Re: Israel humiliated /Israel’s response (threads)
Re: Israel humiliated /Israel's response (threads)
Coping well?
Where is this discussion going?
Hizbiz hiding among women and children.
Israelis knocking down the doors and head quarters of Hizbiz.
Hizbi infrastructure utterly destroyed.
Hizbi areas now have thousands of refugees.
And you call it Hizbi victory.
Wow! Gone are the days when people had to truly win against their enemy.
Gone are the days when people protected their women and children.
Gone are the days when brave warriors stopped their enemy far away from their borders.
Gone are the days when the warriors truly stood their ground.
Now Hizbiz have to kill few soldiers, and victory is theirs.
Now Hizbiz hide among women and children, and victory is theirs.
Now Hizbiz lose their cities, and victory is still theirs.
Great man. this is the way to prosper and become successful in this world and hereafter.
Re: Israel humiliated /Israel's response (threads)
Proof? Evidence?
Re: Why Hizbullah can't attack Israeli soldiers just across the border
antiobl bhai, aap itna bhi nahi samazhaten hon, ke unhe Dar lagataa hain?
Re: Why Hizbullah can’t attack Israeli soldiers just across the border
Katyusha rockets in small bombardments are extremely ineffective against soldiers. Soldiers dig in, which protects them against shrapnel. Katyushas are useless against mechanised infantry like Israel’s troops, since armoured personel carrier protect against shrapnel.
It is hard enough to hit a building with a Katyusha; trying to hit an APC or a trench would be even more futile.
The only effective way to use Katyushas in en masse, which would deplete Hezbollah’s stocks in a day or two and leave them with no way to put pressure on Israel; and no way to respond to Israeli bombardments of population centres.
The first urban area to be attacked in this conflict was Beirut; Hezbollah used their rockets in response.
Re: Israel humiliated /Israel’s response (threads)
News report video from ITV of Israeli terrorists attacking an ambulance.
Waiting for justifications from the Israeli slave dogs on this forum.
Re: Israel humiliated /Israel’s response (threads)
hell man!!! what a load of bullsh*t from tht jewish general
NOTE: no swearing!
Re: Why Hizbullah can't attack Israeli soldiers just across the border
So are the knives.
Why to get the weapons who are duds where it really counts? May be another example of tribal-style pathetic planning!
Re: Why Hizbullah can’t attack Israeli soldiers just across the border
tribal this, tribal that. you are getting boring, now. come up with something new to entertain me.
Re: Israel humiliated /Israel’s response (threads)
Israel has killed more than 400 civilians in Lebanon - a fact recognized by the rest of the world, but people are still making excuses.
Re: Israel humiliated /Israel's response (threads)
Israeli terror cabinet just okayed NOT to expand (ground) military operations in Lebanon for now at least...
Re: Israel humiliated /Israel's response (threads)
Red Cross takes fire
Craig Nelson - For the Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Tyre, Lebanon --- Kasem Chaalan had an inkling something bad would happen.
Chaalan, 28, was hurrying out of the headquarters of the local chapter of the Lebanese Red Cross late Sunday evening to pick up some wounded. As he rushed toward the door, he asked his colleagues lounging in the office in this southern Lebanese town to forgive him for any wrongs he may have done them.
It was the first time in 13 years of volunteering for the Red Cross that he had ever uttered such words.
"I don't know why I said it," he recalled Monday, hours after Israeli rockets hit his ambulance and another vehicle, wounding him and eight others.
In its effort to weaken the Islamic Hezbollah militia, prevent its rockets from raining on Israeli towns and secure the return of two captured Israeli soldiers, Israel has kept up an assault on southern Lebanon with airstrikes, artillery and a swelling ground offensive.
Across what have become some of the most perilous stretches of road in the world, Chaalan and other Red Cross volunteers venture into the combat zone. The Lebanese Red Cross is one of the few organizations in southern Lebanon working to evacuate the wounded and civilians under fire.
Late Sunday, Chaalan and two other volunteers drove their ambulance 10 miles southeast to the town of Qana, where they met another Red Cross ambulance from the village of Tebnine. It was carrying three wounded people in need of medical care in the better-equipped hospitals to the north.
Shortly after the three wounded Lebanese were lifted from one ambulance to the other, the red cross atop each converted white Toyota van became a bull's-eye.
Chaalan and his crew loaded the three wounded into their ambulance. As he closed the vehicle's rear door, an Israeli rocket hurtled through the roof of the ambulance.
