War Is Deceit Update: Fouad Siniora originally said 40 civilians were killed. Now he says that only one was. How long have Muslim spokesmen been making statements like this and have not been forced by events to retract them? “Lebanese PM now says 1 killed in strike,” from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
BEIRUT, Lebanon – Lebanon’s prime minister said Monday that one person had been killed in an Israeli air raid on the southern village of Houla, lowering the death toll from 40. Meanwhile, in northern Israel, scores of Hezbollah rockets wounded five people, rescue workers said.
Both sides appeared to take advantage of the days before a cease-fire resolution, formulated by the U.S. and France, is put to a vote in the
U.N. Security Council.Prime Minister Fuad Saniora repeatedly broke into tears as he disclosed the latest attack during opening remarks at a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Beirut. He appealed to fellow Arab states to help a nation “stunned” by a nearly four-week Israeli onslaught that has devastated Lebanon’s infrastructure and left hundreds of civilians dead.
Saniora said the attack occurred in the southern village of Houla, where heavy ground fighting between Hezbollah guerrillas and Israel has been raging in recent days. The Israeli army said it is checking the claims about Houla but repeated that residents in villages in southern Lebanon had been warned to leave.
There was no confirmation of the death toll from security officials, but witnesses said the airstrike flattened five homes in a tribal compound.
U.N. peacekeepers at a post near Houla reported Hezbollah fired rockets toward Israel twice Monday from positions near the UNIFIL base.
“An hour ago, there was a horrific massacre in the village of Houla in which more than 40 martyrs were victims of deliberate bombing,” he said. Saniora had to halt his remarks several times to choke back [crocodile] tears and wipe his eyes, and the ministers broke into supportive applause.
“If these horrific actions are not state terrorism, then what is state terrorism?” he asked, adding that Israel’s attacks have set back Lebanon by “decades.”