• Lebanon
  • August 8, 2006
  • 4 minutes read

IOF officer: Reaching Litani River won’t halt Hizbullah missile strikes on Israel

Website of the Hebrew Ma’ariv newspaper quoted Monday a number of IOF high-ranking officers as saying that in spite of the green light they were given by the political leadership to advance up to the Litani River in south Lebanon, they will unlikely venture up to that point.


Alon Friedman, commander of the IOF northern command affirmed that Hizbullah rockets will not cease hitting Israel even if the IOF troops made it and reached the Litani River as planned.


He also admitted that the IOF incursion into the Lebanese town of Eita Al-Sha’ab was hampered with Hizbullah sending more ground forces into that area, adding that his troops were encountered with intensive and unprecedented Hizbullah resistance.


Israeli military circles opined that the USA will impose a ceasefire on Israel; but local observers affirmed that if such an American move is indeed taken, then it will be at Israel’s request to save its face and image that was badly damaged under the strikes of Hizbullah fighters.


In a “funny” step, Israel shifted its compass of accusations from Syria and Iran as the main sources of Hizbullah missile arsenal, and pointed it this time towards Russia as it alleged that most of the Hizbullah lethal weapons that inflicted the bulk of casualties among IOF ranks were Russian-made RPG-29 anti-tank projectiles.


Russia apparently irked with the IOF accusations, asked Israel to substantiate its accusations.


The website further revealed that four IOF servicemen, including an officer were among the dead in battles with Hizbullah men in the Houla town near Bint Jbail city.


Hizbullah fighters were reportedly hunting more and more IOF troops, especially among the elite units, as they fight on their own land and know the terrain very well.


In a single missile strike Sunday, Hizbullah guerrillas were able to kill 12 Israeli soldiers and wound 18 others, many critically, according to Israeli accounts, in the Kfar Gilad settlement in the north.


As this develops, Israeli warplanes resumed their lethal aerial attacks against Lebanese civilians and civilian targets as Israel crossed all red lines and threatened to target Lebanese government officials as well as destroying the strategic infrastructure of Lebanon.


Knesset security committee head flees Hizbullah rockets:
Tsahi Hanegbi, head of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) security and foreign affairs committee, escaped to the United States with his family fearing Hizbullah rockets.


According to the Hebrew Yedioth Ahronoth daily newspaper, Hanegbi was “enjoying his vacation with his family while Israel is living difficult moments and a decisive war”.


The paper accused Hanegbi of using the vacation as a pretext to flee the hard circumstances engulfing the Hebrew state.


Meanwhile, Arab foreign ministers held an emergency session in the Lebanese capital Beirut to discuss situation in that Arab country after leaving it to bleed for almost a month now.


They endorsed the 7-point document of Lebanese premier Fuad Al-Seniora to end the war on Lebanon.


Israeli jetfighters hovered over Beirut and shelled a number of targets in the city’s southern suburb in clear message to the conferees that their meeting means nothing to Israel, as many observers opined.


Israeli soldiers cursing their leadership:
According to the PIC correspondent in the West Bank, nightmares of the war on Lebanon were inculcated in the hearts of the IOF servicemen as a state of hysteria was reflected on Israeli soldiers once they receive orders to serve in Lebanon as what happened with one of them stationed at a military barrier in Salfit city.


Syria, for its part, accused Israel of using internationally-banned weapons after Syrian concerned authorities examined bodies of Syrian citizens killed in an Israeli air strike in the northern Lebanese Al-Qa’a town where tens of Lebanese and Syrian farmers were massacred.