Introduction

Lebanon asked Tuesday for a United Nations inquiry into “Israel” installations that pump water from Lebanon’s Wazzani river into the Jewish state.

Three “Israeli” aircrafts flew over the southern port city of Tyre, sparking panic among residents, while other planes patrolled over Beirut and South Lebanon, where the enemy occupation troops ended a 22-year occupation in May.

Meanwhile, Former Premier Salim Hoss urged Qatar to immediately close down its “Israeli” liaison office in solidarity with the Palestinian people who “are facing daily massacres at the hands of “Israel””.

Separately, an e-mail circulating on the internet is encouraging major international telecommunications campanies to “punish” The Daily Star for what it calls “promoting” hackers attacks on “Israeli” and Jewish websites.

“Israel’s” violations continue…(1)

“Lebanon has officially asked the United Nations to investigate a violation by “Israel” involving the waters of the Wazzani river.
The charges involve “Israel’s” illegal “installation of water pumps and pipes to bring water into the occupied territories,” according to the National News Agency.
The government has requested that UNIFIL conduct an investigation on the grounds to confirm the allegations.
Lebanon has also officially complained about “Israeli” violations of Lebanese airspace by overflights in various parts of the country, including the capital. “Israeli” warplanes broke the sound barrier over Beirut on Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese border demarcation team inspected an area where the “Israeli” Army reportedly carried out a new violation by digging a ditch in the region of Marjayoun-Metulla on the Lebanese side of the border.
The team examined the area, which is 20 meters long and 50 centimeters deep, recently dug by “Israeli” forces and extending towards Hamames on the border.
Two of the 20 meters were dug on Lebanese territory, while barbed wire was placed along the entire 20-meter length of it.
The area in question went beyond the blue signs placed by the United Nations and Lebanese teams, which appeared distinctly behind it.
An “Israeli” jeep inspected the area on the “Israeli” side of the border, while “Israeli” soldiers in the distance watched through binoculars as the Lebanese team inspected the site on its side of the divide.
A lieutenant colonel with the Lebanese team, who preferred to remain anonymous, refused to comment on the suspected violation, saying only that he would submit his report on the matter to the authorities.

“Israeli” planes break sound barrier over Lebanon for second straight day…(2)

“ “Israeli” warplanes broke the sound barrier in the skies over Lebanon for a second straight day on Tuesday with patrols over the south of the country as well as Beirut, AFP correspondents said.

Three “Israeli” aircrafts overflew the southern port city of Tyre, sparking panic among residents, while other planes patrolled over south Lebanon, where the Jewish state ended its 22-year occupation in May.

Planes also broke the barrier over the capital as “Israel” violated Lebanon's airspace for the fourth time, according to an AFP count, since Lebanese Hizbullah militants captured three “Israeli” soldiers on October 7.

“Israeli” warplanes almost completely stopped flying over the country after the May withdrawal.

Report: Hizbullah deploying Katyushas, mortars…(3)

