The UN has decided to remove 50 unarmed observers from their posts along the Israeli-Lebanese border, moving them in with the peacekeeping force in the area, a spokesman said yesterday.
The decision came after one of the posts of the observer force, known as UNTSO, was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike earlier this week, killing four.
"These are unarmed people and this is for their protection," said Milos Struger, a spokesman for UNIFIL, the peacekeeping force whose 2,000 members have light weapons for self-defense.
UNTSO has about 50 observers in four posts along the border, two of which have already been abandoned -- the one that was destroyed at Khiam and a second near the village of Maroun al-Ras, which was abandoned after one of the observers was seriously wounded by Hezbollah gunfire on July 23, said Milos Struger, spokesman for the UNIFIL peacekeepers.
Israel meanwhile decided not to expand its battle with Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon for now, but the Cabinet authorized the army to call up 30,000 reserve soldiers in case the fighting intensified.
On Thursday, Lebanon's health minister estimated that as many as 600 civilians have been killed so far in the 16-day offensive, though the official toll stood at 382.
As US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced plans yesterday to return to the Middle East, Israeli aircraft hit 130 targets in Lebanon on Thursday and early yesterday, including a Hezbollah base in the Bekaa Valley, where long-range rockets were stored, defense forces said. Other targets included 57 Hezbollah structures, six missile launching sites and six communication facilities.
Diplomatic efforts to end the crisis were emerging on several fronts.
Rice, who was attending a regional security conference in Malaysia yesterday, said she would be back in the region following a trip to Lebanon and Israel this week, presumably to lay the groundwork for what she has called an "enduring" ceasefire.
Israeli media reported that she would land in Israel tonight and meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tomorrow.
During a meeting in Rome on Wednesday, Rice faced strong demand from European governments for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon. But she won extra time for Israel's military campaign against Hezbollah, arguing for a ceasefire that would end Hezbollah's control of southern Lebanon and diminish the influence of Syria and Iran in Lebanon's affairs.
US President George W. Bush has suggested he would support the offensive for as long as it would take to cripple Hezbollah. He also sharply condemned Iran for providing military support to the guerrillas -- a charge that Iran's foreign ministry denied yesterday.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair headed to Washington yesterday for a summit with Bush, and Blair's spokesman said the prime minister would seek a UN resolution aimed at solving the Mideast crisis.
Blair wants to step up the pace of diplomacy aimed at a ceasefire and the formation of a beefed up international force that would help control south Lebanon. Hezbollah guerrillas have long been in control of southern Lebanon, in violation of a previous UN resolution.
RSS