Israeli military prosecutors announced on Monday that they would not press charges over the army's use of cluster bombs during the war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, actions that had been widely criticized by human rights organizations.
The announcement came as Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams met here on Monday evening for the second time since the US-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland.
Cluster bombs are not banned in warfare, but their use is criticized because they contain "bomblets" that explode over a wide area and may strike unintended targets. Bomblets that fail to explode become, in effect, land mines that can be detonated by civilians long after fighting has ended. More than 30 Lebanese are said to have been killed by munitions left behind after the monthlong war last summer.
Soon after the fighting stopped, a top UN aid official, Jan Egeland, described Israel's use of cluster bombs as "shocking" and "completely immoral," not least, he said, because most were fired in the last 72 hours of the war, when it was clear that the conflict was moving toward a resolution.
In November last year, the Israeli's army chief of staff, Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, ordered an investigation into whether the bombs had been fired according to his orders. He resigned in January amid widespread domestic criticism over the way the war was fought.
In a statement on Monday, the army said its chief investigator, Major General Gershon Hacohen, had determined that the use of the cluster bombs did not violate international law, and that "the majority of the cluster munitions were fired at open and uninhabited areas, areas from which Hezbollah forces operated and in which no civilians were present."
Hezbollah has also been accused of using cluster munitions among the 4,000 rockets it fired into Israel during the fighting.
In the US meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams, no progress was registered on substantial issues. But the two sides agreed that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would meet later this week and in early January, Israeli officials said, before US President George W. Bush arrives in the region on Jan. 8.
Both sides have pledged to fulfill their obligations under a 2003 peace plan known as the road map, which calls on Israel to halt all settlement activity, including natural growth, and on the Palestinians to act to halt all violence against Israelis.
The Palestinians had said ahead of Monday's meeting that they intended to focus on Israel's plans to continue building in settlements in areas that the Palestinians claim for their future state. After the meeting, Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator, condemned the settlement building and said that the Palestinians demanded a total construction freeze before negotiations toward a peace deal could start.
Aryeh Mekel, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said that the Palestinians had indeed raised the settlement issue and that Israeli negotiators had raised the security issue.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS