Israel's brutal offensive against the Lebanese population has entered its 14th day, with continued airstrikes and ground battles that have killed more than 400 civilians since the operations began.
A recent Israeli attack targeted a bus carrying Lebanese civilians, mostly women and children, killing three and injuring 13 others, most of them severely.
At least 600,000 Lebanese had been displaced by the offensive, and the government estimates at least billion in damage to the country's infrastructure.
Also aid groups have voiced concern over the humanitarian situation in the Lebanese territories due to the increasing difficulties aid workers are facing in trying to reach the offensive victims and provide them with the needed aid and supplies.
Most routes south from the capital had been attacked by Israeli air forces and it's become almost impossible to distribute supplies to refugee centers and hospitals.
Many analysts suggest that Israel's attacks targeting civilians and non-military installations are aimed at turning the Lebanese population against the resistance movement Hezbollah by making them pay a heavy price for the group's capture of two Israeli soldiers.
Timor Goksel, former head of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon for more than 25 years, said that Israel's plan will never deliver the intended results, for Hezbollah isn't just an organization, but part of the "fabric of Shia society".
"I spent a lot of time in the south," he says. "I've seen women down there attack Israeli tanks with knives. You're not going to turn these people against Hezbollah by making their lives miserable."
In Jabel Amel Hospital, Bassem Mteirek, a medical technician, lays tired on an empty gurney:
"We've seen more than 400 people come through this hospital in the last ten days," he said.
In another hospital room inside, Aneza Hamza, another victim of Israel's brutal onslaught, lies in bed with a head injury and a broken leg,
"What can we do," the old woman said, with a slight shrug.
Amina Shaloub and her 12-year-old son, Hussein, both victims of an Israeli air raid on a civil defense building in Tyre, Lebanon, says:
"I'm happy for my life and I'm happy for the life of my son."
"But it doesn't really matter if we live or die. Whatever [happens] is God's will."
"If they stop bombing the women and children, if they let us live in freedom," she says, "then we can live with them like family, like brothers and sisters."
And recently it's been revealed that Washington will provide Israel with "bunker-buster" bombs, designed to penetrate hardened targets or targets buried deep underground, to enforce its army.
According to the Party for Socialism and Liberation website:
"It was announced on July 21 that the Pentagon is rush-delivering 100 GBU "bunker-buster" bombs to the Israeli air force, along with 0 million in jet fuel. The Israeli air force has conducted so many bombing raids on Lebanon in its ferocious attack that it's running out of both bombs and fuel. The GBU "bunker-busters" are true weapons of mass destruction, each containing 5,000 pounds of high explosives. They are instruments of assassination.
"Washington and Tel Aviv have been united from the beginning in seeking nothing less than total victory, regardless of the cost in either lives or money. And "Washington" does not just mean the Bush administration. A grotesque resolution in full support of Israel and praising, "Israel's longstanding commitment to minimizing civilian loss," passed the House of Representatives on July 21 by a vote of 410-8, with nearly every Democrat in the body voting for the resolution."
The U.S. President George W. Bush has stressed that "Every nation has a right to defend itself," but his use of the word "every" excluded Lebanon; he was only referring to Israel, his major Middle East ally.
The Bush administration, under the influence of the neocons, and Israel, under Ehud Olmert's right-wing Kadima Party, are pursuing a barbaric strategy that is stabilizing the whole Middle East, terrorizing its populations and spreading insecurity among the region if not the entire world.
An immediate cease-fire is desperately needed at the moment; also the world major powers must unite to end the current conflict to prevent a Third World War from occurring.
Source: AlJazeera
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