LEBANON: A three-strong team of experts will travel to Lebanon on Saturday to begin an investigation into allegations of human rights violations by Israel during last month's war, a top United Nations official announced yesterday.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said the team would stay in Lebanon for two weeks and report back on its findings to the UN Human Rights Council in two months.
"They plan to travel to Lebanon on September 23rd," Ms Arbour told the council on the opening day of its second three-week session.
The council, composed of 47 states, voted in August for a high-level commission to investigate what it called "systematic targeting and killing" of Lebanese civilians by Israel.
The resolution, brought by countries of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Arab League, also called for the inquiry to examine the types of weapons used by Israel, their conformity with international law and their impact on property, infrastructure and the environment.
International rights groups have accused Israel of deliberately destroying food shops by shelling and air attacks, blocking aid convoys and putting hospitals and public utilities out of action to force people to flee.
They have also levelled charges of war crimes against the Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbullah for targeting civilians in a barrage of rockets fired directly at urban areas.
The UN also estimates that 100,000 Israeli cluster bomblets which failed to explode lie in Lebanon, with most landing during the final 72 hours before the war ended in an August 14th ceasefire.
The Israeli army said on Sunday that its forces had now withdrawn from more than 80 per cent of Lebanese territory conquered during the offensive against Hizbullah, handing it over to UN peacekeepers.
Media reports have quoted top Israeli military officials as voicing hope for a complete withdrawal from southern Lebanon by the Jewish new year, on September 24th.
But the army has said the pace of pull-outs depended on the full deployment of a Unifil contingent.
"There is no set date for a complete withdrawal. It depends on many things, including developments in the field. But we want a full withdrawal as soon as possible," an army spokeswoman said.
The UN Security Council resolution that led to the ceasefire called for 15,000 troops to join a similar number of Lebanese army troops in the south of the country. There are currently 4,600 international troops there.
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao confirmed yesterday that his country would increase its UN peacekeeping presence in Lebanon to 1,000 troops, raising China's profile in the Middle East and bolstering ties with Europe.
"China is very concerned about the situation in Lebanon and hopes it can be fundamentally resolved," Mr Wen said.
As of June, China had contributed 187 troops to a 1,990-strong peacekeeping force in Lebanon, according to the UN.
Italy, France and other European powers are leading efforts to dramatically expand that force to guard a brittle truce between Israel and Hizbullah guerrillas.
Italian prime minister Romano Prodi, on the final day of a five-day visit to China, praised Beijing's contribution in Lebanon and threw his weight behind stalled moves to lift an EU ban on arms sales to China.