Israel-Lebanon border observers removed
(AP)
Updated: 2006-07-28 22:36 The observer mission, known as UNTSO, had kept about 50 observers in four
posts along the border. Two posts have already been abandoned: the one destroyed
at Khiam on July 25, and a second near the village of Maroun al-Ras, where
Hezbollah guerrilla gunfire wounded an observer on July 23.
Staff from the two remaining posts would be relocated at border posts of the
peacekeeping mission, known as UNIFIL, Struger said. He would not say whether
the move had been completed.
UNTSO - the UN Truce Supervision Organization - was established in
1948 to observe the cease-fire following the war that followed Israel's
creation.
UNIFIL - the UN Interim Force in Lebanon - was created to confirm
Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 1978. It has over 30 observation posts and
bases along the border, monitoring and reporting on violence in the region. The
two organizations generally work together now.
The recent bloodshed erupted July 12 after Hezbollah guerrillas crossed the
Lebanese border into Israel and captured two Israeli soldiers. Israel retaliated
with its massive assault on Lebanon, now in its 17th day.
Rescue workers have recovered the bodies of three of the observers killed in
Khiam, but the fourth body remains buried in the rubble of the destroyed
building. Heavy equipment cannot reach the site due to continued Israeli
bombardment, UNIFIL said in a statement.
In the drafting of the Security Council statement, the United States -
Israel's closest ally - insisted on dropping any condemnation or allusion
to the possibility that Israel deliberately targeted the UN post.
The statement made only one reference to the wider Israeli-Hezbollah
fighting, expressing the council's "deep concern for Lebanese and Israeli
civilian casualties and sufferings, the destruction of civil infrastructures and
the rising number of internally displaced people in Lebanon."
It dropped a call for a joint investigation into the observer post bombing
but called on Israel to take into account "any relevant material from UN
authorities, and to make the results public as soon as possible."
Israel has expressed regret for the bombing and stressed that it would never
target UN personnel.
Speaking to the Security Council on Wednesday, UN Assistant Secretary-General
Jane Lute said the observer post came under close Israeli fire 21 times,
including 12 hits within 100 yards and four direct hits. UN officials in New
York and Lebanon repeatedly protested to Israel in the hours before a bomb
leveled the building and killed the four observers, she said.
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