Lebanese journalist Omar Nachabe's eyewitness video of the destruction of villages in south Lebanon including Bint Jbeil. He was one of a number of journalists who entered Bint Jbeil to discover civilians still living amongst the rubble of their destroyed town.
This is evidence of Israel's scorched earth policy. Omar wants the video distributed in the hope that it will help change the British government's disgusting foreign policy.
The first clip shows Omar speaking at the Stop the War meeting about his tour. The second is the footage from Lebanon
The horror of Israel's attack on Lebanon
Lebanese journalist Omar Nachabe, who was an eyewitness to Israel's attacks in southern Lebanon, describes below the barbarity of Israel's attack on Lebanon. See a video of his speech at a packed meeting in London on 18 August ».
The 32 day bombing of Lebanon targeted civilians, hospitals, clearly-signed ambulances and aid convoys, schools and universities. Shops, warehouses, gas stations, bridges, roads, harbours, the main Beirut airport, phone and tele-communications, postal service networks, residential areas, were all attacked. Large parts of southern Beirut have been destroyed—homes, schools, universities and even cemeteries and archeological sites.
Churches and mosques were destroyed, the sea and rivers polluted and underground water tables severely corrupted. The livelihood of farmers and fishermen, has been ruined.
This war involved a sort of ‘cleansing’, the scale of the bombing indicating a wish to remove entire towns and villages, the culture and memory of a whole people under siege.
The media was attacked with journalists assaulted and wounded. The UN itself was attacked and their observers killed. The Israelis say they comply with UN resolutions whilst killing UN personnel. Given this history what will be the situation for the UN forces there to enforce Resolution 1701?
Despite all this people are returning to their homes and Hezbullah are providing temporary shelters and funding for rebuilding homes and infrastructure.
I met doctors with suspicions as to the weapons used by the Israelis. There have been three categories of wounds. Firstly bodies in small pieces. The original death figure for Qana was 54 (eventually scaled down to 29). This was not an attempt at propaganda but there were 54 body pieces brought to the hospital, which indicates possible use of bombs which cut people to pieces. Secondly, there were bodies burnt in such a way that the bodies were left abnormally shrunk. Some skulls were left the size of an orange. Thirdly some bodies had unusual rigor mortis with a stiffness indicating possible use of a nerve gas.
We have to be careful what we say about all this and how we articulate our thoughts but we are expressing the doubts of the medical staff we met and talked with in hospitals such as that in Tyre.
It has been claimed that Hizbullah launched rockets from inside or close to civilian centres but photos and video evidence show this is not the case.
Israelis have one of the most advanced military forces in the world with the Condor 2 laser-guided target system. So targets are not ‘mistakes’. Yet one third to half of those killed were women and children. One third of these deaths were kids under the age of 15. Why no UN resolutions condemning this?
What can we expect from UN intervention? We must remember that in 1982 the UN were in southern Lebanon and moved aside as soon as the Israelis attacked. When Israel killed UN people then, there was silence at the UN, just as the UN has been almost silent this time, when Israel has yet again killed UN staff.
Today the Israelis are still violating Lebanon airspace and blockading the ports. This is humiliating for the Lebanese people and is why Hezbullah draws on increasing support - not just from Muslims and the Shia community but from Christians and those with no religious faith, since they are viewed as the resistance.
"We were forgotten"
"The world must hear our story"
The BBC's Fergal Keane visited the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil where scores of houses have been destroyed.
08/01/06 BBC News Report
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