Timeline of the 2006 Lebanon War (late August)

This is a timeline of the 2006 Lebanon War during late August.

20 August United Nations UN Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed his deep concern over the Israeli commando raid deep inside Lebanon on 19 August, calling it a truce violation. Israeli Prime Minister Olmert is reported to have defended the raid during a later conversation with the Secretary General. The statement also cited the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon as saying there have "also been several air violations by Israeli military aircraft." A contingent of 150 French soldiers sailed from the French port of Toulon, to join the 50 French soldiers who arrived in Lebanon 19 August. Lebanon faces a critical test in the coming days that will determine whether the country emerges as a strong democracy or finds itself plunged back into violence, U.N. Envoy Terje Roed Larsen said. "As we see it, Lebanon is now facing colossal opportunities," Roed-Larsen told reporters. "There is a golden opportunity for Lebanon to solidify its democracy, to assert it authority, to produce a situation where Lebanon can be reconstructed and where Lebanese can live peacefully with its neighbors in prosperity. All this is at hand." Roed-Larsen noted approvingly that Lebanese troops have deployed in the south, where they are charged with ensuring that Hezbollah militia do not launch rockets across the border into northern Israel. Despite the "huge potential upside," Lebanon and the region also face a danger, he said. "We're at the tilting edge still, and this can easily start sliding again and lead us quickly into the abyss of violence and bloodshed. This is why diplomacy is so important." Roed Larsen described his meetings since 18 August with Lebanese leaders as "encouraging," and said they were committed to implementing Security Council Resolution 1701, which requires that Israeli troops withdraw from south Lebanon at the same time that Lebanese army troops and a beefed-up U.N. force of 15,000 troops enter the area. He said 3,000 of a planned complement of 15,000 Lebanese soldiers have already been deployed along Lebanon's southern border, though their success in stabilizing the region is by no means guaranteed. "Of course, the devil is in the details here," he said. "It's the nitty-gritty which can make us fail." Roed Larsen made no mention of Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz's comment that Israel will not allow Lebanese troops to deploy within two kilometers (1.25 miles) of the Israeli border unless they are accompanied by U.N. forces. Roed Larsen's delegation was to depart for Israel. A "vanguard force" of 3,000 to 3,500 U.N. troops is not expected to arrive until later in the week, at the earliest. They would support about 2,000 observers already on the ground as part of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon. Roed Larsen predicted that the coming weeks and months would require "very demanding diplomatic work," including "cooperation from Iran and Syria." Another 2,000 Lebanese soldiers—the first complement of an expected 8,600—have been deployed along the country's eastern border with Syria, and as many as 1,000 have been deployed along the coast, he said. The troops are expected to pave the way for a reconfigured and beefed-up UNIFIL in the south. A mechanism has been set up for both forces to work together, Roed-Larsen said, with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora agreeing with UNIFIL force commander Gen. Alain Pellegrini to meet weekly with top security officials from both forces. Vijay Nambiar, special adviser to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, predicted UNIFIL's rules of engagement will be made public in the next few days. "We expect that will generate interest among the major contributing countries to commit troops in more concrete terms," he said. He described Israel's attack 19 August in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley as "unhelpful, to put it understated."Lebanon Lebanon's Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora, called the Israel raid a "naked violation" of the six-day-old UN truce. The Lebanese Defence Minister, Elias Murr, stated that he "might be forced to ask the cabinet early next week to halt the army deployment in the south". Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr said Hezbollah was committed to the cease-fire, and he warned that any group that fired on Israel would be considered treacherous for giving Israel a pretext to strike. "Any rocket that is fired from the Lebanese territory would be considered collaboration with Israel," he told a news conference. He threatened to halt the deployment of his country's troops in the wake of Israel's raidif the United Nations did not ensure Israel was abiding by U.N. Resolution 1701. U.N. Envoy Terje Roed Larsen said that Lebanon faces a critical test in the coming days that will determine whether the country emerges as a strong democracy or finds itself plunged back into violence. "As we see it, Lebanon is now facing colossal opportunities," Roed-Larsen told reporters. "There is a golden opportunity for Lebanon to solidify its democracy, to assert it authority, to produce a situation where Lebanon can be reconstructed and where Lebanese can live peacefully with its neighbors in prosperity. All this is at hand." Despite the "huge potential upside," Lebanon and the region also face a danger, he said. "We're at the tilting edge still and this can easily start sliding again and lead us quickly into the abyss of violence and bloodshed. This is why diplomacy is so important." Roed-Larsen noted approvingly that Lebanese troops have deployed in the south, where they are charged with ensuring that Hezbollah forces do not launch rockets across the border into northern Israel. Lebanese Justice Minister Charles Rizk said he did not agree with U.S. President Bush's description 18 August of Hezbollah as "a force of instability." "Our view is that we should solve the problem of Hezbollah, the Hezbollah resistance and the Hezbollah weapons at its roots," Rizk told. "And the root is the Israeli occupation." Israel pulled out of southern Lebanon in 2000, but disputes remain over the Shebaa Farms, a roughly stretch of land. Lebanon claims it as Lebanese territory, but the United Nations recognizes it as Syrian terrain. The Lebanese government's Higher Relief Commission said 1,183 Lebanese people were killed in the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah, and 4,054 were wounded. The commission estimated that nearly 90 percent of the displaced population had returned to their homes by 20 August, four days after the cessation of hostilities. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said it is shifting its focus to providing shelter for those people whose homes have been destroyed in south Lebanon. Of the 180,000 Lebanese who had sought shelter in Syria, more than 107,000 had returned to Lebanon, the UNHCR said.Israel Israel will not allow Lebanese troops to deploy within two kilometers (1.25 miles) of the Israeli border unless they are accompanied by U.N. forces, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz's office told. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told that the Israelis were entitled to act in Boudai. "We were seeing the transfer of illicit weapons" from Syria, he said. "That's a clear violation" of Resolution 1701. Asked why Israel did not complain to the Security Council instead of acting unilaterally, Regev said the world body would not have acted fast enough to keep the arms from being transferred into Lebanon. "I would remind the prime minister of Lebanon that it's his obligation under U.N. Resolution 1701 to be there on the border of Syria to prevent this illicit weapons transfer," he said. Regev described as "speculation" a suggestion that the Israelis may have been searching for Israeli soldiers kidnapped last month by Hezbollah or looking for a leader of Hezbollah to capture or kill. Israel has put its death toll from fighting and Hezbollah's rocket attacks at 159, with more than 1,000 Israelis wounded. More than a million people fled their homes in the north to shelters in the south during the war, Israeli officials said.Hezbollah Jumpy Hezbollah fighters flooded Boudai, brandishing Kalashnikovs and stopping, searching, and questioning outsiders the day after the town fought off an Israeli commando raid with a 90-minute shootout. In the town center, the Husseini Community Center lay in rubble, hit by an Israeli strike in the first week of the war. Dozens of Hezbollah sympathizers gathered nearby, on the third day of mourning for Hezbollah fighter Mohammed Ahmed Asef, who was buried here. Speculation was that Mohammed Yazbeck, a member of the Shura Council, had been in Boudai for that funeral. Hezbollah gunmen, skittish about a visiting reporter, stopped her car on three occasions, demanding identification and searching the vehicle. At one point visitors were detained for 30 minutes during a flurry of phone calls among the gunmen. In the end, they were ordered to leave the area.

