Truce panel condemns Beit Lif incident
Lebanon-Israel, Military, 11/28/1997

A cease-fire committee monitoring a truce in south Lebanon ended a marathon meeting Thursday with a condemnation of the Beit Lif shelling, in which nine civilians were killed.

The civilians were slaughtered Sunday when more than a dozen mortar shells landed in the Israeli-occupied village of Beit-Lif, few kilometers north of the international border with Israel.

While Israeli officials blamed Lebanese guerrillas for the killings, both Hezbollah and Amal, another Shiite Muslim guerrilla group, said the Israelis had deliberately shelled Beit Lif to implicate them.

Lebanese security sources and U.N. officials said the shelling came from north of the enclave, where guerrillas often launch attacks on the occupied zone.

The monitoring committee made up representatives from the United States, France, Israel, Syria and Lebanon, refrained from blaming any of the parties for the Beit Lif shelling.

A statement issued at the end of the meeting, however, condemned the "death of innocent civilians" and urged both parties not to carry out actions that endanger civilian lives."

The committee was formed in April 1996 following an Israeli offensive on Lebanese guerrillas in which at least 170 civilians were killed. The U.S.-brokered agreement prohibits attacks on civilians by either side of the conflict.

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