JUST NU: Israel anfaller Libanon [2006]

As the AFP reported, "According to the Lebanese police force, the two Israeli soldiers were captured in Lebanese territory, in the area of Aitaa al-Chaab, near to the border with Israel, where an Israeli unit had penetrated in middle of morning." And the French news site www.VoltaireNet.org reiterated the same account on June 18, "In a deliberated way, [Israel] sent a commando in the Lebanese back-country to Aitaa al-Chaab. It was attacked by Hezbollah, taking two prisoners." [...] "The Israelis so far have not been able to enter Aitaa al-Chaab to recover the tank that was exploded by Hezbollah and the bodies of the soldiers that were killed in the original operation (this is a main indication that the operation did take place on Lebanese soil, not that in my opinion it would ever be an illegitimate operation, but still the media has been saying that it was inside 'Israel' thus an aggression first started by Hezbollah)."

Before independent observers could organize an investigation of the incident, Israel had already mounted a grisly offensive against Lebanese infrastructure and civilians, bombing Beirut's international airport, along with numerous highways and communication portals. Israel didn't need the truth of the matter to play out before it invaded Lebanon. As with the United States' illegitimate invasion of Iraq, Israel just needed the proper media cover to wage a war with no genuine moral impetus.

The Israeli government claims that it targets only Hezbollah, and that fighters from the
group are using civilians as human shields, thereby placing them at risk. Human Rights
Watch found no cases in which Hezbollah deliberately used civilians as shields to protect
them from retaliatory IDF attack. Hezbollah occasionally did store weapons in or near
civilian homes and fighters placed rocket launchers within populated areas or near U.N.
observers, which are serious violations of the laws of war because they violate the duty
to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties. However, those cases do not
justify the IDF’s extensive use of indiscriminate force which has cost so many civilian
lives. In none of the cases of civilian deaths documented in this report is there evidence
to suggest that Hezbollah forces or weapons were in or near the area that the IDF
targeted during or just prior to the attack.

By consistently failing to distinguish between combatants and civilians, Israel has
violated one of the most fundamental tenets of the laws of war: the duty to carry out
attacks on only military targets. The pattern of attacks during the Israeli offensive in
Lebanon suggests that the failures cannot be explained or dismissed as mere accidents;
the extent of the pattern and the seriousness of the consequences indicate the
commission of war crimes.

MSNBC online first reported that Hezbollah had captured Israeli soldiers "inside" Lebanon, only to change their story hours later after the Israeli government gave an official statement to the contrary.

Israel threatened to bomb Lebanon "back 20 years" yesterday as it launched a ground and air assault after Hizbullah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed others. [...] The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, described the attack on army posts on the Lebanese border and the capture of the soldiers as an "act of war" by the government in Beirut and warned of a "very painful and far-reaching" response.

Bashar al-Assad har tidigare sagt att FN-styrkor längs gränsen till Syrien skulle ses som en "fientlig handling". Syrien tog förra året hem sina trupper från efter 29 års närvaro.

Syriens president Bashar al-Assad har i dag lovat FN:s generalsekreterare Kofi Annan att hjälpa till att genomdriva FN-resolutionen och bekämpa vapensmugglingen via syrisk mark.