Helicopter-borne Israeli commandos raided a Hezbollah bastion yesterday in what Lebanon called a "naked violation" of the UN-backed truce that halted Israel's 34-day war with the Shiite Muslim group.
Israel said the operation in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley aimed to disrupt weapons supplies to Hezbollah from Syria and Iran. Both countries deny arming the group.
Lebanese security sources said three Hezbollah guerrillas were killed in a dawn firefight with the Israeli commandos. The Israeli army said it had suffered one dead and two wounded.
"It is a naked violation of the cessation of hostilities declared by the Security Council," Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said.
Siniora said he had protested to visiting UN envoys who would take the matter up with Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The truce came into effect last Monday.
Commandos in two vehicles unloaded from helicopters were intercepted on their way to an office of a Hezbollah leader, Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek, the Lebanese sources said. The Israelis withdrew under cover of air strikes.
"Special forces carried out an operation to disrupt terror actions against Israel with an emphasis on the transfer of munitions from Syria and Iran to Hezbollah," Israel's army said.
The raid coincided with a Lebanese army drive to tighten its grip on the border with Syria. Thousands of troops deployed to block smuggling routes yesterday, security sources said.
Nevertheless, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said continued Hezbollah arms shipments and the absence of Lebanese and international troops on the border had made the raid necessary.
"The ceasefire in Lebanon is based on UN Security Council resolution 1701 which calls for a total international arms embargo on Hezbollah," said ministry spokesman Mark Regev.
Meanwhile, 50 French military engineers disembarked at a base in Naqoura in the south, the first reinforcements since the war.
The engineers were among 200 pledged by France, which has disappointed UN and US hopes that it would form the backbone of the expanded UN force to supervise the truce, support the Lebanese army and monitor the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said yesterday that nations with military ties to Israel must not be part of the UN peacekeeping force that will police a truce along the Lebanon-Israel border.
``All that we ask for is that the countries which will send troops must not have military agreements with Israel and that troops be equal in numbers so that no country's troops dominates the other,'' Lahoud said in comments distributed by his office.
Yesterday Hezbollah began distributing cash to residents who lost their houses during Israel's month-long offensive.
"We started in Beirut's southern suburbs and then we will move to southern Lebanon," said Hezbollah official Haj Mohammed.
Families whose homes were destroyed in Beirut's southern suburbs received US$12,000 from Hezbollah officials operating out of a local school.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS