Lebanon leader calls damage ‘unimaginable’

300 dead, 1,000 wounded, 500,000 displaced by Israeli attacks, he says
The Associated Press

Updated: 1:55 p.m. ET July 19, 2006

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon’s prime minister said Wednesday that 300 people have been killed, 1,000 have been wounded and a half-million displaced in Israel’s week-old onslaught on Lebanon.

Speaking to a gathering of foreign ambassadors, Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said he would seek compensation from Israel for the “unimaginable losses” to the nation’s infrastructure.

He also made an urgent appeal for an end to the fighting, saying Lebanon “has been torn to shreds.”

“Is the value of human life in Lebanon less than that of the citizens of other countries?” he asked.

In a swipe at the international community, particularly the United States, which said Israel was acting in self-defense, Saniora asked: “Is this what the international community calls self defense? Is this the price we pay for aspiring to build our democratic institutions?”

“Can the international community stand by while such callous retribution by the State of Israel is inflicted on us?” he added.

“We will spare no avenue to make Israel compensate the Lebanese people for the barbaric destruction” inflicted on the country, he told the gathering, which included U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman.

First comments on casualty figures
His comments were the first casualty figure officially announced by the government since Israel began its campaign July 12 after Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers.

At the gathering, the ambassadors were shown photos of damage from the Israeli campaign, in which the international airport was hit and closed, roads bombed, bridges destroyed and various regions of the country cut off.

“Only last year, the Lebanese filled the streets with hope and with red, green and white banners shouting out: Lebanon deserves life,” he said, referring to massive anti-Syrian demonstrations that the Bush administration praised and dubbed as the “Cedars Revolution.”

“What kind of life is being offered to us now?” he said. “I will tell you what kind: a life of destruction, despair, displacement, dispossession, and death.”

“We the Lebanese want life, we have chosen life. We refuse to die. Our choice is clear. We have survived wars and destruction over the ages. We shall do so again. I sincerely hope you will not let us down,” he said.

Saniora’s hinted his government might not be able to survive. “No government can survive on the ruins of a nation,” he said.

President Bush, a close ally of Israel, has backed its right to defend itself and denounced Hezbollah as “a group of terrorists who want to stop the advance of peace.”

But he has also expressed worries the Israeli assault could cause the fall of Lebanon’s anti-Syrian government.

Flattening buildings, killing people
Warplanes earlier Wednesday flattened buildings and killed at least 20 people overnight as fighting entered its second week with the U.S. signaling it will not push Israel toward a fast cease-fire.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah showered northern Israel with rockets on Wednesday, killing two people in the mainly Arab town of Nazareth, Israeli authorities said.

The two were killed by a direct hit from a Katyusha rocket, the army said. Nazareth, in northern Israel, is revered as the hometown of Jesus and is filled with churches. It is about 19 miles from the Lebanese border.

Previous attacks during the eight days of rocket barrage have hit the nearby Jewish town of Upper Nazareth, but the latest wave was the first to hit a holy city.

More Hezbollah rockets fell on the Israeli city of Haifa and one hit an empty seafront restaurant. A few people were hurt.

'Measured' incursion into Lebanon
With diplomatic efforts stalled, Israel said Wednesday that its airstrikes had destroyed "about 50 percent" of the arsenal of Hezbollah, whose guerrillas have bombarded northern Israeli towns with rockets that have killed 13 civilians in the past eight days.

"It will take us time to destroy what is left," Brig. Gen. Alon Friedman, a senior army commander, told Israeli Army Radio.

Military officials said Israeli troops crossed the border in search of tunnels and weapons. Hezbollah claimed to have "repelled" Israeli forces near the coastal border town of Naqoura. Casualties were reported on both sides.

The Israeli Army said two soldiers had been killed and nine others were wounded, two moderately. Hezbollah officials in south Lebanon said that one guerrilla had been killed.

Reluctance for ground war
Israel, which has mainly limited itself to attacks from the air and sea, had been reluctant to send in ground troops because Hezbollah is far more familiar with the terrain and because of memories of Israel's ill-fated 18-year-occupation of south Lebanon that ended in 2000.

Israeli military officials said that, for several days, small numbers of their soldiers have going in and out of south Lebanon looking for Hezbollah bases and weapons. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not give the exact number of troops involved or their location.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, stressed the incursion was not large scale and would not last long.

"This is an operation which is very measured, very local," Gillerman told CNN. "This is no way an invasion of Lebanon. This is no way the beginning of any kind of occupation of Lebanon."

The Bush administration also has refused to yield to international calls to press Israel for a prompt end to it campaign against the Hezbollah militia.

Rice calls for “lasting value” cease-fire
Instead, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is trying to drum up support for what she called a cease-fire of “lasting value.” That is, one that would have the Lebanese army take over the south of the country where Hezbollah guerrillas have conducted a cross-border war against Israel for years.

Rice is likely to make a trip to the area this weekend, but no announcement has been made. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack would only say Wednesday that her trip would come “in the near future” and told CNN the timing would depend upon “when she thinks it’s most useful and most effective.”

British Prime Minister Tony Blair also rejected calls for Israel to declare a unilateral cease-fire, insisting Hezbollah must first free two captured Israeli soldiers and stop firing rockets.

Israel also said Wednesday it did not plan to target Hezbollah's main sponsors, Iran and Syria, during the current fighting.

"We will leave Iran to the world community, and Syria as well," Vice Premier Shimon Peres told Army Radio. "It's very important to understand that we are not instilling world order."
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