04 September 2008

Israel murders Belgian peacekeeper and terrorises Lebanon

"A Belgian peacekeeper was killed on Wednesday while clearing cluster bombs that Israel dropped on southern Lebanon during its 2006 war with Hezbollah guerrillas, witnesses said."

The chief of public information for UNIFIL, Neeraj Singh, confirmed that a peacekeeper had died but would not disclose his nationality.

"A member of a UNIFIL explosive ordnance disposal team died from an explosion around midday today while carrying out an unexploded ordnance clearance recce mission in the vicinity of Aitaroun," he told Reuters.

An investigation was under way, he said.

Cluster bombs are fired from the air or ground in canisters which burst to release the bomblets.

The United Nations Mine Action Coordination Centre says Israel dropped a "few million" cluster bombs on Lebanon. Hundreds of thousands of the bomblets failed to explode. "

Meanwhile, Israeli war planes have been terrorising Lebanese citizens in a continuation of a policy they used to inflict state terrorism on Gaza, where, according to the Guardian, Israeli 'Intelligence' have admitted
that "the tactic is intended to break civilian support for armed Palestinian groups...The UN Palestinian refugee agency said a majority of the patients seen at its clinics as a result of the sonic booms were under 16 and suffering from symptoms such as anxiety attacks, bedwetting, muscle spasms, temporary loss of hearing and breathing difficulties."

It has also caused women to miscarry: "the number of miscarriages had increased by 40%, according to Jumaa Saqqa, a surgeon and hospital spokesman. "There were no other symptoms and the rise happened after the sonic booms. We can see no other explanation. The number of patients admitted to the cardiac care unit doubled. Some of them proved to have suffered serious harm."

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel have in the past stated that, according to international law, "the booms are collective punishment against the civilian population and thus illegal.

The Israeli state is a criminal enterprise.

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