Thrown to the ground and blinded briefly by the blast, Chaalan shouted to the crew of the second ambulance to call headquarters. The call went out: "Ambulance 777 has been targeted." Within seconds, an Israeli missile tore through the roof of the second ambulance.
For the next 90 minutes, while requests for clearances were transmitted to Israeli authorities through Beirut and the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Swiss city of Geneva, the three-man crews of each ambulance looked after each other and the three wounded people until help arrived.
Fuller explanation sought
Late Monday, one of the wounded --- 40-year-old Ahmed Mustafa Farwaz --- lay in a coma in a Jabel Amel Hospital in Tyre with his right leg amputated and his left leg fractured. His son Mohammed Farwaz, 14, was in serious condition with shrapnel wounds in his abdomen. The third wounded person, who was unidentified, was transferred in critical condition north to a hospital in Sidon. The Red Cross workers suffered light injuries.
"The incident in which vehicles were hit last night occurred in an area known to be one of the main sources of the launching of hundreds of missiles," an Israeli army spokesman said Monday in a statement. Civilians had been warned with leaflets and by radio broadcasts to leave the area, the statement said, and Israel blamed Hezbollah for placing civilians in the area at risk.
The Red Cross asked Israel for a fuller explanation.
"The ICRC is gravely concerned about the safety of medical staff," Balthasar Staehelin, the organization's delegate-general for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement. "We have raised this issue with the Israeli authorities and urged them to take the measures needed to avoid such incidents in the future."
In Sunday's incident, both Red Cross ambulances were plainly marked. Each vehicle was flashing a blue emergency light and displayed a Red Cross flag that was illuminated, Chaalan said.
Israel blames Hezbollah
In the past, Israeli authorities have alleged that ambulances were used by Palestinian militants in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to transport weapons and personnel.
Israel has often boasted of the pinpoint accuracy of its air attacks, and denies that it is targeting civilians. Civilians are harmed, Israeli officials say, because Hezbollah operates in populated areas.
Nursing a wide bandage that covered three stitches in the cleft of his chin, Chaalan, who when he is not volunteering for the Red Cross defuses land mines in southern Lebanon for a British aid group, refused to say whether he thought the attack on the ambulances was deliberate.
However, Ali Deeb, a spokesman for the local Red Cross chapter, said the possibility that two rockets fired into identical locations in the roofs of two ambulances were a coincidence or an accident was "zero."
As he spoke, nearby against the low-slung wall of the Red Cross compound was the discarded equipment of a rescue mission gone horribly wrong --- two stretchers, covered in blood and partially scorched and melted from the heat of the missile blast and a Red Cross helmet scarred with shrapnel.
Next to them was a line of parked Red Cross vehicles. They were unlikely to be used anytime soon in a war that continues to rage in the countryside around this southern Lebanese city. Due to the danger of the roads to the south and east of Tyre, all are now barred from going outside the city limits to retrieve the wounded. Staff writer Don Melvin ([email protected]) contributed to this article from Jerusalem.
Re: Israel humiliated /Israel’s response (threads)
Israel using cluster munitions in Lebanon: rights group
Mon Jul 24, 6:12 PM ET
Human Rights Watch said that Israel has used artillery-fired cluster munitions in Lebanon, killing a civilian, and called on the Jewish state to immediately cease the practice.
The New York-based rights group said researchers on the ground in Lebanon confirmed that Israel staged a cluster munitions attack on the village of Blida on July 19, leaving one person dead and injuring 12 civilians, including seven children.
The report said researchers had also photographed cluster munitions in the arsenal of Israeli artillery teams stationed at the Lebanese border.
“Cluster munitions are unacceptably inaccurate and unreliable weapons when used around civilians,” Kenneth Roth, executive directory of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “They should never be used in populated areas.”
Researchers interviewed witnesses of the Blida attack who said Israelis had fired shells which dropped hundreds of cluster munitions on the village.
Cluster munitions are particularly dangerous because they have a high level of duds that can explode much later after the attack.
Human Rights Watch said the US use of cluster munitions was the leading cause of civilian deaths during the invasion of Iraq in March-April 2003, killing or injuring more than 1,000 Iraqi non-combatants.
Belgium became the first country to ban use of cluster munitions in February 2006, followed by a moratorium declared by Norway four months later, Human Rights Watch said, noting there was a growing international movement against their use.