21 August United States George W. Bush called for an effective international force in Lebanon to ensure Hezbollah doesn't re-arm and "wreak havoc in the region." "The need is urgent," Bush said. "The international community must now designate the leadership of this new international force and give it robust rules of engagement and deploy it as soon as possible to secure the peace," said Bush, speaking at the beginning of a Washington news conference morning. "Our nation is wasting no time in helping the people of Lebanon," Bush said, detailing U.S. efforts to get humanitarian aid, including food and energy, into Lebanon. Bush also announced aid for rebuilding homes and schools in Lebanon, and he announced aid to help Israeli civilians recover from Hezbollah rocket strikes. Bush cited Iranian support for Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization, as one example of why Iran cannot be permitted to have nuclear weapons capability. "Iran is obviously part of the problem," Bush said. "They sponsor Hezbollah. They encourage a radical brand of Islam. Imagine how difficult this issue would be if Iran had a nuclear weapon. At the request of Lebanon and Israel, the United States will not contribute troops, President Bush said. Many in Lebanon view the United States as a proxy for Israel, and would not want U.S. participation in the force. Furthermore he announced additional humanitarian aid of $230 million. "There will be another resolution coming into the United Nations giving further instructions to the international force. First things first will be to get the rules of engagement clear," he said. Bush repeated his desire to see France make a greater contribution. "France has had a very close relationship with Lebanon," Bush said during his press conference. "There's historical ties with Lebanon. I would hope they would put more troops in. They understand the region as well as anybody."