Israel made fresh threats today to wipe out Lebanon’s remaining infrastructure to deter the Hizbullah resistance. This came as the Lebanese PM once again made calls for a ceasefire and an end to the bloodshed as he reported the death toll had reached 900 with 3,000 Lebanese civilians wounded. The International Organisation for Migration announced this week that 900,000 people have been driven from their homes in southern Lebanon.

Throughout Wednesday night Israel conducted numerous raids over the Lebanon continuing its air strikes in the Bekaa valley, a Beirut suburb and the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh where the Israeli air force hit an ambulance. Air strikes also destroyed a bridge in Akkar. As the first aid supplies began to reach Tyre so the Israeli strikes resumed on this crumbling city. Three members of a family were murdered in the city of Taibeh when their house was struck by Israeli missiles. The ground invasion continued as Israeli officials claimed they had 20 villages under their control in an effort to create a “buffer zone” perhaps described more appropriately as an “occupying zone” which will later be manned by an international peace keeping force. In response to Israel’s growing aggression Hizbullah fired over 100 rockets into Israel resulting in the deaths of 12 Israelis.

Elsewhere in the region yet another Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip resulted in 8 Palestinian deaths including that of an eight year old boy as the BBC reported that “around 50 tanks, accompanied by bulldozers, pushed into an area near the Gaza-Egypt border before dawn”.

Ceasefire?

Hizbullah today offered the prospect of a ceasefire in return for the removal of all Israeli forces from Lebanese soil. This would include the Shebaa Farms, seized from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and currently illegally occupied. The land is now claimed by Lebanon with the concurrence of Syria. Ehud Olmert, however showed his willingness for Israel to remain an occupier and said the land was not up for negotiation.

While the deaths of the innocent continued all over the middle east, Blair never ceased to amaze the Muslim public as he spoke somewhat hypocritically of the problem of Iran’s support of Hizbullah while his government continues to sell weapons to Israel to kill and maim the Palestinian people. The guardian reported that “the government last year approved £22.5m worth of arms-related exports to Israel, almost twice the amount in 2004.” The findings of a cross party committee appointed to oversee whether the Government is following its own guidelines regarding the sale of arms can be seen by clicking here. WATCH THIS SPACE for an upcoming alert. We must call into account our Government for its shameful hypocrisy! 
 
What can you do?
 
MPACUK along with the majority of the British public call for an immediate unconditional ceasefire to this conflict. We need to continue lobbying our MP's and demand they call for an immediate ceasefire too. Lives are at stake in the Middle East every day, Palestinians and Lebanese civilians cannot afford to wait around whilst the UK, US and UN continue their 'talks' and 'plans'. We also call on our readers to attend the National Demonstration, fully backed by MPACUK, on the 5th August 2006 organised by the Stop the War Coalition and various other Muslim and non Muslim organisations. Let it be heard that we the British public will not be party to the war mongering of Blair and we will not accept from this Government anything less than their complete backing for an end to this conflict.
 
MPACUK's 7 Point Plan for What YOU Can Do to Stop the Israeli Aggression!
 
“The best jihad in the path of God is to speak a word of justice to an oppressive ruler.” (Sunan Abu Da'ud)

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