Israeli Forces Capture Five Guerrillas; Hezbollah Rockets Land Deep Into Israel
Posted August 2, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Despite increasing international pressure for a ceasefire in the region, Israeli forces attacked a purported Hezbollah base in Baalbeck – located in central Lebanon – killing 10 suspected guerrillas and taking five others prisoner.
The militant group claims the building was a hospital, reportedly funded by an Iranian charity, but Israel claims it was a logistics base and resting place for Hezbollah fighters and that there were no patients inside when it was hit.
“There are no patients there and there is no hospital; this is a base of the Hezbollah in disguise,” Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said.
In another raid near the hospital in the village of Al Jamaliyeh, the mayor’s house was hit, killing his son, brother and five other relatives. Another attack in the same village claimed the lives of a family of seven – a mother, father and their five kids – according to witnesses.
An Israeli air strike overnight also destroyed a key bridge (pictured) that links central Lebanon to the north. Bombed-out roads and bridges have kept civilians from escaping the fighting and have prevented humanitarian aid from reaching them.
Hezbollah answered back by firing about 160 rockets deep into northern Israel, injuring at least 17 people and killing one civilian.
Israeli medics said at least one of the Hezbollah weapons reached an area near the town of Beit Shean, which is about 67 kilometres inside Israel. That’s the deepest Hezbollah strike into Israel so far.
Meanwhile there was a setback in diplomatic efforts Wednesday when France said it wouldn’t participate in a United Nations meeting on the crisis Thursday. The gathering could result in troops being sent to the region to help monitor a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
France has said it won’t consider sending its troops into the region until the fighting has stopped and the U.N. Security Council comes up with a broader framework to achieve a lasting peace in the region.
