeli military says it sustained six casualties.
* Hizbollah fire 30 rockets into northern Israel but no casualties are reported. Israeli jets drop 23 tonnes of explosives on a bunker in south Beirut hoping to assassinate Hizbollah's leader.
* Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, whose country holds the EU presidency, calls for a ceasefire to the conflict and expresses 'grave concern' over humanitarian situation. EU gives Lebanon
B
Borean
Guest
Israel calls up troops, warns Lebanese
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/lebanon_israel;_ylt=Ams2HO.ZiKvpiU.Q74ILyBgUvioA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer
7 minutes ago
BEIRUT, Lebanon -
Israel called up reserve troops Friday and warned civilians to flee Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon, as it prepared for a likely ground invasion to set up a deep buffer zone.
Hezbollah militants fired at least 11 rockets at Israel's port city of Haifa, wounding five people. Israeli warplanes pounded Lebanon's main road link to
Syria, collapsing part of Lebanon's longest bridge. A U.N.-run observation post near the border was hit, but no one was hurt.
Ships lined up at Beirut's port as a massive evacuation effort to pull out Americans and other foreigners picked up speed. U.S. officials said more than 8,000 of the roughly 25,000 Americans in Lebanon will be evacuated by the weekend.
After 10 days of the heaviest bombardment of Lebanon in 24 years, Israel appears to have decided that a large-scale incursion is the only way to push Hezbollah back. But mounting civilian casualties and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese could limit the time Israel has to achieve its goals, as international tolerance for the bloodshed and destruction runs out.
An Israeli military radio station warned residents of 12 border villages in southern Lebanon to leave before 2 p.m. Friday. It was the latest warning from the Al-Mashriq station, which has said Israeli forces would "act immediately" to halt Hezbollah rocket fire.
At least 335 people have been killed in Lebanon in the Israeli campaign, according to the Lebanese health minister. Thirty-four Israelis also have been killed, including 19 soldiers.
The United States — which has resisted calls to press its ally to halt the fighting — was sending Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice to the Mideast as soon as early next week, according to a senior Bush administration who spoke on condition of anonymity because Rice has not yet made her plans public.
The mission would be the first U.S. diplomatic effort on the ground since the Israeli onslaught against Lebanon began.
"We are all very concerned about the situation in the Middle East, and want to find a way forward that will contribute to a stable and democratic and peaceful Middle East," Rice said Friday as she met a three-member U.N. team.
Two Apache attack helicopters collided in northern Israel near the Lebanon border, killing one air force officer and injuring three others, two seriously, Israeli officials said. Israel's air force began an investigation.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, meanwhile, said his country was sending urgent aid to Lebanon by air and sea and he called for safe passage.
His comments came a day after U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan warned of a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon and called for an immediate cease-fire, even as he admitted "serious obstacles" stand in the way of even easing the violence.
"We are setting up a humanitarian air and sea port," Douste-Blazy said in Beirut. "At the same time, we demand the establishment of humanitarian corridors."
Top Israeli officials met Thursday night to decide how big a force to send in, according to senior military officials. They said Israel won't stop its offensive until Hezbollah is forced behind the Litani River, 20 miles north of the border — creating a new buffer zone in a region that saw 18 years of Israeli presence since 1982.
Israel has stepped up its small forays over the border in recent days, seeking Hezbollah positions, rocket stores and bunkers. Each time it has faced tough resistance.
Israeli warplanes fired missiles that partially collapsed a 1.6-mile suspension bridge linking two steep mountain peaks, part of the Beirut-Damascus highway in central Lebanon. The bridge has been hit several times since the fighting began.
The bombing also set ablaze three buses that had just dropped off passengers in Syria, but the drivers escaped, police said.
Renewed attacks struck the ancient city of Baalbek, a major Hezbollah stronghold, and security officials said two people were killed and 19 wounded. They also attacked Hezbollah strongholds in south Beirut and elsewhere overnight.
