Israel’s attack on Qana in Lebanon on Sunday, which killed 52 people, more than half of them children, was ”humanity gone mad”, South African Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Monday.
The South African government condemned Israel’s military action and called on the United Nations Security Council ”to accept its responsibility” and do the same.
”We cannot accept a feeling that we are all helpless while the world slowly but surely moves to a situation that would have catastrophic consequences for all of us,” Pahad said.
The UN Security Council has an obligation to condemn Israel’s ”collective punishment”, which he said has violated international law and the Geneva Convention.
”Clearly, what we are seeing there is that both sides have violated international law and the Geneva Convention. Our argument is that the level [of violence] is so different that we have to deal with the major element of this while dealing with Hezbollah,” he said.
”It is incumbent on the stronger power to ensure that civilians are protected,” Pahad added.
South Africa is convinced that the only way for a comprehensive solution is a ceasefire followed by negotiations to ensure lasting peace in the region. ”It is not time to start debating the chicken-and-egg situation — who first carried out an action and who retaliated,” Pahad said.
Meanwhile, he said, the government wishes to have a meeting with organisations, including the Congress of South African Trade Unions, that have called for a boycott of Israel and diplomatic ties with that country to be severed.
”We as government are very keen that they collectively come and have a discussion with us, so that we understand their demands. But whatever action we take must contribute to finding a solution,” Pahad said.
Ceasefire rejected
Israel rejected mounting international pressure on Monday to end its 20-day-old war against Hezbollah guerrillas and the UN indefinitely postponed a meeting on a new peacekeeping force for Lebanon.
A UN official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the meeting scheduled for Monday afternoon had been delayed ”until there is more political clarity” on the path ahead in the Middle East conflict.
Civilians fled battered villages in southern Lebanon after Israel agreed to halt air strikes partially for 48 hours, and aid convoys headed into the area to deliver supplies. Rescue workers found 28 bodies buried for days in destroyed buildings in three south Lebanon villages, the Red Cross said.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a ceasefire could be forged this week. But Israel said the war was not over despite an international outcry following the Israeli air strike on Qana.
”If an immediate ceasefire is declared, the extremists will rear their heads anew,” Defence Minister Amir Peretz told a heated parliamentary debate in which four Israeli Arab lawmakers were escorted out for heckling. One called Peretz a murderer.
Despite its 48-hour truce, which started early on Monday, Israel said it may still use aerial strikes to target Hezbollah leaders and rocket launchers and to back up ground operations.
Hezbollah shells
Israeli jets fired two bombs to support ground troops battling Hezbollah inside Lebanon and artillery shells hit two southern villages. A Lebanese soldier died and three were wounded when another Israeli air strike destroyed their vehicle.
Hezbollah fired two shells into the northern Israeli border town of Kiryat Shmona on Monday, but nobody was wounded. It was the first Hezbollah bombardment of Israel since Sunday evening — a distinct lull compared with the scores of rockets the guerrillas had previously fired daily.
A senior Israeli government official said an estimated two-thirds of Hezbollah’s long-range missile capabilities had been destroyed in the conflict.
US President George Bush reiterated that he wants a sustainable end to the violence rather than a quick ceasefire. ”I assured the people here that we will work toward a plan in the United Nations Security Council that addresses the root causes of the problem,” he told reporters.
Israel launched its onslaught on Lebanon after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12. At least 577 people have been killed in Lebanon, although the health minister puts the toll at 750, including bodies still buried under rubble. Fifty-one Israelis have been killed.
After the Qana raid, Lebanon called off planned talks with Rice, telling her to secure an unconditional ceasefire first. ”This morning, as I head back to Washington, I take with me an emerging consensus on what is necessary for both an urgent ceasefire and lasting settlement. I am convinced we can achieve both this week,” Rice told reporters in Jerusalem.
Senior Israeli officials said the government wants to pursue its military offensive until an international force arrives because Hezbollah could exploit any pause to regroup.
Once approved by the UN Security Council, the first contingent of a stabilisation force could be in south Lebanon within days, Israeli officials and Western diplomats said.
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin welcomed Israel’s air-strike freeze, but said it was not enough. Paris, which is seen as a potential leader of an international force in south Lebanon, has repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire.
As well as partially suspending air strikes, Israel gave 24 hours for residents to leave and to get aid to the worst-hit villages. Two UN aid convoys left Beirut for Tyre and Qana.
White flags
Civilians drove towards the southern port city of Tyre, 20km north of the border, with white flags fluttering from their cars, buses and pickup trucks.
The US has refused to call for an immediate halt to the conflict in Lebanon, which, like Israel, it blames on Hezbollah and its allies, Syria and Iran.
Russia criticised the delay in calling for a truce and France signalled that Iran should be brought into efforts to bring peace to Lebanon.
In clashes near the border three Israeli soldiers were wounded when a missile hit their tank as they tried to rescue an armoured troop carrier struck earlier by a Hezbollah anti-tank missile, the army said.
Hezbollah said it had destroyed two Israeli tanks and damaged a third. It also said it had lost two fighters. — Reuters, Sapa