Pride in Hiding Behind Civilians

Finally, finally, the NYT quotes a UN official who recognizes Hezb'Allah's
use of civilians as shields. No more discussion is needed on why there are
as many civilians dead amongst Lebanese. They have only the Hezb'Allah to
thank for their fix.

July 25, 2006
The Conflict
Border Clashes Intensify as Israel Hunts Militants
By CRAIG S. SMITH and GREG MYRE

AVIVIM, Israel, July 24 - In some of the most intense ground clashes so far,
Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants fought fiercely Monday in and around
two hilltop towns in southern Lebanon where the Israeli military is seeking
to drive the militants away from the border.

The main battle was on the outskirts of Bint Jbail, about two miles across
the border into Lebanon, where 2 Israeli soldiers were killed and 14
wounded, the Israeli military said. Hezbollah fighters were believed to have
sustained a greater number of casualties, the military added, though it did
not have figures.

The fighting came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the
region, making an unannounced stop in Beirut, where she met Lebanon's prime
minister, Fouad Siniora. Ms. Rice expressed concern for Lebanese suffering,
and the United States said it would give $30 million to aid in the country's
recovery. "Thank you for your courage and steadfastness," she told Mr.
Siniora.

But the visit was tense. Mr. Siniora angrily described the damage to his
country, including about 380 people killed and some 750,000 displaced, and,
according to a statement released by his office, said the Israeli bombing
had set Lebanon back "50 years."

Ms. Rice said Washington would support a cease-fire once Hezbollah freed two
Israeli soldiers taken captive 13 days ago and pulled back from the border
with Israel, said C. David Welch, the assistant secretary of state for Near
East affairs.

She repeated the message in a later meeting with an emotional Nabih Berri,
the speaker of Parliament and a Hezbollah ally and presumed intermediary,
who insisted that a cease-fire come first, and then a prisoner exchange.

Passing through empty streets, Ms. Rice saw little of the damage inflicted
on Beirut, which was not bombed by Israel while she was there. Ms. Rice
arrived in Israel on Monday evening and held talks with Foreign Minister
Tzipi Livni.

Israeli military officers said the offensive on Bint Jbail began Sunday,
though they gave slightly differing accounts on how far Israeli troops had
advanced.
The military spokesman's office said the troops were on the outskirts,
fighting their way in as of Monday evening. But Capt. Mitch Pilcer of the
army's northern command, said, "We're definitely in there, we control it,
though there are still pockets of resistance."

Soldiers in a rear staging area near the Israeli border town of Avivim said
they had encountered sustained fighting and faced land mines, artillery fire
and antitank rockets.
When asked what it was like in Lebanon, one member of an armed bulldozer
crew who would give only his first name, Noam, because of the Israeli Army
policy that prohibits soldiers from talking to the press without
authorization, said there had been an enormous amount of antitank missile
fire.

He said the monstrous, olive drab bulldozers that the Israeli Army used to
clear roads and demolish buildings drew heavy fire.
"It's not Lebanon, it's Afghanistan," he said.

For a time, the Israelis were focused on efforts to rescue the crew of a
disabled tank, which had come under heavy fire. Some, if not all, of the
four crew members inside were wounded, soldiers said.

They said one of the wounded was a battalion commander and others said one
crew member had been killed. They were eventually recovered and the wounded
were sent to hospitals in Israel, the soldiers said.

At the Menara Kibbutz on a high ridge overlooking Lebanon, streams of smoke
drifted from the town of Mes e Jbail, apparently from Israeli shelling.
Fires burned elsewhere across the otherwise gentle landscape.

Bint Jbail, also smoking, could be glimpsed in the distance. Below the
kibbutz, on an outcropping, sat a United Nations observer outpost, built of
cinder blocks and concrete blast walls. The United Nations observers, meant
to monitor the border after Israel's withdrawal, could do nothing but watch.

The push for Bint Jbail comes after the Israeli forces moved into Marun
al-Ras, a smaller town closer to the border. It, too, is set on a hilltop
and Hezbollah has used it as a crucial base, the military said.

While the Israeli forces were in Marun al Ras, they continued to come under
fire from Hezbollah forces, beginning early in the morning, the military
said. Marun al Ras is just a short distance across the border, and there
have been clashes between Israeli and Hezbollah forces in the area for the
past six days.

The Israeli Air Force bombarded both towns throughout the day.

An Israeli helicopter returning from a mission to Lebanon crashed on the
Israeli side of the border, killing both crew members, the military said.
Hezbollah said it had shot down the helicopter, but the Israeli military
said it believed the crash was caused by a technical problem.

Though Israel's military and political leaders say they do not want to
undertake a major ground offensive in southern Lebanon, but only want to
clear Hezbollah fighters and weapons from the border region, the past
several days of fighting have demonstrated that doing so will take time.

