BBC/UN: Alweer zo eenzijdig anti-Israel?

[Bart Meerdink]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Twee doden in Haifa, Twee doden in Haifa, Twee doden in Haifa.

Mag ik nu naar Beiroet kijken? Of ben ik nog te éénzijdig anti-Israël?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5207478.stm

UN appalled by Beirut devastation
The UN's Jan Egeland has condemned the devastation caused by Israeli air
strikes in Beirut, saying it is a violation of humanitarian law.

Mr Egeland, the UN's emergency relief chief, described the destruction
as "horrific" as he toured the city.

He arrived hours after another Israeli strike on Beirut. Israel also hit
Sidon, a port city in the south crammed with refugees, for the first time.

In Haifa, two people were killed amid a volley of rockets on the Israeli
city.

Fifteen people are reported injured by the rockets, launched by
Hezbollah militants over the border with Lebanon.

The BBC News website's Raffi Berg visited the scene of one of the rocket
attacks in northern Haifa.

He says the rocket exploded next to a carriageway, raking passing cars
with shrapnel and ball bearings and killing a man in a nearby vehicle.

'Block after block'

Mr Egeland arrived in southern Beirut on Sunday just hours after Israeli
strikes on the Hezbollah stronghold.

A visibly moved Mr Egeland expressed shock that "block after block" of
buildings had been levelled.

He said the "disproportionate response" by Israel was a "violation of
international humanitarian law".

He appealed for both sides to halt attacks and said UN supplies of
humanitarian aid would begin to arrive in the next few days.

"But we need safe access," he said. "So far Israel is not giving us access."

Israel has said it will lift its blockade on Beirut's port to allow aid
through, but with roads, bridges and trucks among Israel's targets,
transporting it around the country is difficult.

In other developments:

     * UK Foreign Minister Kim Howells is due to meet Israeli Foreign
Minister Tzipi Livni. A day after accusing Israel of targeting "the
entire Lebanese nation", he said the British government understood
Israel's need to defend itself and criticised Hezbollah for hiding
weapons in civilian areas.

     * The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to leave for
the Middle East later on Sunday.

     * Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel supports the
idea of an international peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, and
suggested it should be led by Nato.

     * Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel had "pushed the
button for its own destruction".

     * Syria's information minister said his country would enter the
conflict if a major Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon threatened the
security of Damascus.

     * An unarmed UN observer was seriously wounded by small arms fire -
thought to be from Hezbollah - at a UN position in the village of Maroun
al-Ras, which Israeli said it had taken control of on Saturday.

Sidon targeted

Israel's bombing campaign continued, with strikes on Beirut and on
southern and eastern Lebanon in the early hours of Sunday.

The Associated Press news agency reported at least eight deaths on
Sunday - an eight-year-old boy, a Lebanese photographer, three civilians
fleeing in a minibus, and three Hezbollah fighters.

One target was the southern port of Sidon, a city not previously
targeted by Israel, where 42,000 refugees from the surrounding area have
flooded in the hope of safety.

The BBC's Roger Hearing in the city reports that a mosque was destroyed
in one strike, which hit less than 500m (550 yards) from a hospital. At
least four people were injured.

While Israel said the mosque was a meeting place for Hezbollah
militants, local doctors insisted it was just "a place for prayers".

Bombing intensifies

The BBC's Jim Muir in the southern city of Tyre says there has also been
intense bombardment there, striking at least nine civilian vehicles.
Some were hit within sight of hospitals where they were trying to take
injured people, he says.

Further east, engineers trying to mend impassable roads to allow a
UN-escorted aid convoy also came under fire, our correspondent reports.

He says that bombing has intensified in the region since Israel dropped
warning leaflets on Friday, and the Israelis are now shooting at almost
anything on moving on the roads.

More than 350 Lebanese have been killed in the 11 days of violence, many
of them civilians, and angry protests condemning Israeli attacks have
been held in cities around the world.

At least 36 Israelis have been killed, including 17 civilians killed by
rockets fired by Hezbollah into Israel.

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