Israeli warplanes kill 10 people, a signal to Syria?
Lebanon-Israel, Military, 5/14/1998

The April Understanding monitoring committee confirmed that Israel did bombard the towns of al-Mansouri, Jabaa and Kafer Tabnet last week where 13 Lebanese citizens were wounded.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the committee said that the Israeli bombardment violates the April Understanding. It called upon Israel and South Lebanon Army allies not to bomb inhabited areas and to honor the understanding.

Meanwhile, France has denounced the Israeli attacks against the Lebanese territories. On Wednesday, the French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said in a statement that Paris has expressed deep concern over Israeli warplanes' bombardment on Tuesday night of the Lebanese Bekaa area in which victims reported among Lebanese civilians as a result of the Israeli shelling. "The bombardment is a gross violation of Lebanon's territorial integrity and France condemns this bloody military action," she was quoted as saying.

The Lebanese daily as-Safir said that observers find in the Israeli raids on Wednesday in which ten people were killed and another 22 wounded several messages in that it is the first time since the invasion of April 1996 (Qana massacre) that Israel has targeted al-Bekaa region with such large-scale air raids. The paper noted that the Israeli raids targeted a position only a few km from the Syrian border and the highway leading to it and focused on a Palestinian organization which opposes Yasser Arafat and sides with Syria, namely Fatah, "the uprising," and that the Israeli raids did not target "Islamic resistance" positions in the south nor in the Bekaa.

The Lebanese daily added that the raids also came on the eve of the expected meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and the UN chief in New York on Friday, as Netanyahu is expected to continue pressure to amend UN resolution 425 according to Israeli conditions.

The paper indicated that the aggression following the Israeli intransigent policy and the failure of negotiations with the Palestinian authority sends signals to Syria and Lebanon of open options, especially military ones. The paper regretted that the US ambassador to Lebanon Richard Jones who described the raids as an "incident" wondered what the "Palestinians are doing in Lebanon."

Previous Stories:
  Fatah movement eulogizes four martyrs   (5/13/1998)
  Israeli shelling damages school, homes in Kafer Tabnet   (5/12/1998)
  Lebanese resistance targets Sujud, Kassaret al-Aroush   (5/11/1998)

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