Strikes in south Beirut killed one person, and missiles that hit a village near the border with Israel, Aita al-Shaab, killed three, officials said.
A house in the border village of Aitaroun was flattened, with 10 people believed inside, but rescuers could not reach it because of shelling, security officials said.
Air raid sirens wailed in Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, and at least 11 rockets struck in two barrages. Five people were wounded, with 23 treated for shock.
More rockets were fired elsewhere into northern Israel, the army said, with strikes reported in Rosh Pina, Safed and in several communities near the Sea of Galilee.
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets from the Lebanese border since fighting began, forcing hundreds of thousands of Israelis into underground shelters. Eight people in Haifa were killed July 16.
A U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said an artillery shell fired by the Israeli military made "a direct hit on the U.N. position overlooking Zarit."
An Israeli military spokesman said the rockets were fired by Hezbollah guerrillas at northern Israel. The differing accounts could not immediately be reconciled.
During an Israeli offensive against Lebanon in 1996, artillery blasted a U.N. base at Qana in southern Lebanon, killing more than 100 civilians who had taken refuge with the peacekeepers.
The U.N. mission, which has nearly 2,000 military personnel and more than 300 civilians, is to patrol the border line, known as the Blue Line, drawn by the U.N. after Israel withdrew troops from south Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation.
Hezbollah said three of its fighters had been killed in the latest fighting with Israeli troops, bringing to six the number of guerrillas killed since Israel launched the massive military campaign against Lebanon after the militant Shiite Muslim group captured two of its soldiers on July 12.
Annan denounced Israel for "excessive use of force" and Hezbollah for holding "an entire nation hostage" with its rocket attacks and capturing the Israeli soldiers.
Neither side showed any sign of backing down.
The Israeli army issued a call-up of reserves. The exact number of troops was not disclosed, but a military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said it would be several thousand.
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah shrugged off concerns of a stepped-up Israeli onslaught, saying the captive soldiers held by his guerrillas would be freed only as part of a prisoner exchange brokered through indirect negotiations.
He spoke in an interview taped Thursday with Al-Jazeera to show he had survived an airstrike in south Beirut that Israel said targeted a Hezbollah leadership bunker. The guerrillas said the strike only hit a mosque under construction and no one was hurt.
Lebanese streamed north into Beirut and other regions, crowding into schools, relatives' homes or hotels. Taxi drivers in the south were charging up to $400 per person for rides to Beirut — more than 40 times the usual price. In remote villages of the south, cut off by strikes, residents made their way out over the mountains by foot.
The price of food, medical supplies and gasoline rose as much as 500 percent in parts of Lebanon as the bombardment cut supply routes. The World Food Program said estimates of basic food supplies ranged from one to three months.
The U.N. estimated that a half-million people have been displaced, with 130,000 fleeing to Syria and 45,000 believed to be in need of assistance.
More than 400,000 people — perhaps as many as a half-million — are believed to live south of the Litani, according to Timur Goskel, a former top U.N. adviser in the south. The river has twice been the border of Israeli buffer zones. In 1978, Israel invaded up to the Litani to drive back Palestinian guerrillas, withdrawing from most of the south months later.
Israel invaded Lebanon again in a much bigger operation in 1982 when its forces seized parts of Beirut. It eventually carved out a buffer zone that stopped at the Litani. That zone was reduced gradually but the Israeli presence lasted for 18 years until 2000, when it withdrew its troops completely.
___
Associated Press Writers Edith M. Lederer at the
United Nations and Gabe Ross in Haifa, Israel, contributed to this story.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/lebanon_israel;_ylt=Ams2HO.ZiKvpiU.Q74ILyBgUvioA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer
7 minutes ago
BEIRUT, Lebanon -
Israel called up reserve troops Friday and warned civilians to flee Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon, as it prepared for a likely ground invasion to set up a deep buffer zone.
Hezbollah militants fired at least 11 rockets at Israel's port city of Haifa, wounding five people. Israeli warplanes pounded Lebanon's main road link to
Syria, collapsing part of Lebanon's longest bridge. A U.N.-run observation post near the border was hit, but no one was hurt.