 “Hizbullah has positioned scores of Katyusha rocket launchers and mortars throughout southern Lebanon recently, according to a report in yesterday's English-language Lebanese Daily Star. The newspaper said some of the weapons had been deployed in outposts abandoned by the IDF* and its now disbanded ally, the South Lebanese Army**, in the May 24 withdrawal from Lebanon.
Hizbullah made clear from the outset that it has no intention of disarming, maintaining that “Israel” has not fully withdrawn from Lebanon and that it has to remain on guard to "defend the people" in case of "renewed aggression by the Zionist enemy."
If correct, the reports indicate the organization is prepared for cross-border attacks on Galilee communities and, possibly, even as far south as Acre and Haifa's bayside suburbs.
Because there is no longer a security zone, Hizbullah can position its weapons closer to the border, enabling them to hit targets deeper inside “Israel”.
It has already been widely reported that the organization possesses upgraded versions of the Katyusha rocket, with a smaller warhead but longer range. Such rockets would have been capable of reaching Acre and the bayside suburbs even with the security zone in south Lebanon.
There have also been reports that Hizbullah has continued to receive large shipments of arms and ammunition since the IDF pullout.
Hizbullah established positions and observation posts on the Lebanese side along the entire length of the border following the withdrawal, from where its gunmen have been closely monitoring IDF movements and procedures and civilian traffic.
Coming after the October 7 kidnapping of three IDF soldiers in a Hizbullah ambush on the “Israeli” side of the border, an abortive infiltration attempt nearly two weeks ago, and a series of other incidents, the reported deployment of rockets and mortars has further raised tension along the northern border.
The Daily Star report follows comments by OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi earlier this week that the IDF is preparing for a possible resumption of hostile activities.
Similar remarks were made by Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh, who stressed that “Israel” would hold the Lebanese government and Syria, as the controlling power in Lebanon, responsible for any deterioration in the security situation.
Despite the rumors of war, UNIFIL sources noted that the border has been enjoying its quietest period in 20 years. "It seems that there is an attempt to artificially create an atmosphere of tension. We don't know what's behind this, but it certainly does not help in maintaining stability in the region and along the border," said a senior UNIFIL officer.
“Israel” Radio last night quoted security sources as saying they doubted the authenticity of the Daily Star report. The sources noted that Hizbullah had developed methods of camouflaging its activities and the fact the alleged deployment of rockets and mortars was being quoted in the press was probably intended to be more of a warning signal.
Western diplomatic sources said last night, however, that there appear to be more than a grain of truth in the Lebanese newspaper report.

Hoss calls for end to Qatar-”Israel” ties…(4)

Former Premier Salim Hoss urged Qatar on Tuesday to immediately close down its “Israeli” liaison office in solidarity with the Palestinian people, who “are facing daily massacres at the hands of “Israel”.”
In a statement issued on the occasion of the Organization for the Islamic Conference meeting to be held in Qatar, Hoss said member states, including Lebanon, should boycott the gathering should the liaison office continue to function. “What is the use of participating in the conference while an “Israeli” liaison office exists,” he asked, “if the most important item on the agenda will naturally be backing the Palestinian intifada?”

Children in Arab Salim trade fear for hope…(5)

For the first time in over 15 years, students at the elementary school in Arab Salim have begun their academic year without fear of indiscriminate shelling from the occupation forces.
On Dec. 16 last year, the school, located at the southern end of the village, was hit by three mortar rounds fired from the nearby Sweida compound manned by the “Israeli”-proxy militia.
At least 18 students were wounded in the shelling, two of them seriously.
Among the returnees is 12-year-old Hussein Harb whose shoulder was permanently damaged as a result of the shelling.
“The “Israeli” war on the South and Lebanon has ended, leaving behind a lot of destruction and thousands of martyrs, wounded and disabled, including me,” Harb said as he pointed to his scars.
“Doctors at British hospitals where I was treated couldn’t repair the damage to my shoulder because of the loss of basic bones,” he added.
On returning to Lebanon, Harb underwent physiotherapy at the center for the Lebanese Society for the Disabled in Nabatieh, but without success.
Harb also complains of kidney problems due to the shrapnel still in his body which, if removed, could be life-threatening.
Nevertheless, he said he was grateful that he and his schoolmates survived the attack and are now back at school, studying without fear and looking to the future with hope.
School principal Afif Noureddine described the difference between this academic year and the past as “similar to the difference between light and dark.”
“We’ve suffered a lot from “Israeli” attacks, which were aimed at the road leading to the school, as well as the classrooms and corridors,” he added.
Noureddine said the school’s priority was to “protect our lives and the lives of our students and teachers in the light of our determination to continue school studies despite the difficulties and the cruel conditions.”
He said many of the students who had abandoned the school had now returned after it became fully operational.

A Lahdi general disappeared in “Israel”…(6)

The “Israeli” Radio reported that the “Israeli” army is searching for a General in the Lebanese-Lahd militia, which collaborated with “Israeli” forces during their occupation of South Lebanon and fled to “Israel” with the “Israeli” withdrawing army last May.

The Radio said that the search for the General named Wissam Safi has started after he vanished from his residence, and that “Israeli” authorities want to be sure whether he handed himself to the Lebanese authorities or was abducted by Hizbullah.

