Israel bombards Beirut amid spiraling attacks

[MLA]

A good friend of mine has family in Beirut. The city was just starting to come back from all the devastation in the 80's. :( This looks like it's spiraling out of control.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Israel's warplanes bombed Beirut's international airport and its navy blockaded Lebanon's ports in a sharp escalation of a military campaign Thursday.

Hundreds of targets from the border north to the capital were attacked, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Hezbollah guerrillas fired scores of rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel in the most intense bombardment in years.

Some 45 people and two soldiers have been killed inside Lebanon since Wednesday, the country's health ministry said, while the rocket attacks killed at least one woman in Israel.

Lebanon also said 103 people were hurt by the Israeli attacks, The Associated Press reported, while the IDF said 90 people had been injured by the rockets hitting Israel.

One rocket attack on the northern Israeli town of Nahariya on Thursday hit a group of journalists, the AP said.

Both Israel and Lebanon have said the violence amounts to "acts of war."

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday's attacks by Hezbollah when guerrillas killed eight Israeli soldiers and captured two more were an "act of war."

Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat called Israel's retaliatory attack on Beirut airport a "general act of war," saying the strikes had nothing to do with Hezbollah but were instead an attack against the country's "economic interests," especially its tourism industry.

Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport was forced to close after Israeli fighter jets hit all three of its runways, leaving huge craters that made them unusable. All flights have been diverted. (Airport map)

Two other Lebanese airports were attacked Thursday morning, the IDF said.

The Israeli military gave no details, but Lebanese army sources said that the Rayak Air Base in the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border had been hit as well as a small military airport in Qulayaat in northern Lebanon.

Israel said it targeted the international airport in the capital's suburbs because it was a transfer point for weapons and supplies to Hezbollah, the militant group that captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in raids this week.

Israeli warships were stationed off all of Lebanon's ports to enforce the naval blockade, Reuters news agency reported.

Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Aridi called for a comprehensive cease-fire, saying the Lebanese government had nothing to do with the Hezbollah attacks.

After Israel's airport strike, planes began dropping leaflets warning residents of an impending attack on an area of southern Beirut where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is believed to live. (Watch initial reports on the runway bombings -- 6:00)

If such a strike happened, Hezbollah said it would attack the northern Israeli city of Haifa, where 300,000 people live.

The U.S. Navy moved a small military tug out of Haifa after the threat


http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/13/mideast/index.html

[Rosebud]

This is really, really frightening. I keep checking the news to see what's going on and I can't believe how quickly this situation is escalating. :(

[MLA]

I know. Things are moving really, really quickly. And civilians are being killed. I just can't stop thinking about my friend's family. I hope they're okay.

[LyLMyssChaos]

I know. Things are moving really, really quickly. And civilians are being killed. I just can't stop thinking about my friend's family. I hope they're okay.

I know what you mean. A guy I used to date in high school lives in Beirut near the American University and I really hope that he and what family he has there is safe.

[MLA]

This is going to sound crazy, but I want Dr. Phil to go to the Middle East. I think his question "How's that workin' for ya?" is a good one in this situation. The region's been at war for centuries. Why? The fighting hasn't gotten anyone what they want. Where's Dr. Phil when you need him?

Note: I realize no one in the Middle East gives a rat's ass about Dr. Phil, but I think it's a good question to ask. If warfare isn't achieving your objectives, you should maybe try another approach . . .

[dionysia]

DH's cousin and her daughter are in Southern Lebanon right now, visiting her husband's family. They cannot get out. The airport has been bombed, the road to Syria bombed, the ports are closed.

Di

[MLA]

Di -- I saw your post over in the “Have you ever cried at work?” thread. I’m so sorry. :( I’ll keep them in my thoughts.

[LyLMyssChaos]

DH's cousin and her daughter are in Southern Lebanon right now, visiting her husband's family. They cannot get out. The airport has been bombed, the road to Syria bombed, the ports are closed.

Di


Oh my goodness, that would be unbelievably scary! I pray that they are able to stay safe! Are they able to get to the Embassy?

[dionysia]

Oh my goodness, that would be unbelievably scary! I pray that they are able to stay safe! Are they able to get to the Embassy?No, all roads to Beirut are blocked, plus being in Beirut is probably a bad idea right now.

CIL's husband and her sister have been trying to get in touch with the Embassy over there plus the State Dept here to no avail. CIL's sister (OCIL) has been able to fax CIL the necessary forms to try to get her out as an emergency, not as a tourist, if that makes sense.