Ships lined up at Beirut's port as a massive evacuation effort to pull out Americans and other foreigners picked up speed. U.S. officials said more than 8,000 of the roughly 25,000 Americans in Lebanon will be evacuated by the weekend.
After 10 days of the heaviest bombardment of Lebanon in 24 years, Israel appears to have decided that a large-scale incursion is the only way to push Hezbollah back. But mounting civilian casualties and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese could limit the time Israel has to achieve its goals, as international tolerance for the bloodshed and destruction runs out.
An Israeli military radio station warned residents of 12 border villages in southern Lebanon to leave before 2 p.m. Friday. It was the latest warning from the Al-Mashriq station, which has said Israeli forces would "act immediately" to halt Hezbollah rocket fire.
At least 335 people have been killed in Lebanon in the Israeli campaign, according to the Lebanese health minister. Thirty-four Israelis also have been killed, including 19 soldiers.
The United States — which has resisted calls to press its ally to halt the fighting — was sending Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice to the Mideast as soon as early next week, according to a senior Bush administration who spoke on condition of anonymity because Rice has not yet made her plans public.
The mission would be the first U.S. diplomatic effort on the ground since the Israeli onslaught against Lebanon began.
"We are all very concerned about the situation in the Middle East, and want to find a way forward that will contribute to a stable and democratic and peaceful Middle East," Rice said Friday as she met a three-member U.N. team.
Two Apache attack helicopters collided in northern Israel near the Lebanon border, killing one air force officer and injuring three others, two seriously, Israeli officials said. Israel's air force began an investigation.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, meanwhile, said his country was sending urgent aid to Lebanon by air and sea and he called for safe passage.
His comments came a day after U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan warned of a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon and called for an immediate cease-fire, even as he admitted "serious obstacles" stand in the way of even easing the violence.
"We are setting up a humanitarian air and sea port," Douste-Blazy said in Beirut. "At the same time, we demand the establishment of humanitarian corridors."
Top Israeli officials met Thursday night to decide how big a force to send in, according to senior military officials. They said Israel won't stop its offensive until Hezbollah is forced behind the Litani River, 20 miles north of the border — creating a new buffer zone in a region that saw 18 years of Israeli presence since 1982.
Israel has stepped up its small forays over the border in recent days, seeking Hezbollah positions, rocket stores and bunkers. Each time it has faced tough resistance.
Israeli warplanes fired missiles that partially collapsed a 1.6-mile suspension bridge linking two steep mountain peaks, part of the Beirut-Damascus highway in central Lebanon. The bridge has been hit several times since the fighting began.
The bombing also set ablaze three buses that had just dropped off passengers in Syria, but the drivers escaped, police said.
Renewed attacks struck the ancient city of Baalbek, a major Hezbollah stronghold, and security officials said two people were killed and 19 wounded. They also attacked Hezbollah strongholds in south Beirut and elsewhere overnight.
Strikes in south Beirut killed one person, and missiles that hit a village near the border with Israel, Aita al-Shaab, killed three, officials said.
A house in the border village of Aitaroun was flattened, with 10 people believed inside, but rescuers could not reach it because of shelling, security officials said.
Air raid sirens wailed in Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, and at least 11 rockets struck in two barrages. Five people were wounded, with 23 treated for shock.
More rockets were fired elsewhere into northern Israel, the army said, with strikes reported in Rosh Pina, Safed and in several communities near the Sea of Galilee.
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets from the Lebanese border since fighting began, forcing hundreds of thousands of Israelis into underground shelters. Eight people in Haifa were killed July 16.
A U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said an artillery shell fired by the Israeli military made "a direct hit on the U.N. position overlooking Zarit."
An Israeli military spokesman said the rockets were fired by Hezbollah guerrillas at northern Israel. The differing accounts could not immediately be reconciled.