One Israeli officer, who asked not to be identified because he was speaking
without authorization, said that in a full-scale war, the military would
simply bypass those small villages and push north, coming back later to mop
up when the main objective had been reached. "We're doing the opposite
here," he said.

The Israeli military has found a well-protected network of bunkers and
tunnels, with large stocks of Katyusha rockets and other weaponry. So far,
the operation has not slowed the Hezbollah rocket fire.

More than 80 rockets crashed into northern Israel as of Monday evening,
wounding about 20 people, the military said. The rockets again touched off
brush fires, turning the clear summer sky gray with smoke in the town of
Kiryat Shmona, which was hit by a heavy barrage in the afternoon.

Avi Dichter, Israel's public security minister, said the military objective
in southern Lebanon was to weaken Hezbollah to the point where it could not
seriously threaten Israel from the border area.

"From an Israeli perspective, the target is not to totally dismantle
Hezbollah," said Mr. Dichter, a former director of the Shin Bet security
agency. Israel, he said, was "hoping that somehow we'll succeed in setting
up a new situation between Israel and Hezbollah."

Responding to criticism over the large number of civilian deaths in Lebanon,
Mr. Dichter said: "A war is not a surgical operation, and air war is not a
surgical operation. You identify the targets, bombs are sophisticated and
accurate. But you see a cement truck and from the air it looks just like a
Katyusha truck. Sometimes from the air you hit the wrong target."

In an interview on the Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera, Hezbollah's
leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said his movement would define victory
simply as the survival of the militia.
"Victory in this case does not mean that I will enter and conquer the north
of Palestine," Sheik Nasrallah said. "If the resistance survives, this will
be a victory. If its determination is not broken, this will be a victory."

He also accused Arab states he did not identify of encouraging Israel to
strike at Hezbollah.
"Some of the Arabs provided a cover and encouraged Israel to continue the
battle," he said. "Israel was told that this is a golden and historic
opportunity to annihilate the resistance in Lebanon."

In southern Lebanon, at least seven civilians were killed, including two
children, in a renewed wave of Israeli airstrikes that hit several homes
around Tyre, Agence France-Presse reported.
Overnight, two Red Cross ambulances were bombed within moments of each other
while taking wounded people to Tyre, the Red Cross said. One man who was
being transferred died of his wounds, while others were severely injured,
and six paramedics were hurt in the attack, in the town of Qana.

About 380 Lebanese have been killed in 13 days of fighting, a vast majority
of them civilians, according to the Lebanese. Israeli military officials say
they believe they have killed around 100 Hezbollah militants.

A ferry chartered by Germany docked in Tyre and delivered much-needed food
and emergency supplies. The town has been largely isolated from the north of
the country because of attacks on roads and bridges.

Also Monday, the United Nations appealed for $150 million in relief for
Lebanon. Jan Egeland, who is in charge of humanitarian affairs for the
United Nations, said the money was needed for emergency medicine, food and
other supplies for the next three months. He said approximately 800,000
Lebanese had been affected by the bombardment.

A day after criticizing Israel for "disproportionate" strikes against
civilians, Mr. Egeland accused Hezbollah of "cowardly blending" among women
and children.

"I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was
the civilians bearing the brunt of this," he said. "I don't think anyone
should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men."

Mr. Egeland said Lebanon was dangerously short of fuel and was talking to
Israel about a safe corridor to allow supplies to reach the most devastated
areas.
"It's urgent," he said at a news conference in Beirut. "Most of the schools
in the country are filling up with internally displaced persons."

One school in Beirut had six toilets for 1,000 people, he said.

There was also renewed violence in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli artillery shelled two towns in the northern Gaza Strip, killing five
Palestinian civilians, including two children, Palestinian hospital workers
reported.
Palestinian militants fired eight rockets into southern Israel, the Israeli
military said, but they caused no serious damage or injuries.
The Israeli military responded with shells, hitting an apartment building
and open spaces just outside in Beit Lahiya. Three civilians were killed,
and several people were wounded, according to Palestinians in the area.

The Israeli military said it did not single out civilians but was
investigating the possibility that one or more rockets "misfired." The
military said it regretted any civilian casualties.
Later, another Israeli attack killed a woman and a child in the nearby Beit
Hanun area, according to the Palestinians.

The military said it fired on a Palestinian cell that was launching rockets
and identified a hit. The military said it was not aware of any civilian
casualties.
Israel has been dropping leaflets in northern Gaza, warning civilians to
move away from areas where Qassam rockets are being launched.

Israel, meanwhile, put its diplomatic missions abroad on alert for possible
attacks by Hezbollah or Muslims angered by the offensive, Reuters quoted
Israeli security sources as saying.

Craig S. Smith reported from Avivim for this article, and Greg Myre from
Jerusalem. Sabrina Tavernise contributed reporting from Beirut, and Hassan
M. Fattah from Tyre, Lebanon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/25/world/middleeast/25mideast.html