Last week, Human Rights Watch said Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel with imprecise rockets in civilian areas violated international humanitarian law and most likely constituted “war crimes.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060724/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictlebanon_060724205820
Re: Israel humiliated /Israel’s response (threads)
Lebanon president says Israel uses phosphorous arms
24 Jul 2006 14:16:57 GMT
Source: Reuters
PARIS, July 24 (Reuters) - Lebanon’s president accused Israel on Monday of using phosphorous bombs in its 13-day offensive and urged the United Nations to demand an immediate ceasefire.
“According to the Geneva Convention, when they use phosphorous bombs and laser bombs, is that allowed against civilians and children?” President Emile Lahoud asked on France’s RFI radio.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said arms used in Lebanon did not contravene international norms.
“Everything the Israeli Defence Forces are using is legitimate,” the spokeswoman said.
Lahoud gave no details but said the United Nations had to take concrete action to force Israel to stop its assault.
“The massacre must be stopped as soon as possible. Afterwards we can talk about everything,” he said. “A decision has to be taken so that there is an immediate ceasefire.”
Lahoud’s comments came as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Beirut to seek a “sustainable” ceasefire in Lebanon.
The conflict, triggered when Hizbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers, has killed at least 373 in Lebanon as well as 37 Israelis and displaced half a million people in Lebanon.
Video of Lebanese phosphourous weapons victim of Israeli terrorists:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/VIDEO__Lebanese_Doctor_Says_Phosphorus_0724.html
Re: Israel humiliated /Israel's response (threads)
What geneva convention? Israel doesn't pay attention to its father (UN and its resolutions) what good is Geneva?
Re: Israel humiliated /Israel's response (threads)
Israeli terrorists must be tried for war crimes...but arabs have to be victorious first...
Re: Israel humiliated /Israel's response (threads)
This is not our war
By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN
My country has been ''torn to shreds,'' said Fouad Siniora, the prime minister of Lebanon, as the death toll among his people passed 300 civilian dead, 1,000 wounded, with half a million homeless.
Israel must pay for the ''barbaric destruction,'' said Siniora.
To the contrary, says columnist Lawrence Kudlow, Israel is doing the Lord's work.''countering this act of aggression by Iran with a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. Why wait?''
On American TV, former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says the ruination of Lebanon is Hezbollah's doing. But is it Hezbollah that is using U.S.-built F-16s, with precision-guided bombs and 155-mm artillery pieces to wreak death and devastation on Lebanon?
No, Israel is doing this, with the blessing and without a peep of protest from President Bush. And we wonder why they hate us.
**U.S. has not been attacked**
''Today, we are all Israelis!'' brayed Ken Mehlman of the Republican National Committee to a gathering of Christians United for Israel.
One wonders if these Christians care about what is happening to our Christian brethren in Lebanon and Gaza, who have had all power cut off by Israeli air strikes, an outlawed form of collective punishment that has left them with no sanitation, rotting food, impure water and days without light or electricity in the horrible heat of July.
When summer power outrages occur in America, it means a rising rate of death among our sick and elderly, and women and infants. One can only imagine what a hell it must be today in Gaza City and Beirut.
But all this carnage and destruction has only piqued the blood lust of the hairy-chested warriors at The Weekly Standard. In a signed editorial, *It's Our War*, William Kristol calls for America to play its rightful role in this war by
''Why wait?'' Well, one reason is that the United States has not been attacked. A second is a small thing called the Constitution. Where does President Bush get the authority to launch a war on Iran? When did Congress declare war or authorize a war on Iran?
Answer: It never did. But these neoconservatives care no more about the Constitution than they cared about the truth when they lied into war in Iraq.
Dead or hostages
''Why wait?'' How about thinking of the fate of those 25,000 Americans in Lebanon if we launch an unprovoked war on Iran. How many would wind up dead or hostages of Hezbollah, if Iran gave the order to retaliate for the slaughter of their citizens by U.S. bombs? What would happen to the 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, if Shiites and Iranian ''volunteers'' joined forces to exact revenge on our soldiers?
What about America? Richard Armitage, who did four tours in Nam and knows a bit about war, says that, in its ability to attack Western targets, al Qaeda is the B team, Hezbollah the A Team. If Bush bombs Iran, what prevents Hezbollah from launching retaliatory attacks inside the United States?
None of this is written in defense of Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran.
