Like a small black football, it lies in the dirt not far from Haitham Daaboul’s front door in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil. It looks innocuous, but a careless kick from a passing child would detonate this cluster bomb, one of thousands of unexploded devices Israel scattered over the towns, villages and hillsides of south Lebanon.
France will greatly increase the size of the contingent it is promising for a peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, possibly making it easier to recruit other nations, officials and diplomats said on Thursday. Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema said he expected French President Jacques Chirac to announce a ”substantial increase” in the contribution.
The front door of the seaside Hotel Monroe is padlocked but a uniformed soldier greets visitors who enter through the back. "Do you want to rent a room?" he asks from behind his desk. Forget it. The high-rise hotel has been closed "since the aggression" by Israel last month and there is no sign of when it will reopen, says the soldier who was not authorised to speak and did not give his name.
Syria said on Wednesday it would close its border with Lebanon if the United Nations stationed troops along it as part of its mission to enforce a truce between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moualem made the threat in a meeting with Finnish counterpart Erkki Tuomioja in Helsinki.
Three Lebanese soldiers were killed on Wednesday while clearing unexploded Israeli shells in southern Lebanon, underscoring the dangers of a region awaiting the deployment of thousands of United Nations peacekeepers. The three men were the first Lebanese troops to die since the army began moving south last Thursday.
The Lebanese port of Byblos has survived the Romans, the Crusades and the armies of Alexander the Great but now it faces a 21st-century menace, brought to its shores on a tide of war — oil pollution. A slick caused by Israel’s bombardment of a power plant last month during its conflict with Hezbolla guerrillas has spewed a black tide along a 140km stretch of the coastline.
Italy has offered to lead a United Nations force for Lebanon, but a week after a truce calmed Israel’s war with Hezbollah guerrillas, few other countries with proven military capacity have made substantial commitments. European Union countries are meeting on Wednesday to discuss concerns about clear rules of engagement for the force.
United States President George Bush called on Monday for the urgent deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping force to southern Lebanon to shore up a week-old truce between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas. He said there will be another UN resolution on the rules for such a force. ”First things first will be to get the rules of engagement clear,” he told a news conference in Washington.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the situation in Lebanon as ”very fragile” on Monday as a truce between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas entered its second week. Merkel said it was vital to get United Nations peacekeeping troops to the area quickly to prevent a rekindling of the conflict, in which nearly 1Â 200 people in Lebanon and 157 Israelis died.
Israeli aircraft and commandos raided a Hezbollah bastion in eastern Lebanon on Saturday in the first big attack since a truce halted Israel’s 34-day war with the guerrillas, Lebanese military and Hezbollah sources said. Three Hezbollah guerrillas were killed in a firefight with the Israeli commandos, Lebanese security sources said.
Hezbollah handed out bundles of cash on Friday to people whose homes were wrecked by Israeli bombing, consolidating the Iranian-backed group’s support among Lebanon’s Shi’ites and embarrassing the Beirut government. ”This is a very, very reasonable amount. It is not small,” said Ayman Jaber (27).
Lebanese army troops prepared to move on Friday to the edge of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, the main flashpoint for fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas before the war that a United Nations truce has halted. Trying to consolidate the five-day-old truce, the UN said it has received substantial offers of more troops for Lebanon.
Lebanese troops deployed in south Lebanon on Thursday, linking up with United Nations peacekeepers to take control of Hezbollah strongholds as Israeli forces pulled back after their 34-day war with the guerrillas. Hezbollah fighters melted away as the troops crossed the Litani River, about 20km from the Israeli border, to take over a region the army has not controlled for decades.
Armed only with shovels and plastic buckets, a few dozen volunteers struggled on Thursday to scrape oil-stained sand off a Beirut beach as environmental groups began the monumental task of cleaning up tonnes of oil spilt across Lebanon’s coast. ”This is the biggest environmental disaster in the Mediterranean basin, we can say that very easily,” said environmental group Green Line.
Lebanon’s government on Wednesday ordered 15Â 000 troops to move south to take full control, with United Nations peacekeepers, when Israeli troops withdraw after a 34-day war with Hezbollah guerrillas. Officials said Lebanese troops would deploy south of the Litani River, about 20km from the Israeli border, on Thursday.
Israeli forces began leaving parts of south Lebanon on Tuesday as a United Nations truce largely held for a second day and the Lebanese army prepared to move south. Thousands of refugees who had fled the month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah headed home to battered villages in the south.
