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Israel accuses Lebanon of violating UN Resolution 1701
Jul. 14, 2009
Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST
Israel accused Lebanon of violating United Nations Security Council Resolution
1701 on Tuesday after a Hizbullah arms cache hidden inside a southern Lebanese
town accidentally exploded.
The blast occurred inside the village of Hirbet Selm, some 20 kilometers north
of the Israel-Lebanon border, south of the Litani River and within the area
which falls under the mandate of the UNIFIL multi-national force.
According to Israeli defense officials, the cache was hidden in a storehouse
inside the village and contained dozens of 122mm Katyusha rockets as well as
high-powered machine guns. Some of the rockets reportedly flew into the sky.
Contrary to Lebanese media reports which claimed that the cache was hidden in
the village before the Second Lebanon War in 2006, the Israeli defense
officials said that the weaponry was recently placed inside the storehouse.
"This is a major violation of resolution 1701," one official said. "The
weaponry was stored inside a village and is proof of our longstanding claim
that Hizbullah uses civilian infrastructure to hide its weaponry."
According to Lebanese media reports, the Lebanese Armed Forces and UNIFIL
sealed off the area surrounding the storehouse. The two reportedly announced
plans to launch an investigation into the incident.
Last week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the fragile relationship
between Israel and Lebanon was threatened by allegations of Israeli spy cells
operating in Lebanon, and by Israeli concerns that Lebanese "militias" are
operating outside of state control and that Hizbullah has been deployed to
southern Lebanon.
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