By Sean Malloy
Up to half a million civilian refugees have been created by a week of Israeli bombing and shelling of southern Lebanon. More than 8000 Israeli artillery shells have indiscriminately pounded towns and villages. One hundred deaths have been counted so far, and at least 410 have been wounded in the attacks.
Israel renewed its war against Lebanon on July 25 with jet fighters striking 10 targets. Over the following days, helicopter gunships, missiles, gunboats and heavy artillery attacked 70 villages.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin vowed to make southern Lebanon "uninhabitable" if Hizbollah and other militias continued to resist Israeli control of southern Lebanon.
Rabin openly admitted that this was a deliberate war against civilians, designed to drive them from their homes. "We want to provoke an exodus from southern Lebanon towards the north in order to put pressure on the Beirut government and to hit those who collaborate with Hizbollah", said Rabin. By flooding Beirut with refugees Israel aims to pressure the Lebanese government and Syrian forces in Lebanon into suppressing the militias based in southern Lebanon.
On July 26, after one day's hostilities, Israeli forces and radio warned southern Lebanese to evacuate their homes and head north. Highlighting the threat, Israel moved tanks and personnel carriers to the Lebanese border. On July 29 they moved into Lebanon.
The huge flow of refugees threatens to create an ongoing human tragedy. Lebanon's infrastructure has barely recovered from years of civil war and foreign intervention. Divisions between different sections of the Lebanese population have not yet healed.
Hizbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — General Command (PFLP-GC) have been a thorn in the side of Israel's arbitrary "security
zone", located between the Israeli border and the Litani River in southern Lebanon. Israel created the "security zone", and the South Lebanon Army, in 1985 while withdrawing troops it had had in Lebanon since the 1982 invasion.
In the 1982 war 15,000 people died, mainly Lebanese and Palestinians. Israel first invaded southern Lebanon in 1978.
Israel asserts that Hizbollah and the PFLP-GC began the hostilities by killing seven Israeli soldiers in the "security zone". Even if true, this would not justify indiscriminate bombing and shelling of unarmed men, women and children.
In fact, Israeli forces and the militias of Hizbollah and the PFLP-GC have been involved in clashes in southern Lebanon for over a year. In 1992 Israeli forces launched 34 attacks using helicopter gunships and jets, supposedly against Hizbollah or PFLP-GC "targets" — primarily villages and towns.
Hizbollah and the PFLP-GC are politically affiliated to Iran and Syria respectively. Both countries recognise Hizbollah and PFLP-GC as legitimate organisations resisting Israeli control of southern Lebanon.
The US government is trying to blame the conflict on Hizbollah. Only after five days of intense aggression did US President Bill Clinton vaguely suggest that Israel should cease fire. "I don't think we should let Hizbollah and all these groups that don't want anything to happen in the Middle East derail the peace process", said Clinton.
Washington of course is fearful that the Israeli aggression will sink the Middle East peace talks. Secretary of state Warren Christopher said it would be "a terrible irony if all of those who are working for peace were prevented from doing so by Hizbollah and those who are opposed to the peace process".