But none of them has attacked our country, nor has Syria, whom Bush I made an ally in the Gulf War, and to whom the most decorated soldier in Israeli history, Ehud Barak, offered 99 percent of the Golan Heights. If Nixon, Bush I and Clinton could deal with Hafez al-Assad, a tougher customer than son Bashar, what is the matter with George W. Bush?
The last superpower is impotent in this war because we have allowed Israel to dictate to whom we may and may not talk. Thus, Bush winds up cussing in frustration in St. Petersburg that somebody should tell the Syrians to stop it. Why not pick up the phone, Mr. President?
What is Kristol's moral and legal ground for a war on Iran? It is the ''Iranian act of aggression'' against Israel and that Iran is on the road to nuclear weapons, and we can't have that.
The constitutional way
But there is no evidence Iran has any tighter control over Hezbollah than we have over Israel, whose response to the capture of two soldiers had all the spontaneity of the Schlieffen Plan. And, again, Hezbollah attacked Israel, not us. And there is no solid proof Iran is in violation of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, which it has signed, but Israel refuses to sign.
If Iran's nuclear program justifies war, why cannot the neocons make that case in the constitutional way, instead of prodding Bush to launch a Pearl Harbor attack? Do they fear they have no credibility left after pushing Bush into this bloody quagmire in Iraq that has cost almost 2,600 dead and 18,000 wounded Americans?
No, Kenny boy, we are not ''all Israelis.'' Some of us still think of ourselves as Americans, first, last, and always. And, no, Mr. Kristol, this is not ''our war.'' It's your war.
Re: Israel humiliated /Israel’s response (threads)
A Mission Unaccomplished
Washington has become partisan, deaf to Arab views. It has lost much (if not most) of its leverage in alienated Arab capitals.
By Gilles Kepel
Newsweek International
July 31, 2006 issue - The war unfolding in the Middle East marks a new era. For Israel and the Palestinians, it is the end of any prospect for peace. For Israel and Hizbullah, it is the beginning of a death struggle. For newly reborn Lebanon, led by a West-leaning government that sprang from last year’s anti-Syrian Cedar Revolution, it’s a loss beyond calculation. And for the United States, it’s the last gasp of a cosmically naive pipe dream. A Middle East Pax Americana, topped by a friendly post-Saddam Iraq with democracies popping up like mushrooms across a once autocratic landscape? What rubbish. The United States is now bogged down, Israel is under threat, Lebanon is collapsing, Iraq is on the verge of civil war and Iran is fanning the flames across the region while pursuing its nuclear policy and calling for Israel to be wiped off the map. And in those unfortunate places where elections have indeed been held, Islamists swept the ballots, surfing on popular resentment against America, Israel and the West. One ponders the reasons for such a total mess. In the Middle East, at least, President George W. Bush has indeed accomplished what he promised—a clean break with the policies of his predecessors. After 9/11, the Decider concluded there was precious little to be negotiated in a part of the world that was the cradle of terrorism. Only shock and awe could accomplish anything and restore the credibility and global standing of a wounded superpower. Today, precious little remains of either.
The Iraqi quagmire is only Exhibit A. Washington has lost much (if not most) of its leverage in alienated Arab capitals—chiefly because neither Arab leaders nor populations at large see any longer the faintest sign of American evenhandedness. Since coming to power, the Bush administration has jettisoned the traditional U.S. role of (relatively) honest broker. It has become partisan, deaf to Arab views. It refuses almost completely to mitigate Israeli excesses, while the region slips further into chaos.
A delusional machismo still grips Washington. Taking office, top Bush officials treated the Middle East as their hero of yesteryear, Ronald Reagan, dealt with the former Soviet Union—hard-line, uncompromising, militant. Yes, the U.S.S.R. collapsed, but along the way Reagan discovered the virtues of dialogue and partnership with Mikhail Gorbachev. That hasn’t happened today, in Iraq or elsewhere. Instead, America cleaves to the style of unilateralism that got it into such trouble in the first place.
Remember the giant Saddam statue pulled down in central Baghdad by a U.S. Army tank, recalling the toppling of similar statues of Stalin and Lenin? It signaled the welcome end of a bloodthirsty dictatorship—but not the beginning of democracy, or even a viable society, as in Eastern Europe or Russia. Why? Baghdad is no Berlin, first of all. There is no centralized power structure in the Middle East, the breakdown of which would allow for civil society to flourish among its ruins. Rather than seeking to co-opt Iraq’s Sunnis after the invasion, Washington mounted an intense de-Baathification effort. But with a strong constituency and networks reaching out to powerful tribes extending into the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula, the Sunnis were uncowed and launched their now nightmarish insurgency. Had the United States been more sensitive to their interests from the outset, the situation on the ground might today be different.
