Israel has a history of killing UN peacekeepers

[link to www.telegraph.co.uk]

WAR - Israel has a history of killing UN peacekeepers
[link to www.telegraph.co.uk]

UN 'urged Israelis to hold fire 10 times before post was hit'
By Tim Butcher in Tyre
(Filed: 27/07/2006)

Israel was accused yesterday of ignoring repeated appeals to halt attacks around a United Nations monitoring post before it bombed the position, killing four UN officials.

A preliminary UN report into the bombing by an Israeli warplane on Tuesday evening said that personnel from the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon made 10 warning calls to Israeli forces before the attack.

The most senior Irish officer attached to the UN force said he had made six warning calls as shells landed close to the bunker.

Israel's refusal to heed the appeals caused an uncharacteristically frank outburst from Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, when he accused Israel of "apparently deliberate targeting" the peacekeepers.

This was denied by Dan Gillerman, Israel's ambassador to the UN, plunging the already fraught relationship between the international body and Israel to a new low. Israel has long believed that the UN has been hijacked by pro-Arab sentiment.

However, Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, telephoned Mr Annan yesterday to express "deep regrets" over the loss of life and to assure him that Israel would hold a full inquiry into the incident.

The phone calls were made after the unarmed monitors inside the UN bunker at Khiyyam reported their position being hit around 20 times by Israeli artillery and airstrikes.

UN sources alleged yesterday that the Israeli military ignored the plea after it was passed up through the chain of command. A laser-guided munition is believed to have then dropped on the UN position, which is painted white and clearly illuminated.

The four monitors inside - from Canada, Austria, Finland and China - were killed.

"The bunkers are big white things - you can see them for miles and they are lit up at night," a UN source said.

"If you keep firing all afternoon into a position like that then, ultimately, something will go wrong."

The four monitors, who belonged to the UN Truce Supervision Organisation, were not the first UN peacekeepers to die during Israel's bloody attempt to stop Hizbollah militants firing rockets across its northern border.

A Nigerian member of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) was killed in Housh, a suburb of Tyre, when his house was demolished by an airstrike.

But while the death of the peacekeeper in his home angered the UN, the attack on the well-known bunker marked clearly on military maps available to Israeli forces left peacekeepers seething.

The entire Unifil presence in Tyre has withdrawn to the force headquarters a few miles south along the coast at Naqoura but yesterday a few peacekeepers who used to be based in the city went to recover personal possessions. "The guys who died were my friends," said a Belgian captain. "The situation is crazy."

Mr Annan was furious. "I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli defence forces of a UN observer post in southern Lebanon," he said.

Mr Gillerman parodied Mr Annan's choice of words when he responded on behalf of Israel. "I was shocked and deeply distressed by the hasty statement by the secretary general insinuating Israel has deliberately targeted the UN post and surprised at these premature and erroneous assertions," he said. "The secretary general, while demanding an investigation, has already issued his conclusions." Mr Olmert denied that Israel had targeted the bunker when he spoke to Mr Annan.

Israel has a history of killing UN peacekeepers on its border with Lebanon. In 1996 Israel killed more than 100 Lebanese civilians who had sought sanctuary inside a UN base in the town of Qana. A shell landed inside the UN perimeter in what Israel insisted was an accident.

The Khiyyam bunker is only a few hundred yards from an old prison used during Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon in the 1980s and 1990s.

The prison has been turned into a museum by Hizbollah and its former inmates show visitors round. With its hilltop position, the bunker offered excellent views of the border. The UN source said there was no doubt that the fire that hit the bunker came from Israel.

He said: "Israel knows these positions and they have had two weeks to zero in on this area, and register targets and where you don't want to hit."
looks like they have the right idea.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Y2kO
[link to www.telegraph.co.uk]

UN 'urged Israelis to hold fire 10 times before post was hit'
By Tim Butcher in Tyre
(Filed: 27/07/2006)

Israel was accused yesterday of ignoring repeated appeals to halt attacks around a United Nations monitoring post before it bombed the position, killing four UN officials.

A preliminary UN report into the bombing by an Israeli warplane on Tuesday evening said that personnel from the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon made 10 warning calls to Israeli forces before the attack.

The most senior Irish officer attached to the UN force said he had made six warning calls as shells landed close to the bunker.

Israel's refusal to heed the appeals caused an uncharacteristically frank outburst from Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, when he accused Israel of "apparently deliberate targeting" the peacekeepers.

This was denied by Dan Gillerman, Israel's ambassador to the UN, plunging the already fraught relationship between the international body and Israel to a new low. Israel has long believed that the UN has been hijacked by pro-Arab sentiment.

However, Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, telephoned Mr Annan yesterday to express "deep regrets" over the loss of life and to assure him that Israel would hold a full inquiry into the incident.

The phone calls were made after the unarmed monitors inside the UN bunker at Khiyyam reported their position being hit around 20 times by Israeli artillery and airstrikes.

UN sources alleged yesterday that the Israeli military ignored the plea after it was passed up through the chain of command. A laser-guided munition is believed to have then dropped on the UN position, which is painted white and clearly illuminated.

The four monitors inside - from Canada, Austria, Finland and China - were killed.

"The bunkers are big white things - you can see them for miles and they are lit up at night," a UN source said.

"If you keep firing all afternoon into a position like that then, ultimately, something will go wrong."

The four monitors, who belonged to the UN Truce Supervision Organisation, were not the first UN peacekeepers to die during Israel's bloody attempt to stop Hizbollah militants firing rockets across its northern border.

A Nigerian member of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) was killed in Housh, a suburb of Tyre, when his house was demolished by an airstrike.

But while the death of the peacekeeper in his home angered the UN, the attack on the well-known bunker marked clearly on military maps available to Israeli forces left peacekeepers seething.

The entire Unifil presence in Tyre has withdrawn to the force headquarters a few miles south along the coast at Naqoura but yesterday a few peacekeepers who used to be based in the city went to recover personal possessions. "The guys who died were my friends," said a Belgian captain. "The situation is crazy."

Looks like mission accomplished. Get the Peacekeepers out of the area altogether.

Quote:
Mr Annan was furious. "I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli defence forces of a UN observer post in southern Lebanon," he said.