THE Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Shimon Peres has abrogated a 1993 "understanding" with Lebanon's Hizbullah resistance by sending helicopter guns hips to attack targets in Beirut and ordering gunners to shell south Lebanese villages in order to "hit Hizbullah wherever it was found".
The agreement, reached in July 1993, ended "Operation Accountability", a blanket bombardment of south Lebanon which drove 300,000 residents of the UN controlled border zone northwards to Beirut. That agreement, brokered by the US, stipulated that the two sides should refrain from attacking each other's civilians.
In effect, the understanding placed south Lebanese villages and northern Israeli settlements off-limits and confined hostilities to Israel's occupation zone and to military targets.
Hizbullah has, generally, respected the agreement by focusing on Israeli and surrogate South Lebanon Army troops in the zone. Israel has routinely ignored it, claiming it gave an advantage to lightly armed, mobile Hizbullah fighters who operate from villages just north of the zone.
Since it launched "Operation Accountability" with the precise objective of depriving Hizbullah fighters of civilian cover, it was surprising that Israel agreed to the understanding, a reaffirmation of a formal agreement signed by the Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Hizbullah and Iran at Sidon in 1990.
At the time of the agreement
Israel was under strong pressure from the UN, the US and, international public opinion, outraged by the massive week-long air, sea and land assault on defenceless villagers, characterised by the then Norwegian Commander of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon,
Major-General Trong Furuhovde, as "excessive" and "beyond the limits." The spokesman of the UN force in Lebanon, Mr Timor Goksel, said yesterday that the "understanding" had given the Lebanese civilians the assurance they would not again be driven from their homes; a forlorn hope, it would seem.
The situation began to change after the beginning of this year as upgraded Hizbullah units launched repeated attacks against Israel's occupation zone, killing seven and wounding 30 Israeli troops. To make matters worse, Hizbullah's secretary-general, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, insisted on strict application of the agreement and threatened retribution in kind for Israeli attacks on Lebanese civilians. (The latest cycle of violence began on Monday when a Lebanese boy was killed by an explosive device and Hizbullah retaliated by rocketing northern Israel).
Following Israel's strikes on Thursday, an Israeli spokesman rejected Hizbullah's attempt to dictate the scope of Israeli attacks", while Mr
Peres said that "Hizbullah imagined they had an advantage over us but we will show them we have the advantage".