E-mail takes aim at The Daily Star…(7)

An e-mail circulating on the internet is encouraging major international telecommunications companies to “punish” The Daily Star for what it calls “promoting” hacker attacks on “Israeli” and Jewish websites.
The message, also sent to The Daily Star, is addressed to AT&T, Verizon, British Telecom, French Telcom, Tel-mex, and Tel Espana.
The message, written in capital letters, said The Daily Star “should be punished by suspending its ISP and international phone service.”
“If the (Daily Star) gets away with this, fanatics everywhere will turn the www into a battlefield which will ultimately des-troy the web’s reliability for e-commerce,” the message stated.
Over the past 10 days, The Daily Star has published four articles on the Arab-”Israeli” cyb-erwar, beginning with reports of how “Israeli” supporters overloaded and shut down two Hizbullah websites.
Following the articles, Arab internet users attacked “Israeli” sites, downing the “Israeli” government and Foreign Ministry sites, and freezing the “Israeli” Central Bank, the “Israeli” stock exchange, the Knesset, and the prime minister’s websites for several hours.

Palestinian refugee children rally against “Israeli” "massacres"…(8)

“ Palestinian refugee children held a sit-in here Tuesday to demand a halt to “Israel’s” continued "massacres" of Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"New massacres are being carried out against Palestinian children under the eyes of the international community and world humanitarian organizations," said a memorandum signed by the "children of Palestine."

The memorandum was delivered by refugee children to a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

More than 50 refugee children had gathered at the ICRC headquarters in Beirut, carrying Palestinian flags.

Many wore traditional checkered headscarfs while raising stones in their hands to symbolize the intifada, or uprising, which has been characterized by Palestinian youths fighting “Israeli” army troops by throwing stones.

"The stones have become Kalashnikov" assault rifles, shouted a group of the children.

More than 150 people have been killed, nearly all Palestinians and including many children, during the past month of the uprising in the Palestinian territories.

Some 367,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon, half of them in camps scattered across the country.

Palestinians bury brothers who shared everything in life, including their death…(9)

They grew up together, they attended the same school, they slept in the same room, they became partners in the same small village restaurant. On Sunday night, they were shot dead by the “Israelis” together. And yesterday afternoon, in the small graveyard on the windy hill top above Yabad – a forgotten old stone hamlet south-east of the West Bank town of Jenin – Bilal and Hilal Salah were buried together.

The Palestinian brothers were hit, according to their family, by 50-calibre bullets as they shouted abuse at an “Israeli” Army unit on the road below their village. "Bilal's brains spilled out of his head onto the ground just here," his eldest brother, Zuheir, said on the embankment of rubbish-strewn earth above a Jewish settlers' road. "We took Bilal to the hospital and it was only then that we realised Hilal was missing. When we got back, we found him lying just 10 metres away. He had also been hit in the head. They had died together."

Zuheir insisted that the brothers – Bilal was 21 and Hilal two years younger – were doing no more than shouting at the “Israeli” soldiers on the road beneath them, although one villager said that stones had been thrown at the “Israelis” by some of the 17 youths on the embankment on Sunday night. Cheap, concrete blocks had been placed around the blood-stained earth where the two brothers died.

It was the intifada in microcosm, a lunatic mixture of exaggerated “Israeli” fear and hopeless sorrow. On the road below, “Israeli” soldiers – perhaps the killers of Bilal and Hilal Salah – had warned us against visiting the dirt poor village.

"I wouldn't go there," their officer said bleakly. "There's a funeral." But the funeral was long over and all we found was a circle of middle-aged men weeping in a room full of framed Korans and red plastic flowers, and the brothers' mother, Sada, sitting on the floor and crying beneath a cheap, pink blanket. The two youths were Yabad's first Palestinian "martyrs".

"The soldiers guard five Jewish settlements near here and we are exposed to gunfire every day and 50-calibre bullets are not normal ammunition," Zuheir said. "Those bullets go right through cinder-blocks and we had to close the school in case bullets came inside."

Bilal and Hilal Salah had four brothers and five sisters; Zuheir, like their dead father, was a labourer, but the two had invested their money in a small café which they opened just six months ago. Only two days before their deaths, they had put up the nameplate on their café, the "Flowered Traffic Circle Restaurant". The family had already printed up a set of postcard portraits of the dead brothers, their heads surrounded by hand-written Koranic inscriptions and the insignia of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.

