23 July- BBC News- UN appalled by Beirut devastation

UN appalled by Beirut devastation

BBC News

23 July 2006

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5207478.stm

The UN's Jan Egeland has condemned the devastation causedby Israeli air strikes in Beirut, saying it is a violationof humanitarian law.

Mr Egeland, the UN's emergency relief chief, described the destruction as "horrific" as he toured the city.

He arrived hours after another Israeli strike on Beirut. Israel also hit Sidon, a port city in the south crammed with refugees, for the first time.

In Haifa, two people were killed amid a volley of rocketson the Israeli city.

Fifteen people are reported injured by the rockets, launched by Hezbollah militants over the border with Lebanon. The BBC News website's Raffi Berg visited the scene of one of the rocket attacks in northern Haifa.

He says the rocket exploded next to a carriageway, raking passing cars with shrapnel and ball bearings and killing a man in a nearby vehicle.

'Block after block'

Mr Egeland arrived in southern Beirut on Sunday just hours after Israeli strikes on the Hezbollah stronghold.

A visibly moved Mr Egeland expressed shock that "blockafter block" of buildings had been levelled.

He said the "disproportionate response" by Israel was a"violation of international humanitarian law".

He appealed for both sides to halt attacks and said UNsupplies of humanitarian aid would begin to arrive in the next few days."

But we need safe access," he said. "So far Israel is not giving us access." Israel has said it will lift its blockade on Beirut's port to allow aid through, but with roads, bridges and trucks among Israel's targets, transporting it around the country is difficult.

UK Foreign Minister Kim Howells is due to meet IsraeliForeign Minister Tzipi Livni. A day after accusing Israel of targeting "the entire Lebanese nation", he said theBritish government understood Israel's need to defend itself and criticised Hezbollah for hiding weapons in civilian areas.

The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to leave for the Middle East later on Sunday.

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel supports the idea of an international peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, and suggested it should be led by Nato.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel had"pushed the button for its own destruction".

Syria's information minister said his country would enter the conflict if a major Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon threatened the security of Damascus.

An unarmed UN observer was seriously wounded by small armsfire - thought to be from Hezbollah - at a UN position inthe village of Maroun al-Ras, which Israeli said it had taken control of on Saturday. Sidon targeted

Israel's bombing campaign continued, with strikes onBeirut and on southern and eastern Lebanon in the earlyhours of Sunday. The Associated Press news agency reported at least eight deaths on Sunday - an eight-year-old boy, a Lebanese photographer, three civilians fleeing in a minibus, and three Hezbollah fighters. One target was the southern port of Sidon, a city not previously targeted by Israel, where 42,000 refugees from the surrounding area have flooded in the hope of safety.

The BBC's Roger Hearing in the city reports that a mosque was destroyed in one strike, which hit less than 500m (550yards) from a hospital. At least four people were injured.

While Israel said the mosque was a meeting place forHezbollah militants, local doctors insisted it was just "a place for prayers".

Bombing intensifies

The BBC's Jim Muir in the southern city of Tyre says there has also been intense bombardment there, striking at least nine civilian vehicles. Some were hit within sight of hospitals where they were trying to take injured people, he says.

Further east, engineers trying to mend impassable roads to allow a UN-escorted aid convoy also came under fire, our correspondent reports. He says that bombing has intensified in the region since Israel dropped warning leaflets on Friday, and the Israelis are now shooting at almost anything on moving on the roads.

More than 350 Lebanese have been killed in the 11 days of violence, many of them civilians, and angry protests condemning Israeli attacks have been held in cities aroundthe world. At least 36 Israelis have been killed, including 17 civilians killed by rockets fired by Hezbollah into Israel.