26 July 2006
Israel's United Nations (UN) ambassador says he is "shocked" by accusations from UN chief Kofi Annan that the Jewish state may have deliberately targeted a UN post in Lebanon in an air raid.
Four UN military observers have died in the strike on the post in the border town of Khiam.
Mr Annan describes the strike as a "coordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long-established and clearly marked UN post".
But Israeli ambassador Dan Gillerman says the secretary-general has judged the incident too soon.
"I was shocked and deeply distressed by the hasty statement by the secretary-general insinuating that Israel has deliberately targeted the UN post at Khiam and surprised at these premature and erroneous assertions," he told BBC World Service.
"The secretary-general, while demanding an investigation, has already issued his conclusions.
"Israel is carrying out a thorough inquiry into this tragic incident and we will inform the UN of its results as soon as possible."
Israel's Foreign Ministry has expressed its "deep regret" over the deaths of the UN observers.
"The ministry expresses its deep regret for the tragic death of the staff of the United Nations in Lebanon," a communique said.
"Israel does not target UN staff, and since the beginning of the conflict Israel has deployed all its efforts to ensure the safety of those staff in the region."
Hezbollah fights on
Israel has launched a series of air strikes and ground attacks in Lebanon since Hezbollah captured two of its soldiers in a cross-border raid 14 days ago.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has today vowed that his guerrillas will fire rockets on Israel beyond the northern city of Haifa and counter Israeli military advances inside southern Lebanon.
"We are entering a new phase in the confrontation, the phase of (striking) beyond Haifa," Mr Nasrallah said.
Israel has repeatedly said it believes Hezbollah has longer-range rockets capable of reaching beyond Israel's third city, as far as the commercial capital Tel Aviv, or even the southern city of Beersheva.
Mr Nasrallah denies that the southern border town of Bint Jbeil has fallen.
A UN spokesman earlier said Israeli troops entered the town where they were engaged in clashes with Hezbollah
"They do not control Bint Jbeil. All the city of Bint Jbeil is still in the hands of the resistance," he said.
Mr Nasrallah says Hezbollah is "not a classical army and will wage guerrilla wars" against Israeli advances inside southern Lebanon "which will not halt bombardments on the settlements" or northern Israeli towns.
"There will be no limits to our bombardments," he said.
He is calling for "further steadfastness and unity on these decisive days."
Diplomatic efforts
Mr Nasrallah says all the delegations which flocked to Lebanon in the past week "only brought American-Zionist diktats ... they did not bring solutions or settlements".
"We do not accept humiliating conditions but we are open to political discussions," he said.
After UN and European Union delegations, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit in Beirut on Monday.
She reportedly presented a cease-fire plan stipulating the deployment of an international force, possibly led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in a buffer zone inside Lebanon for 60 to 90 days.
But Dr Rice's cease-fire plan was rejected by Lebanese parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri, who is acting as an intermediary for the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group, because it did not include a prisoner swap with Israel.
- AFP