Zuheir spoke in a whisper, as if frightened of disturbing the other mourners. "They were always together. They even slept in the same room. Yes, they threw stones at the soldiers, but not often. They did everything together. And they died together. Our family is well known here – in the village, our family is beloved." He used the word "beloved" – mahboubim in Arabic – rather than "respect'.

Down on that fatal road, the villagers had lit tyres in protest at the killings but by late afternoon the black smoke had drifted off over the stony fields, leaving coils of rusting wire on the burnt tarmac.

All around Yabad were the same pathetic signs of opposition to “Israel’s” occupation. High up on the hills around the village, the red roofs of Jewish settlements, built illegally under international law, glowed in the afternoon sun, the hum of army-escorted convoys throbbing along the settlers' roads.

As Zuheir tells it, the “Israelis” regularly fire their machine gun each day – even if they are confronted with no more than abuse – but the road below the embankment must make a tempting target for the stones, which litter the rubbish tip.

A settlers' convoy passed us later, headlights ablaze, family cars and armoured buses sandwiched between armytrucks. If they heard shooting on Sunday, it's unlikely they knew who died. No “Israeli” soldier entered Yabad afterwards; the villagers were left to lower Bilal and Hilal Salah into the soft earth of the cemetery above their home, and to set plastic chairs in the family's little garden for the mourners.

Iran underscores its support for Syria and Lebanon…(10)

The Islamic Republic of Iran reiterated its support for the Lebanese government, people and resistance. Iran also showed its willingness to coordinate with Lebanon in every domain especially on the political and economic level.

Iran's position was conveyed by the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon Mohammed Ali Subhani, who visited Premier Rafik Hariri to congratulate him for his appointment as prime minister.

Subhani said that the assistant of the Iranian Minister of Foreign affairs Mohammed Sader, who began a visit to Syria, will meet Thursday Lebanese officials to discuss issues concerning the permanent coordination between Lebanon and Syria and to assert the Iranian support to these two countries.

Subhani had a briefing from Hariri on the latter's meeting with the German Chancellor Gerhard Shroeder that tackled, among other topics, the Palestinian issues.

Syria denounces “Israeli” threats…(11)

“Syria has denounced “Israel” for holding Damascus responsible for Hizbollah activities in southern Lebanon. It accused “Israel” of planning a "dangerous escalation of violence" in the region. The official al-Baath newspaper said while Prime Minister Ehud Barak called for peace, “Israeli” officials escalated their threats against Syria and Lebanon. “Israeli” Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh warned “Israel” will respond swiftly and fiercely to any cross-border attacks in south Lebanon. He said Syria will quote be the address of “Israel’s” response. UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon, along with Hizbollah and Palestinian groups in the region, have been denying “Israeli” allegations of cross-border shooting incidents. 

The death of a 'Zionist' - Abed al Aziz Abu Sneineh…(12)

An “Israel” Defense (War) Forces spokesman announces every day that there has been shooting by Palestinians in Hebron and that the IDF has returned fire at the source of the shooting.On October 23, Abd al Aziz Abu Sneineh, 60, a resident of Hebron (in the area under Palestinian control) was killed in his home. His son Harbi relates the circumstances in which his father was killed: "My mother had just returned from a visit to Amman, and the whole family had gathered at my parents' house to be together. We are five sons and six daughters. Some of us were sitting around and chatting, when we began to hear firing. On the hill opposite - about two kilometers away as the crow flies, right across from us - the IDF had taken over the Ussama School and, they say, had positioned tanks and machine guns there.
"We went out into the eastern room to look out the window to see what was happening, and we found that the wall was pocked with bullets. A bullet had gone through one of the walls, through a second wall, penetrated the refrigerator, went straight through it, made a hole in it and landed in the wall opposite. Father hastened to gather us all up and asked to hurry into the kitchen, on the other side of the house.
"Meanwhile, my brother went out to get his children, who were outside. He had just gone out onto the path that separates the two houses, and dozens of bullets were fired in his direction - night became day - they illuminated the path so brightly. Another brother lives in the house next door. One of the bullets that was fired hit a cupboard just as my pregnant wife was standing by the door of that cupboard. We sat in our parents' house and waited for the shooting to stop. All of a sudden the phone rang. Father insisted on going to answer it - people were worrying and calling because they heard there was shooting. The telephone is in the living room, the eastern room of the house. He went out. At some point the electricity went off. And the telephone rang and rang. We realized that something had happened. We sent our sister who has vision problems: She does not see well in the light but she sees very well in the dark. She crawled along the floor on all fours so as not to get hit by the bullets, which the soldiers were still firing.
"She told us how she crawled until she felt that her hands had sunk into a puddle of blood, and she saw our father lying on the floor. She crawled back to tell us, saying only that he had been hit, and we, the sons, crawled out toward him. We lit our cigarette lighters, to see what had happened. I saw that he had been hit in the head, badly, a hole near his ear, and his brain was spilling right out of it. We knew immediately that there was no point in calling a doctor."
"About an hour later an ambulance came to take the body away. It managed to arrive only because of the intervention of a relative of ours, who has a position in the Palestinian Authority. But because of the shooting the ambulance could not drive right up to the door. We put our father on a stretcher and took him out to the ambulance. It was not possible to bury our father in the cemetery in the Old City, because of the curfew.
"We have had business dealings with Jews for over 30 years. We buy meat in “Israel”. Our business partners wanted to come pay a condolence visit - we visited them when their father died. But we told them that they shouldn't come."
The IDF spokesman has not reported the IDF version of why it fired in the direction of Abu Sneineh's home. The family denies the possibility that shots had been fired from the house. Scores of people continue to visit the home every day, even though the three days of official mourning are over. People come and count the number of bullet holes: the smashed window panes,the punctured refrigerator, the blood that splashed on the ceiling, the big holes gaping in the walls. Harbi holds out all the kinds of bullets that were found: an artillery shell, and a bullet with a corolla that opens out when it hits a hard object, and more. Other houses in Hebron have been hit by similar bullets, though those incidents did not, fortunately for the inhabitants of those houses, end in deadly hits.
In many houses, particularly those that are in a range between a number of IDF positions, people barricade themselves in their homes behind sheets of wood and plywood, in the hope that these will block the bullets. Every night ten people and more crowd into the room that is considered most distant from the range of the bullets, but they are so powerful that they penetrate a number of walls.
From the evening hours on, no lights are turned on in the houses, for fear that the light will attract bullets. Palestinians in Hebron do not deny that there are armed people who open fire. But they note two facts: In most of the shooting incidents there are no “Israeli” wounded, and the IDF is using far more powerful weapons than those that are being used by the Palestinians. In this context the Red Cross has issued a press release to remind both sides to respect the use of proportional force.
At a taxi stand in Hebron, one of the drivers said: "We used to call Abu Sneineh the Zionist here, because he tried to disperse children who were throwing stones during the (first) Intifada. He didn't like problems."
The son confirms this, without adopting the epithet "Zionist:" "If armed people approached, my father would always send them away, saying there are children here, you can't shoot here. All these years he worked with Jews. Why do we deserve this?

Footnotes:

1-       The Daily Star, 1-11-2000.

2-       AFP, 31-10-2000.

3-       Jerusalem Post, 1-11-2000.

4-       The Daily Star, 1-11-2000.

5-       Same source.

6-       Manar TV, 31-10-2000.

7-       The Daily Star, 1-11-2000.

8-       AFP, 31-10-2000.

9-       Independent, 31-10-2000.

10-    Manar TV, 31-10-2000.

11-    Future TV, 31-10-2000.

12-    Haaretz, 1-11-2000.

* This term is absolutely unacceptable. "Israel's" Army is that of war and aggression for it protects land gained by force, confiscation and war in contradiction with the simplest rights of human confessed by the international laws and conventions. (IDF)

** It is an "Israeli" nomination we absolutely reject for it contradicts with Lebanon's independence and sovereignty. This army is not but an "Israeli" agent working for realizing "Israel's" goals in Lebanon. (SLA)