During an Israeli offensive against Lebanon in 1996, artillery blasted a U.N. base at Qana in southern Lebanon, killing more than 100 civilians who had taken refuge with the peacekeepers.
The U.N. mission, which has nearly 2,000 military personnel and more than 300 civilians, is to patrol the border line, known as the Blue Line, drawn by the U.N. after Israel withdrew troops from south Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation.
Hezbollah said three of its fighters had been killed in the latest fighting with Israeli troops, bringing to six the number of guerrillas killed since Israel launched the massive military campaign against Lebanon after the militant Shiite Muslim group captured two of its soldiers on July 12.
Annan denounced Israel for "excessive use of force" and Hezbollah for holding "an entire nation hostage" with its rocket attacks and capturing the Israeli soldiers.
Neither side showed any sign of backing down.
The Israeli army issued a call-up of reserves. The exact number of troops was not disclosed, but a military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said it would be several thousand.
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah shrugged off concerns of a stepped-up Israeli onslaught, saying the captive soldiers held by his guerrillas would be freed only as part of a prisoner exchange brokered through indirect negotiations.
He spoke in an interview taped Thursday with Al-Jazeera to show he had survived an airstrike in south Beirut that Israel said targeted a Hezbollah leadership bunker. The guerrillas said the strike only hit a mosque under construction and no one was hurt.
Lebanese streamed north into Beirut and other regions, crowding into schools, relatives' homes or hotels. Taxi drivers in the south were charging up to $400 per person for rides to Beirut — more than 40 times the usual price. In remote villages of the south, cut off by strikes, residents made their way out over the mountains by foot.
The price of food, medical supplies and gasoline rose as much as 500 percent in parts of Lebanon as the bombardment cut supply routes. The World Food Program said estimates of basic food supplies ranged from one to three months.
The U.N. estimated that a half-million people have been displaced, with 130,000 fleeing to Syria and 45,000 believed to be in need of assistance.
More than 400,000 people — perhaps as many as a half-million — are believed to live south of the Litani, according to Timur Goskel, a former top U.N. adviser in the south. The river has twice been the border of Israeli buffer zones. In 1978, Israel invaded up to the Litani to drive back Palestinian guerrillas, withdrawing from most of the south months later.
Israel invaded Lebanon again in a much bigger operation in 1982 when its forces seized parts of Beirut. It eventually carved out a buffer zone that stopped at the Litani. That zone was reduced gradually but the Israeli presence lasted for 18 years until 2000, when it withdrew its troops completely.
___
Associated Press Writers Edith M. Lederer at the
United Nations and Gabe Ross in Haifa, Israel, contributed to this story.
B
Borean
Guest
Lebanese defense minister: Army will fight ground invasion
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/741100.html
Lebanon's army, which so far has sat on the sidelines of the violence raging in the country, will fight an Israeli ground invasion, Defense Minister Elias Murr said on Al-Jazeera television Thursday.
"The Lebanese army - and I stress - the Lebanese army will resist and defend and will prove that it is an army that deserves respect," he said.
In most of the previous Israeli attacks, including in 1978 and the 1982 invasion in which Beirut was occupied, the Lebanese army largely stayed out of the fighting.
Some 20 Lebanese soldiers have been killed in strikes on their bases during the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon.
Nasrallah: Hezbollah leadership intact
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday that the group's leadership remains intact, appearing in an interview on Al-Jazeera TV a day after Israel claimed to have bombed a bunker where he may have been hiding.
"I can confirm without exaggerating or using psychological warfare, that we have not been harmed," he said. He denied claims by Israel to have destroyed half of Hezbollah's rocket arsenal.
Nasrallah also said there was "no way in the world" Hezbollah would release two Israel Defense Forces soldiers it kidnapped last week in a cross-border raid, except as part of a prisoner exchange brokered through indirect negotiations.
Nasrallah also denied claims by Israel to have destroyed half of Hezbollah's rocket arsenal, calling the claims "baseless."
On Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces said dozens of its aircrafts dropped 23 tons of explosives on the target in the Bourj al-Barajneh neighborhood of Beirut in the late evening.
Soon after, Hezbollah issued a statement saying that "no Hezbollah leaders or elements were killed in the strike," but a building under construction to be a mosque was hit.
"It seems that the enemy wants to cover up its military and security failures with lies and claims of imaginary achievements," said the statement the group faxed to The Associated Press.
Interviewed on CNN early Thursday, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, said Israel would not issue a statement about the attack until it is sure of all the facts. But he added, "I can assure you that we know exactly what we hit. ... This was no religious site. This was indeed the headquarters of the Hezbollah leadership."
There was no immediate word of casualties in the incident from Hezbollah or Lebanese officials. Hezbollah has a headquarters compound in Bourj al-Barajneh that is off limits to the Lebanese police and army, so security officials could not confirm the strike.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Comment: I noted that the Israeli ambassador to the UN stated, "I can assure you that we know exactly what we hit. ... This was no religious site." Interesting how they know exactly what they're striking when it comes to certain targets, but claim "collateral damage", that they made a mistake, when they strike things like trucks loaded full of Lebanese families attempting to escape.
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/741100.html
Lebanon's army, which so far has sat on the sidelines of the violence raging in the country, will fight an Israeli ground invasion, Defense Minister Elias Murr said on Al-Jazeera television Thursday.
"The Lebanese army - and I stress - the Lebanese army will resist and defend and will prove that it is an army that deserves respect," he said.
In most of the previous Israeli attacks, including in 1978 and the 1982 invasion in which Beirut was occupied, the Lebanese army largely stayed out of the fighting.
Some 20 Lebanese soldiers have been killed in strikes on their bases during the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon.
Nasrallah: Hezbollah leadership intact
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday that the group's leadership remains intact, appearing in an interview on Al-Jazeera TV a day after Israel claimed to have bombed a bunker where he may have been hiding.
"I can confirm without exaggerating or using psychological warfare, that we have not been harmed," he said. He denied claims by Israel to have destroyed half of Hezbollah's rocket arsenal.
Nasrallah also said there was "no way in the world" Hezbollah would release two Israel Defense Forces soldiers it kidnapped last week in a cross-border raid, except as part of a prisoner exchange brokered through indirect negotiations.
Nasrallah also denied claims by Israel to have destroyed half of Hezbollah's rocket arsenal, calling the claims "baseless."
On Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces said dozens of its aircrafts dropped 23 tons of explosives on the target in the Bourj al-Barajneh neighborhood of Beirut in the late evening.
Soon after, Hezbollah issued a statement saying that "no Hezbollah leaders or elements were killed in the strike," but a building under construction to be a mosque was hit.
"It seems that the enemy wants to cover up its military and security failures with lies and claims of imaginary achievements," said the statement the group faxed to The Associated Press.
Interviewed on CNN early Thursday, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, said Israel would not issue a statement about the attack until it is sure of all the facts. But he added, "I can assure you that we know exactly what we hit. ... This was no religious site. This was indeed the headquarters of the Hezbollah leadership."
There was no immediate word of casualties in the incident from Hezbollah or Lebanese officials. Hezbollah has a headquarters compound in Bourj al-Barajneh that is off limits to the Lebanese police and army, so security officials could not confirm the strike.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Comment: I noted that the Israeli ambassador to the UN stated, "I can assure you that we know exactly what we hit. ... This was no religious site." Interesting how they know exactly what they're striking when it comes to certain targets, but claim "collateral damage", that they made a mistake, when they strike things like trucks loaded full of Lebanese families attempting to escape.
vinny
The Living Force
Laura said:
gulp. when I saw this statement I first thought, 'OMG, they're going to build another apartheid wall, this time in Lebanon'. But now... well, they're not going to stop, are they? I don't think they see themselves as having any boundaries whatsoever. they're just going to keep going, and keep going, rampaging on indefinitely, like the terminator, smashing whatever and whoever they come across :OBorean said:
words fail me