Entire
Lebanese Family Killed In
Israeli Attack On Hospital
By Robert Fisk
03 August 2006
The
Independent
An
attack on a hospital, the killing of an entire Lebanese family, the
seizure of five men in Baalbek and a new civilian death toll - 468 men,
women and children - marked the 22nd day of Israel's latest war on Lebanon.
The Israelis claimed that
helicopter-borne soldiers had seized senior Hizbollah leaders although
one of them turned out to be a local Baalbek grocer. In a village near
the city, Israeli air strikes killed the local mayor's son and brother
and five children in their family.
The battle for Lebanon was
fast moving out of control last night. Lebanese troops abandoned many
of their checkpoints and European diplomats were warning their colleagues
that militiamen were taking over the positions. Up to 8,000 Israeli
troops were reported to have crossed the border by last night in what
was publicised as a military advance towards the Litani river. But far
more soldiers would be needed to secure so large an area of southern
Lebanon.
The Israelis sent paratroopers
to attack an Iranian-financed hospital in Baalbek in the hope of capturing
wounded Hizbollah fighters but, after an hour's battle, got their hands
on only five men whom the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, later
called "tasty fish". The operation suggests what Hizbollah
has all along said was the purpose of the Israeli campaign: to swap
prisoners and to exchange Hizbollah fighters for the two Israeli soldiers
who were captured on the border on 12 July.
Hizbollah continued to fire
dozens of missiles over the border into Israel, killing one Israeli
and wounding 21, with Israeli artillery firing shells back into Lebanon
at the rate of one every two minutes. For the first time, a Hizbollah
rocket struck the West Bank as well as the Israeli town of Beit Shean,
the longest-range missile to have been fired so far. Yet still the West
seems unable to produce an end to a war which is clearly overwhelming
both Hizbollah and the Israelis.
Hizbollah obviously has far
more missiles than the Israelis believed - there is not a town in northern
Israel which is safe from their fire - and the Israeli army apparently
has no plan to defeat Hizbollah other than the old and hopeless policy
of occupying southern Lebanon. If Hizbollah had planned this campaign
months in advance - and if the Israelis did the same - then neither
side left room for diplomacy.
The French have wisely said
they will lead a peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon only after a
ceasefire. And to be sure, they will not let this become a Nato-led
army. France already has a company of 100 soldiers in the UN force in
southern Lebanon, whose commander is himself French, but Paris, after
watching the chaos in Iraq, has no illusions about Western armies in
the Middle East.
Outside the shattered Dar
al-Hikma hospital in Baalbek yesterday stood two burnt cars and a minivan,
riddled with bullet-holes. Hizbollah, it seems, fought the Israelis
there for more than an hour. The hospital, which includes several British-manufactured
heart machines, was empty when the Israeli raid began and was partly
destroyed in the fighting.
The Lebanese army, which
has tried to stay out of the conflict - heaven knows what its 75,000
soldiers are supposed to do - was attacked again by the Israelis yesterday
when they fired a missile into a car which they claimed was carrying
a Hizbollah leader. They were wrong. The soldier inside died instantly,
joining the 11 other Lebanese troops proclaimed as "martyrs"
by the government from a logistics unit killed in an Israeli air raid
two weeks ago.
The obscene score-card for
death in this latest war now stands as follows: 508 Lebanese civilians,
46 Hizbollah guerrillas, 26 Lebanese soldiers, 36 Israeli soldiers and
19 Israeli civilians.
In other words, Hizbollah
is killing more Israeli soldiers than civilians and the Israelis are
killing far more Lebanese civilians than they are guerrillas. The Lebanese
Red Cross has found 40 more civilian dead in the south of the country
in the past two days, many of them with wounds suggesting they might
have survived had medical help been available.
An attack on a hospital,
the killing of an entire Lebanese family, the seizure of five men in
Baalbek and a new civilian death toll - 468 men, women and children
- marked the 22nd day of Israel's latest war on Lebanon.
The Israelis claimed that
helicopter-borne soldiers had seized senior Hizbollah leaders although
one of them turned out to be a local Baalbek grocer. In a village near
the city, Israeli air strikes killed the local mayor's son and brother
and five children in their family.
The battle for Lebanon was
fast moving out of control last night. Lebanese troops abandoned many
of their checkpoints and European diplomats were warning their colleagues
that militiamen were taking over the positions. Up to 8,000 Israeli
troops were reported to have crossed the border by last night in what
was publicised as a military advance towards the Litani river. But far
more soldiers would be needed to secure so large an area of southern
Lebanon.
The Israelis sent paratroopers
to attack an Iranian-financed hospital in Baalbek in the hope of capturing
wounded Hizbollah fighters but, after an hour's battle, got their hands
on only five men whom the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, later
called "tasty fish". The operation suggests what Hizbollah
has all along said was the purpose of the Israeli campaign: to swap
prisoners and to exchange Hizbollah fighters for the two Israeli soldiers
who were captured on the border on 12 July.
Hizbollah continued to fire
dozens of missiles over the border into Israel, killing one Israeli
and wounding 21, with Israeli artillery firing shells back into Lebanon
at the rate of one every two minutes. For the first time, a Hizbollah
rocket struck the West Bank as well as the Israeli town of Beit Shean,
the longest-range missile to have been fired so far. Yet still the West
seems unable to produce an end to a war which is clearly overwhelming
both Hizbollah and the Israelis.
Hizbollah obviously has far
more missiles than the Israelis believed - there is not a town in northern
Israel which is safe from their fire - and the Israeli army apparently
has no plan to defeat Hizbollah other than the old and hopeless policy
of occupying southern Lebanon. If Hizbollah had planned this campaign
months in advance - and if the Israelis did the same - then neither
side left room for diplomacy.
The French
© 2006 Independent News
and Media Limited