A similar unilateralism characterizes Israel’s policy, and by extension America’s. In retribution for the Al Aqsa *inti-fada, *Ariel Sharon all but destroyed the Palestinian Authority—with the Bush administration’s blessing. He built a wall, withdrew from Gaza and expected the Palestinians to accept what was given. As a result, a weakened Mahmoud Abbas could obtain no political credit. By contrast, the militant Hamas did, claiming Israel’s retreat was the product of its suicide attacks. Thus the Palestinian elections that might have brought to power a peaceful civil society became a Hamas victory—precipitating yet another round of U.S.-Israeli unilateralism. The new Hamas government has been ostracized, politically and financially, as have Palestinians in general. The ethics might have been sound, but the political cost has proved disastrous: a cornered Hamas first abducted an Israeli soldier, to be followed by Israel’s attack on Gaza, the arrest of Hamas cabinet ministers and M.P.s, Hizbullah’s abduction of two more soldiers and now the havoc we have today. Unilateralism has shattered the Middle East, and yet every turn in the crisis brings more of the same. The casualty of every war is truth. Here, that truth is that there can be no peace without partners to build it.
Kepel is chair of Middle East studies at Sciences Po in Paris. His latest book is “The War for Muslim Minds.”
Re: Israel humiliated /Israel’s response (threads)
Would cease-fire solve Hezbollah-Israel conflict?
Bush must stop Israel’s immoral war, which massacres civilians
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060725/OPINION03/607250304&SearchID=73251754542105
Lebanon, one of the most beautiful and hospitable countries in the world, has gone through unimaginable pain and suffering in the past two weeks. Israel declared this unjust and immoral war under the excuse of its two soldiers being captured by the Lebanese resistance. Lebanese forces said they took the Israeli soldiers to negotiate the release of their own captured people and 495 other hostages – Palestinian women and children who have been held a long time.
Instead, Israel started a nonstop bloody bombardment of millions of Lebanese civilians: This is clearly not a war of self-defense.
The Lebanese started firing their Katyusha rockets on northern Israel three days after the Israeli invasion or, more accurately, after three decades of Israeli occupation and aggression. Israel never left the Lebanese Shaba farmlands, and Israel was planning this war for a long time.
We don’t wish harm for either side; we just want this madness to stop.
Jan Egeland, the United Nations’ top officer visiting Beirut, was shocked by Israel’s disproportionate use of force. According to Hanady Salman, an editor at the Beirut daily, As-Safir, people are told to leave their villages and then are ruthlessly massacred.
“I very much hope that the Americans understand what’s happening to Lebanon, the destructions of the infrastructures, the death of so many children,” British Foreign Minister Kim Howells said. “If they are chasing Hezbollah, then don’t go for the entire Lebanese nation.” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour says Israel may have committed war crimes.
The world asks for an immediate cease-fire, but President Bush says it’s too early. He pays no attention to Lebanon’s prime minister, who begs for time to remove hundreds of bodies trapped under the rubble. Unfortunately, the mistakes of this administration in Lebanon are even worse than those in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Israel accuses Hezbollah of receiving $100 million a year from Iran. I don’t know if that’s true, but why is Israel getting $6 billion of U.S. tax money each year?
There was no need to create this headache for the region. Israel’s real enemy is not Hezbollah, Iran or Syria but its own arrogance. An Israeli soldier described the determination of the Lebanese forces, saying, “It’s hard to beat them. They are not afraid of anything!”
Since Bush chose to be an obstacle to peace, I’d like to ask: What happened to his “Army of Compassion”? Jesus didn’t say, “Blessed are the war makers!”
Does Bush think he is serving the interests of our country by unnecessarily creating more enemies? Or is he playing with the blood of the Lebanese and Palestinian kids to win support from the Israeli lobbies in the upcoming elections?
Bush should listen to wise people like Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former Carter national security adviser who called for talks with Hezbollah, Iran and Syria. They are not less intelligent than Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, Jordan’s King Abdullah and Saudi Arabia’s Saud al-Faisal. To resolve the conflict, listen to both parties.
