The Israeli cabinet will meet later tonight (7 August) to decide whether to increase the scale of her ground operations. This news came as Lebanon witnessed an increasingly bloody day in which fifty five people were killed as a result of Israeli attacks on the Lebanon. As the day’s bombardment drew to an end, Israel had soon enough launched a fresh wave of bombings as night covered southern Beirut killing at least ten people and wounding many others on an attack in a residential area.

The current occupation policy by Israel has resulted in fierce gun battles in the village of Houla, close to the Israeli border. A number of houses also collapsed during an air strike in the village in which two civilians were reported dead. Fighting also continued in Bint Jbail where according to the Isreali army, three Israeli soldiers and five Hizbullah fighters were killed in similar gun battles.

The siege of Tyre escalated further today as the Israelis destroyed the only bridge left in the area. It was a make-shift bridge used as a last resort by aid workers to transport food to desperate civilians after every other bridge out of the city had been completely smashed in previous air raids. Aid agencies were horrified at reports of the last remaining supply line into Tyre being destroyed and spoke of the fact they may have to supply aid by hand across Lebanon's Litani river. Thirty Israeli soldiers were reportedly involved in a raid on an apartment in Tyre resulting in the deaths of four civilians and one Lebanese soldier. 

In addition, according to the BBC seven members of a single family were killed in the southern Lebanese village of Ghazzaniyeh after Israel bombed the house they were sheltering in.

 The killing also continued in Gaza as an Isreali air strike resulted in the deaths of two people including a thirteen year-old boy. Furthermore following yesterday’s detention of the Speaker of the Palestinian parliament another parliamentarian was arrested today in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Once again the reason was his affiliation to the Hamas Government. Al Jazeera reported today that “Israel's ongoing Gaza offensive has killed at least 167 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians.”

UN Resolution

While supposedly an effort to quell the violence in the Middle East, the resolution has in turn earned harsh criticism from Arab and Muslim leaders such that the Syrian foreign minister described it as a “recipe for the continuation of the war”.

Arab league foreign ministers met with the Lebanese prime minister in Beirut to discuss the resolution and a possible ceasefire. During the meeting the Lebanese prime minister broke into tears when reports emerged that forty people were killed in Houla. This was later found to be incorrect and only one civilian was found to have been killed following the collapse of a building.

Opposition from Lebanon and Arab states has put a hold on a vote for the UN resolution. An Arab league delegation has been sent to New York in a desperate hope to put forward Lebanon’s case for the need of a timetable for Isreali troop withdrawal from the Lebanon including the disputed Sheba farms which has been illegally occupied by Israel since the previous Lebanese-Isreali war. The Arab league maintains that there can be no ceasefire while Isreali soldiers remain in the Lebanon.

Fund MPACUK today. Change foreign policy tomorrow. Donations from £5 upwards welcome. 

---