Di

[LyLMyssChaos]

No, all roads to Beirut are blocked, plus being in Beirut is probably a bad idea right now.

CIL's husband and her sister have been trying to get in touch with the Embassy over there plus the State Dept here to no avail. CIL's sister (OCIL) has been able to fax CIL the necessary forms to try to get her out as an emergency, not as a tourist, if that makes sense.

Di

That makes total sense, goodness I really hope they are able to stay safe and get out of there all right! It's stuff like this that makes me so leery of traveling abroad (my FIL was in China on 9/11 and we were so worried for days because we couldn't contact him!)

[jnettie]

This is going to sound crazy, but I want Dr. Phil to go to the Middle East. I think his question "How's that workin' for ya?" is a good one in this situation. The region's been at war for centuries. Why? The fighting hasn't gotten anyone what they want. Where's Dr. Phil when you need him?

Note: I realize no one in the Middle East gives a rat's ass about Dr. Phil, but I think it's a good question to ask. If warfare isn't achieving your objectives, you should maybe try another approach . . .
ITA (exept for sending Dr. Phil ;) )

This whole thing makes me very sad. I've said this before...but there's just so much hate there. What are they trying to accomplish? I mean, really? Everyone hates each other and no one wants to even entertain the idea that the other side is even human.

Life is too short to be consumed with hate.

[Asha]

di, i hope your family gets out safely. they are in my thoughts.

i woke up this morning so grateful that we got out of israel before all of this started. the israeli kidnapped by the palestinians happened just one week after we left. one of the cities where we stayed has been hit by lebanese rockets. this may sound trite, but we feel very lucky that we were able to see israel now bc it may not be safe to travel there for a very long time now.

i don't really want to go into my political view of it all bc it seems insensitive considering people here have loved ones who are in danger.

ITA (exept for sending Dr. Phil )
off topic - my mom says if you want to quote dr. phil then just don't say its from him. more people will take the advice seriously. i do it with my dh all the time, but don't mention it is dr. phil advice.

[Lindsan]

A very close coworker of mine is stuck in Beirut right now with her husband. I got a desperate text message this morning. There is no way to get out. They are waiting for info on evacuation by the Swedish government but there is no way for the government to get to the 2000 Swedes in Lebanon, nor is there any way for them to get out. They tried the Swedish consulate in Beirut on Wednesday. They tried to get out of Beirut on Thursday. They tried to get to Damaskus on Friday but the road had been bombed. Then they tried the French embassy which had said they woud help Swedes. They are still there. Her text message this morning made me cry. I am so scared for her and her husband.

I read on the webpage of the government a moment ago that an evacuation is planned to start tomorrow (Sunday) but it didn't say how. It also said that families with children and pregnant women will go first. I found myself praying that my coworker is pregnant.

I don't want to get into the political aspect in this post, but I will say that I think Israel has it wrong if they think this will make Hezbollah back down. I think killing civilians will only make them even more determined.

[jnettie]

More reasons why I hate war.

[Rose]

lindsan - I will be thinking of your coworker & her husband. They must be very scared right now.

[BlackMagicRose]

I have been glued to the TV for a while now. This is all bad. I do not know how else to put it. Of course president Bush blames everything on Syria and although Syria is not in the fold now....they will be soon enough. This is not going to end any time soon. It scares me. Now they are just passing bombs back and forth between them.

I really feel for everyone stuck in Beruit in this horrible time. I am scared now, I could not imagine being in their situation.

[Asha]

di & lindsan - have your relatives and coworker evacuated yet? i saw on the news they have started evacuating people on ships, and some people are already in cyprus. i continue to have them in my thoughts and prayers.

[Lindsan]

Thanks everyone for your wellwishes. Asha, yes, my coworker and her husband came home yesterday after two days travelling. I haven't been able to talk to her yet, I wanted to give her some space before I called her, so I don't know any details. I think it's most likely that they travelled to Syria by bus and then on from there since they had been travelling for two days. The first boats carrying Swedes to Cyprus started going Monday afternoon I think.

[artist]

More reasons why I hate war.

I know.

[dionysia]

My cousin-in-law and her daughter made it to Cyprus on Sunday. It was a very dangerous trip for them from Hula to Beirut. Then they waited in long lines to board the ship in Beirut.

