THE international furore over Israel's shelling of Qana continued yesterday, with Israel raising the disbandment of the UN mission in Lebanon in an appeal to the United Nations Security Council.
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Mr David Peleg, asked the Council to consider disbanding the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil). "We call on the 15 members of the Security Council to carefully reconsider their position on the continued mandate of this force," Mr Peleg said.
Israel has been issuing veiled warnings about its stance towards Unifil since the publication of the UN report which cast grave doubt on Israeli claims that the bombardment of the Qana camp on April 18th was accidental. But diplomats were taken aback by the directness of Mr Peleg's remarks about the force's future yesterday.
"Unifil is becoming part of the hostile territory, so we will have to see how to deal with it," Mr Peleg said later in a radio interview.
Since the Unifil base at Qana was shelled by Israel, causing the deaths of more than 100 Lebanese civilians, Israel has accused Unifil of allowing Hizbullah gunmen to fire from near the base. Israel has also insisted that its own retaliatory shelling strayed into the base by accident, and it has strongly rejected the UN report which concluded the shelling was almost certainly deliberate.
Unifil's peacekeeping mandate in south Lebanon is due for its six month review in July. Since Lebanon hosts the force, it is Lebanon rather than Israel that formally requests a renewal of the mandate. Israel can merely make a representation to the Security Council. Unifil has been deployed in the area since 1978. It currently has 4,500 troops - some 600 of them Irish.
Sources close to the Security Council said it was too soon to give consideration to the Israeli intervention, if only because members still had to find their way through a thicket of opposing emotions in deciding how to respond to the report.
Yesterday's action is a reflection of Israel's fury that the UN report took no account of the Hizbullah fire that prompted the Israeli response. Israel is also angry that the report gave little credence to Israeli explanations of what had gone wrong.
In another reflection of that Israeli anger, the Prime Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, said yesterday that the affair had proved "the United Nations cannot be trusted", and that it would lead to "the disappearance of the UN's influence in Israel.
In the Arab world, meanwhile anger is growing over the Unite States' consistent support of the Israeli position. In a Washington Post interview, Egypt's Foreign Minister, Mr Amr Moussa, claimed that the US's one sided backing for Israel had damaged its credibility as a mediator and poisoned the atmosphere of peace.
Similar criticisms were also levelled by Syria's President Assad and by officials in Saudi Arabia.
Egypt, the only Arab nation on the Security Council, was expected to push hard yesterday for the adoption of a formal resolution condemning Israel for the attack and demanding financial compensation.
David Horovitz is managing editor the Jerusalem Report
. The French government yesterday described the UN report as "troubling".
"The UN Secretary General's attempt to seek out and make known the truth is absolutely legitimate," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mr Yves Doutriaux. "The report issued contains troubling analysis and conclusions. One cannot dismiss this report."
Mr Doutriaux said a similar disaster must be avoided in the future at all costs and that peaceful negotiations were the only way to reach a long lasting settlement in the Middle East.