A fragile United Nations-ordered truce took hold in Lebanon on Monday after a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas, prompting thousands of refugees to rush back to blitzed villages in the south. Heavy fighting, along with Israeli air strikes and Hezbollah rocket fire, ceased after the 7am South African time deadline.
Heavy fighting in southern Lebanon stopped abruptly on Monday after a United Nations-brokered truce came into effect, but reports that Israeli troops killed a Hezbollah guerrilla underlined the fragility of the truce. Army Radio and the Haaretz newspaper’s website said the Hezbollah fighter was shot dead after he opened fire on Israeli troops in south-west Lebanon.
A United Nations-brokered ceasefire to end the month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas went into effect at 7am South African time on Monday, and Lebanese security sources said the guns had fallen silent across southern Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Cabinet on Sunday approved a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a cessation of hostilities with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, a political source said. However, both Israel and Hezbollah showed little inclination to stop fighting ahead of Monday’s proposed truce. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had said the prime ministers of Israel and Lebanon agreed fighting would end on Monday.
The United Nations said Israeli and Lebanese leaders had agreed a ceasefire that will take effect on Monday to end the month-old war, but fighting raged on Sunday as Israeli forces met fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas. Israeli aircraft also launched scores of strikes on more than 50 villages and towns across Lebanon on Sunday.
The United Nations said Israeli and Lebanese leaders had agreed to a ceasefire to take effect on Monday, as Israel reported its worst death toll yet in the month-long war against Hezbollah guerrillas. Israel, stepping up an offensive in southern Lebanon before the truce, said 19 of its soldiers were killed in clashes on Saturday and five declared missing.
Israel’s army thrust deeper into Lebanon on Saturday and its commander said he would keep fighting Hezbollah guerrillas, despite a United Nations Security Council demand for a ”full cessation of hostilities” in the month-old war. Air strikes killed up to 20 people in Lebanon, hours after the council adopted a resolution aimed at ending the conflict.
The United States and Lebanon said on Friday a deal on a United Nations resolution to end Israel’s month-old war with Hezbollah guerrillas is in sight. But Israel told the US it would not automatically accept any such resolution, Israeli television said. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also ordered the army to expand its ground offensive.
Israeli air raids killed 11 people in north Lebanon on Friday as the United States and France strove to clinch a draft United Nations resolution to end the month-old war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas. The bombing of a bridge near the border with Syria wounded 18 people, hospital staff said.
Hezbollah guerrillas fought Israeli troops pushing further into south-east Lebanon on Thursday, though an Israeli Cabinet minister said plans for a deeper ground assault were on hold to give diplomacy a chance. Hezbollah also fired nearly 70 rockets into Israel, killing a woman and a toddler in an Israeli Arab village, medics said.
Hezbollah guerrillas fought Israeli troops pushing towards the Shi’ite Muslim town of Khiam in south-east Lebanon on Thursday, though an Israeli Cabinet minister said plans for a deeper ground assault were on hold. Hezbollah unleashed a score of rockets on northern Israel, killing two people, including a toddler, medics said.
Israeli troops seized the town of Marjayoun and two nearby villages in south Lebanon on Thursday, witnesses said, even though Israel says it has put off plans for a broader offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas. A journalist said Israeli troops were moving on foot through Marjayoun, a town about 8km inside Lebanon.
Israeli troops thrust deeper into Lebanon on Wednesday and were reported to have lost four dead to Hezbollah rocket fire as Israel’s inner cabinet debated whether to order a bigger advance before any United Nations move to end the war. A vote on a UN Security Council resolution may not take place before Thursday because of wrangling over its content.
Israeli air strikes killed 14 villagers in south Lebanon on Tuesday as Beirut pleaded for a swift end to Israel’s war with Hezbollah guerrillas that has cost up to 1Â 000 Lebanese and 100 Israeli lives in four weeks. Diplomats at the United Nations in New York said a vote on a resolution to end the war might not take place before Thursday as fighting in south Lebanon raged on.
The highway south from Beirut to the coastal city of Tyre was a symbol of Lebanon’s love for the open road and proof of revival after the bitter 1975 to 1990 conflict. But that was four weeks ago. Today, Lebanon’s dreams of recovery from years of civil war have been shattered by Israel’s devastating month-old offensive.
Lebanon’s prime minister, choking back tears, demanded a "quick and decisive ceasefire" on Monday after an Israeli air raid that he at first said killed more than 40 civilians sheltering from fighting in a southern village. Later, though, he said that only one person had been killed. Air raids elsewhere killed at least 24 Lebanese.