Lebanese PM: 'Crime Against Humanity'
Standing in the midst of the rubble of south Beirut, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora called the Israeli bombing campaign "a crime against humanity."
Saniora toured south Beirut accompanied by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah backer. The area, a Hezbollah stronghold, bore the brunt of Israeli airstrikes during the month-long fighting between Israel and the Shiite militia.
"What we see today is an image of the crimes Israel has committed," Saniora told reporters. "There is no other description other than a criminal act that shows Israel's hatred."
"I hope the international media transmits this picture to every person in the world so that it shows this criminal act, this crime against humanity that Israel has committed in this area and every region of Lebanon," the Western-backed prime minister added.
Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr, meanwhile, said Hezbollah was committed to the U.N.-imposed cease-fire. He warned that any rocket attack against Israel would be considered an act of treason by groups collaborating to give Israel a pretext to strike.
The strong words from Murr indicated concern that factions other than Hezbollah, which he said was committed to the cease-fire, might try to draw retaliation from Israel by firing on the Jewish state.
"We consider that when the resistance (Hezbollah) is committed not to fire rockets, then any rocket that is fired from the Lebanese territory would be considered collaboration with Israel to provide a pretext (to Israel) to strike," he told a news conference at the Defense Ministry.
On Saturday, Israeli commandos raided a Hezbollah stronghold deep in Lebanon, engaging in a fierce gunbattle, and the Lebanese government threatened to halt further troop deployments in protest as the 6-day-old U.N.-brokered cease-fire was put to a critical test.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the operation a violation of the U.N. truce.
Israel said the raid launched to stop arms smuggling from Iran and Syria to the militant Shiite fighters left one Israeli officer dead and two soldiers wounded.
There were no signs of further clashes, but the flare-up underlined worries about the fragility of the cease-fire as the U.N. pleaded for nations to send troops to an international force in southern Lebanon that is to separate Israeli and Hezbollah fighters.
There's speculation that Israel hoped to kidnap a senior Hezbollah official to use as a bargaining chip to win the release of two captured Israeli soldiers, reports CBS News correspondent Robert Berger from Jerusalem.
In response, Saniora accused Israel of a "flagrant violation of the cessation of hostilities announced by the Security Council." Murr threatened to halt deployment of Lebanese troops if the United Nations did not intervene against Israel.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah is continuing to earn respect from Lebanese citizens by giving them cash for home repairs, reports CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey. Hezbollah hopes to respond to the thousands of claimants within two days.
Block by block, Hezbollah surveyors log the damage done to every property on every street, Pizzey reports. The architects and engineers who make the assessments have checklists that include details as fine as type of wood and glass damaged — a clear indication the system was all planned well in advance.
The payments, which will range from $12,000 to the hundreds of thousands — will come in U.S. dollars — much of it from Iran, Pizzey reports. It all makes for a much better reason for people to trust Hezbollah — or the UN.
In other developments:
The Israeli military said the raid was launched "to prevent and interfere with terror activity against Israel, especially the smuggling of arms from Iran and Syria to Hezbollah."
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said such incursions may continue until the Lebanese army and the U.N. peacekeeping force was in control of the Syrian border to ensure against aid and arms reaching Hezbollah.
"But in the interim, of course, we can't have a situation where endless amounts of weaponry arrive for Hezbollah, so we are forced to act in response to this violation," he said.
The White House declined to criticize the Israeli operation, noting that Israel said it acted in reaction to arms smuggling into Lebanon and that the U.N. resolution calls for the prevention of any weapons resupply for Hezbollah.
"The incident underscores the importance of quickly deploying the enhanced UNIFIL," White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said.
The broad outlines of the cease-fire called on Hezbollah to halt all military activity and for Israel to stop offensive operations. It gave Israel the right to respond if attacked. The commando raid took place far from Israeli troops in the deep south of Lebanon.
Israel did not give the name or rank of the officer who was killed in the raid. Hezbollah issued a terse statement in which it said guerrillas "ambushed" the commando force and none of the Hezbollah fighters was hurt.