Their flight to the US left Cyprus this morning.

Di

[MLA]

Things are just getting worse:

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- A diplomatic furor erupted Wednesday after four U.N. observers died in southern Lebanon in what the U.N. secretary-general said was an "apparently deliberate" Israeli airstrike.

Israel angrily denied the accusation.

The U.N. observers were killed when an Israeli bomb made a direct hit on their bunker in southern Lebanon on Tuesday. They had called an Israeli military liaison about 10 times in the six hours before they died to warn that the aerial attacks were getting close to their position, according to a U.N. officer.(Full story)

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and "expressed his regret at this tragedy in Lebanon."

Annan was attending tense diplomatic talks with key Middle East figures in Rome. Those negotiations -- being held to agree to a plan to halt the hostilities in Lebanon -- have failed, according to sources involved in the talks and sources in Jerusalem and Washington. (Full story)

Diplomats are trying to come up with some kind of face-saving statement, the sources said.

The talks had been made even more urgent by the observers' deaths, in what Annan called an "apparently deliberate" strike that "deeply distressed" him.

"This coordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long-established and clearly marked U.N. post at Khiyam occurred despite personal assurances given to me by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that U.N. positions would be spared Israeli fire," he said in a statement.

"Furthermore, General Alain Pelligrini, the U.N. force commander in south Lebanon, had been in repeated contact with Israeli officers throughout the day on Tuesday, stressing the need to protect that particular U.N. position from attack."

The airstrike came as Israeli forces continued to battle Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, seeking to end the Islamic militia's rocket attacks on northern Israel.

Olmert on Wednesday said his country wants to establish a strip of land in south Lebanon a little more than a mile wide that will be free of Hezbollah guerrillas -- giving the dimensions of Israel's new "security zone" for the first time, The Associated Press reported.

'Caught in the middle'
Daniel Ayalon, Israel's ambassador to the United States, said that "UNIFIL obviously got caught in the middle" of a gunfight between Hezbollah guerrillas and Israeli troops.

"We do not have yet confirmation what caused these deaths. It could be [Israel Defense Forces]. It could be Hezbollah," he said.

UNIFIL sent a rescue-and-medical team to the city of Khiyam, where the post was located. Attacks in the vicinity continued as rescuers tried to reach those killed or injured, UNIFIL said.

UNIFIL said at least 14 incidents of fire have happened near the post since Tuesday afternoon.

Ayalon called Annan's statement "outrageous," while Israel's U.N. ambassador, Dan Gillerman, said he, too, was "deeply distressed" that Annan alleged that the strike was deliberate.

"I am surprised at these premature and erroneous assertions made by the secretary-general, who while demanding an investigation, has already issued its conclusions," Gillerman said in a statement.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/26/mideast.main/index.html

[msnicolea]

While I think Israel has made many mistakes during this entire fiasco, I find it very hard to believe they would deliberatley attack a UN "unit." I just don't buy it.

[MLA]

While I think Israel has made many mistakes during this entire fiasco, I find it very hard to believe they would deliberatley attack a UN "unit." I just don't buy it.

Yeah, it seems pretty far-fetched. But at the same time I can't imagine the UN making such an outrageous claim with nothing to back it up. I don't know what to think, really. I guess time will tell on this one.

[msnicolea]

I was SHOCKED by Annan's statements yesterday. I thought the same thing--he must know something I don't, right? but then I thought maybe he's just speaking out of emotion--this is a very trying time. I just don't know what to think.

[dionysia]

While I think Israel has made many mistakes during this entire fiasco, I find it very hard to believe they would deliberatley attack a UN "unit." I just don't buy it.Deliberately, I don't know. But it sure seems like they did just that.

The Israeli gov't spokesperson on BBC World News this morning said that any comment is pending investigation. Odd that the UN post has been there for 20 years, yet they made a 'mistake.'

I frankly don't know what to believe.

Di

[Noa]

Trust me when I say that I highly doubt it was deliberate. The last thing we (Israel) need is more bad rep amongst the international community. Unfortunately there have been some tragic mistakes made by our army the past couple of days- 2 helicopters collided midair, and then the next day we accidentaly shot down one of our own planes. I am distressed that Annan would accuse us of something like this without solid proof, when much of the world is looking for reasons to be more anti-Israel.

Di- I am happy to hear your family is safe and on its way back to the US. My entire family lives in Haifa and I am constantly anxious for their safety.