Bush’s capital is America’s great civilization and international image. It’s treasonous to squander the dignity of the United States in the sight of the world. He is giving Israel five-ton laser-guided bombs to use against fleeing civilians and refugees. That is unconscionable.
The foundation of peace does not consist of bigger missiles, death and destruction but wisdom and leadership. That is what America wants from Bush.
Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi heads the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights
Re: Israel humiliated /Israel’s response (threads)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743473.html
**Wounded troops describe Bint Jbail battle as ‘hell on earth’ **
Wounded soldiers who took part in heavy combat Wednesday on the outskirts of the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbail recounted their experiences from their hospital beds at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center, which received 22 of the wounded casualties of the battle. “They suffer mostly from shrapnel and also from penetration of bullets,” said Dr. Micky Hilbertal, who runs the emergency room where the soldiers are hospitalized. “Most of the injuries are in the limbs, a few of them are in the chest and stomach.” Hilbertal said the most similar experience he can recall when he was required to treat this many wounded was during the first Lebanon war. “[Back then], helicopters landed here almost non-stop,” he said, noting that Rambam is working in full emergency mode. The wounded soldiers described the battle as a bitter one which took place in a built-up setting, one where enemy forces had organized a well-planned ambush. Soldiers faced gunfire from any and all directions. “They shot at us from 180 degrees,” said one of the soldiers. Most of the dead and seriously wounded are those from the initial wave of ground troops which tried to enter one of the homes in Bint Jbail. The soldiers who suffered light wounds are primarily those who arrived on the scene to retrieve the bodies of the dead and wounded soldiers lying in the battlefield.
Some of the wounded were in an open field and others behind walls as well as inside homes. Sergeant Tzachi Duda suffered light injuries in his leg due to shrapnel. “The battle began at 3:30 at night,” he said. “Ten minutes after the first clash, we arrived to help. There was heavy fire from rocket launchers, missiles, rocket-propelled grenades. I provided cover fire for soldiers who tried to reach the wounded, and this went on for hours. Eventually, a missile hit the yard where I was standing. I was thrown back along with the wall which I was hiding behind. In my lifetime I never expected to see bodies and people with bullets in their chest.” Sergeant Ohed Shalom was wounded while attempting to recover a soldier’s body which was lying behind a steel door. “We tried to go in and break through the door but we didn’t succeed,” he said. “When I shot at the door, they saw me and shot in my direction.” Shalom, who sustained shrapnel wounds to his leg, said the soldiers did all in their power to prevent Hezbollah gunmen from reaching their comrades’ bodies. The soldiers also recounted feats of heroism displayed by their friends. “They carried soldiers on stretchers while simultaneously shooting at terrorists,” Shalom said. “It was hell on earth,” Corporal Lior Sharabi said. “People risked their lives not only for the wounded but also for the dead bodies.”
Sharabi added that Hezbollah fighters demonstrated impressive combat capabilities. “They are strong fighters, not like us, but better than Hamas,” he said. One of Hezbollah’s most troublesome position from which it fired upon soldiers was the towering mosque in the village. “There were maybe 30 terrorists [in the mosque],” Shalom said. Staff Sergeant Avraham Dajan was hit in his arm by shrapnel. “They fired from all directions, we tried to get to the wounded,” he said. “As I was about to throw a grenade, I got hit by shrapnel. After I was hurt, I couldn’t do anything. I saved myself.” Some of the wounded soldiers spoke of face-to-face clashes with Hezbollah operatives. However, none of the soldiers gave first-hand accounts of such incidents. The soldiers, who serve in the 51st battalion of the Golani infantry brigades, said their stay in Lebanon extended to three consecutive days, during which they managed very little sleep. “We lived in one of the houses and about every hour or so we would wake up out of fear that someone had entered the house,” Shalom said. “Every once in a while, we would move from house to house.” “Even after a day like this, the morale is higher,” said Ram Boneh, a 20-year-old resident of Hadera who was lightly wounded by shrapnel. “I want to go out and return to active duty.” “At 12:30, [Boneh] called and told us he was in Rambam and that we shouldn’t worry,” Boneh’s mother, Heska, said. “We came here immediately from Hadera. It’s very hard for me [to deal] with what is happening. I’m Dutch and I wasn’t educated on the army, and it’s very difficult for me to deal with the fact that he’s a fighter. But I am with him and I trust him as well as the entire army.”