Israel Rejects UN Call for Temporary Aid Truce as Rice Returns

Israel has rejected a United Nations call for a three-day truce in southern Lebanon to evacuate injured civilians and those in need of urgent aid, Saturday 29th July 2006. The decision was made as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Israel to continue efforts to find a resolution to the conflict.

|PIC1|The United Nations called for an immediate three-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, but an Israeli spokesman said there was no need for a truce as a humanitarian corridor to the area had been opened.

UN humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland had said, “It's been horrific... There is something fundamentally wrong with the war, where there are more dead children than armed men.”

Yet reports on Saturday stated that Israeli missiles landed near the main Lebanese border crossing into Syria, and in a separate incident, two Indian soldiers with the UN peacekeeping force were wounded in an Israeli attack on their observation post, the UN has revealed.

The incident has come just a number of days after four UN observers were killed in an Israeli air strike on their location.

However, hope of a resolution to the conflict has come about as Israeli officials have told to the BBC that Israel may be willing to stop fighting as soon as a UN resolution is passed next week, which would be before the arrival of an international peace force. Therefore, they would not insist on Hezbollah disarming first.

But Israeli officials told BBC News that a ceasefire must meet certain core conditions, including a guarantee that Hezbollah will not move back into positions close to the border.

The UN has reported that some 600 people have been killed by Israeli action in Lebanon, and shockingly about a third of them children.

|TOP|Condoleezza Rice is expected to talk to Israeli and Lebanese leaders about proposals for a multinational force to be deployed to the region, as part of what US President George Bush has said could be a viable plan for ending the aggression.

World leaders will discuss a deployment at a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday.

Aid agencies are also attempting to alert the world community about the deteriorating conditions of Lebanese civilians as a result of the clash.

“Up until July 20, our staff could not provide any relief because the area was under sporadic bombing,” said Lina Abi Rizk, World Vision’s project manager in East Sidon, Lebanon.

|AD|“In one of the schools where 400 displaced people are staying, there are only 100 mattresses to accommodate that number. The rest of the people are sleeping on the floor.”

According to the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) in Lebanon, more than 600,000 people are forcibly displaced as a result of the conflict.

Church World Service reported more than 400,000 internally displaced people have taken refuge in public and private schools in the country.

Lebanon was experiencing a “catastrophic humanitarian crisis,” said Guirgis I. Saleh, general secretary of the MECC in a report released by CWS on July 19, especially regarding food and medicine.

“Hence, all efforts should be deployed by the international community, churches and ecumenical councils and organisations worldwide to bring their support to ensure the basic requirements of the Lebanese population, and to work on a cease fire,” said Saleh.