Israel has a history of killing UN peacekeepers on its border with Lebanon. In 1996 Israel killed more than 100 Lebanese civilians who had sought sanctuary inside a UN base in the town of Qana. A shell landed inside the UN perimeter in what Israel insisted was an accident. (Source: Tim Butcher, Telegraph.co.uk, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/07/27/wmid327.xml)
Other notable (deliberate) passages:
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The phone calls were made after the unarmed monitors inside the UN bunker at Khiyyam reported their position being hit around 20 times by Israeli artillery and airstrikes.
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A laser-guided munition is believed to have then dropped on the UN position, which is painted white and clearly illuminated.The four monitors inside - from Canada, Austria, Finland and China - were killed.
"The bunkers are big white things - you can see them for miles and they are lit up at night," a UN source said.
He said: "Israel knows these positions and they have had two weeks to zero in on this area, and register targets and where you don't want to hit."
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But while the death of the peacekeeper in his home angered the UN, the attack on the well-known bunker marked clearly on military maps available to Israeli forces left peacekeepers seething.
What was the motive for the Israeli deliberate attack on the UN outpost?
ReplyDeleteBusterStronghart@gmail.com
Thank you Buster for your comment/question.
ReplyDeleteMy own read of some of the articles referenced in this and a few of my other blog entries suggest that the Israeli's don't like being watched as they conduct their "activities".
There's too much evidence to suggest this was not an accident:
1) precision guided laser missles which can target with pinhead precision accuracy
2) the repeated phone calls from the UN outpost to the Israeli Army warning them
3) the clear markings on the building including lights
4) clear marking on military maps made available to the Israeli Army.