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Israel expresses ‘deep regret’ after U.N. strike

Ireland says officer in region warned Israeli forces six times about danger 
 
Rabih Daher / EPA
U.N. peacekeepers from India carry the body of one of the U.N. observers who was killed in Israel’s airstrike in southern Lebanon on Tuesday.

KIRYAT SHEMONA, Israel – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday expressed “deep regret” after an Israeli bomb destroyed a U.N. observer post on the border in southern Lebanon, killing four observers.

“The prime minister said he has instructed the military to carry out a thorough investigation and that the results will be shared with the U.N. secretary general,” Olmert said in a statement released by his office.

Olmert told U.N. chief Kofi Annan in a phone call that the post was hit inadvertently. He also expressed dismay over Annan’s initial comments that the airstrike was “apparently deliberate.”

“It’s inconceivable for the U.N. to define an error as an apparently deliberate action,” Olmert said.

Warnings from Irish officer
At the same time, Ireland’s Foreign Ministry said an Irish army officer in south Lebanon had warned the Israeli military six times that their attacks in the area were putting the lives of U.N. observers at risk.

“On six separate occasions he was in contact with the Israelis to warn them that their bombardment was endangering the lives of U.N. staff in South Lebanon,” a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman said.

“He warned: ‘You have to address this problem or lives may be lost,'” the spokesman said of comments by a senior Irish soldier working as a liaison officer between U.N. forces in South Lebanon and the Israelis.

The bomb made a direct hit on the building and shelter of the observer post in the town of Khiam near the eastern end of the border with Israel, said Milos Struger, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL.

China condemns attack
One of the dead was identified as Chinese U.N. observer Du Zhaoyu, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Israel’s ambassador to Beijing was summoned Wednesday morning and asked to convey China’s request that Israel fully investigate the incident and issue an apology to the victim’s relatives.
“We are deeply shocked by this incident and strongly condemn it,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in the statement.

The other three observers were from Austria, Canada and Finland but it wasn’t clear which two were confirmed killed, U.N. and Lebanese military officials said.

Like Olmert, Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman expressed his “deep regret” for the deaths and denied the post was intentionally targeted.

Building destroyed
As reports of the attack emerged Tuesday, Annan rushed out of a hotel in Rome following a dinner with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.

“I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defense Forces of a U.N. Observer post in southern Lebanon,” Annan said in the statement.

Annan said in his statement that the post had been there for a long time and was marked clearly, and was hit despite assurances from Olmert that U.N. positions would not be attacked.

“I call on the government of Israel to conduct a full investigation into this very disturbing incident and demand that any further attack on U.N. positions and personnel must stop,” Annan said in the statement.

Gillerman called the assertions “premature and erroneous.”

“I am shocked and deeply distressed by the hasty statement of the secretary-general, insinuating that Israel has deliberately targeted the U.N. post,” he said.

He said Israel would investigate the bombing. “We do not have yet information what caused this death: it could be the IDF (Israel’s military) it could be Hezbollah,” he said.

In the meantime, the envoy assured that “Israel remains committed to protecting the safety and security of U.N. personnel on the ground and is doing its utmost to guarantee that they be able to carry out their mission.”

U.N. peacekeepers in the line of fire
Since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants began two weeks ago, there have been several dozen incidents of firing close to U.N. peacekeepers and observers, including direct hits on nine positions, some of them repeatedly, a U.N. official said.

As a result of these attacks, 12 U.N. personnel have been killed or injured, U.N. officials said.

Tuesday’s bomb hit the building and shelter of the observer post in Khiam near the eastern end of the border with Israel, said Milos Struger, spokesman for UNIFIL.

During an Israeli offensive against Lebanon in 1996, artillery blasted a U.N. base at Qana in southern Lebanon, killing more than 100 civilians taking refuge with the peacekeepers.

The U.N. mission, which has nearly 2,000 military personnel and more than 300 civilians, is to patrol the border line, known as the Blue Line, drawn by the United Nations after Israel withdrew troops from south Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation.