LEBANON: Southern port city of Tyre buries latest victims of Israeli attacks in mass funeral and welcomes displaced people/ Evacuation of French citizens continue

Thirty five bodies unclaimed by relatives have been buried in the Lebanese city of Tyre on Saturday (July 29) -- the second mass funeral taking place here. Last week, eighty five bodies were buried in the same temporary mass grave. With hospitals' morgues now full, local authorities decided to organise a mass burial of the bodies collected in the area and not claimed by relatives. At least 469 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Lebanon in the 18-day-old conflict, and 51 Israelis have died. On Friday (July 28), Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded villages near Lebanon's southern port of Tyre, killing at least 13 people, while four more died in air strikes in the eastern Bekaa valley. On Saturday, an Israeli air strike killed a woman and six children in a house in the southern village of Nmeiriya, medics said. "How I can describe it... In 21st century, what is going on here in Lebanon, and everybody out in the world, they are looking at us and looking at Israeli planes destroying our houses, our school, our bridges for no reason... We need to live free," a Shia cleric said. Despite air strikes that have hit several buildings in the city centre, hundreds of refugees still flock to Tyre every day, fleeing fighting in the border villages to the east. They usually stay one night in one of the city's hotels, before trying to find a way to go north in search of safety. "My parents don't know where I am... I want to reassure my family that we are all well," Wafa, who came to Tyre the night before, explained. The U.N. estimates there are up to 800,000 people in Lebanon displaced by the fighting and bombing. It said there are nearly 600 schools being used as shelters, with between 100 and 1,200 people in each school. In Tyre, some soldiers of the 2,000 strong United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) took position in the streets near the hotel. UNIFIL operated more than 40 U.N. outposts along the Israeli border. Four posts are now unoccupied as the United Nations withdrew its peacekeepers after Israel attacked a base in Khiam on Tuesday (July 25) and killed four unarmed U.N. observers. The four dead were part of the U.N. Truce Supervision Organisation, a unit of about 155 observers under the command of the UNIFIL. UNIFIL's mandate expires on Monday (July 31). The United Nations has been running aid convoys to towns in southern Lebanon, such as Tyre, Sidon and Jezzine, but getting food and medical supplies safely to the towns and villages at the heart of the fighting is proving difficult. A humanitarian corridor has allowed the United Nations to truck food and basic medical supplies to the southern port of Tyre, but getting safe passage beyond that is another matter. Israel dismissed a proposal by U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland for a 72-hour truce to let relief workers reach stricken civilians and deliver emergency aid, drawing a swift rebuke from France. France, which has repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire, continued to evacuate its citizens. A sick and elderly lady was evacuated from Beirut French hospital by helicopter to Lanarca, Cyprus, where she would then being taken to Paris. Accompanied by her husband, hospital staff had to give her reassurances that the couple would not be separated. A second helicopter took off carrying other evacuees. Some 5,000 French nationals have been evacuated and returned home, but the number of people wanting to leave Lebanon has dropped. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has invited countries willing to join an international force in Lebanon to meet in New York on Monday to begin planning, even though its mandate has yet to be set by the Security Council. Major powers say the force cannot deploy before a ceasefire or operate without the consent of Lebanon, Israel and Hizbollah. German Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out any immediate German participation in the force, saying the German military was already stretched in other operations abroad. Bush has blamed Hizbollah and its main allies Syria and Iran for the conflict in Lebanon. The Shi'ite group says it is fighting a U.S.-Israeli plan for hegemony in the Middle East. Lebanon's Siniora argues that the main problems include Israel's occupation of the disputed Shebaa Farms area, claimed by Lebanon, and its detention of Lebanese prisoners. The Lebanon war has overshadowed the conflict in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is waging a month-old offensive to recover a soldier captured by militants and halt Palestinian rocket fire.

ITN Source | July 29, 2006

Tags:. .shelters. .grave. .halt. .accompanied. .fleeing