Just to clarify, the cite given does not specifically blame Hezbollah for the initial strikes, but ‘unknown’ Lebanese terrorists. They also talk about ‘unknown’ terrorists firing on Israeli positions. However, they state that this in the context of discussing how Hezbollah controls southern Lebanon:
The UN report says that the followup attacks came from in/around the village of Hula, which, the UN cite states, has had a strong Hezbollah presence. Hezbollah denied that they were responsible for the attacks coming from their territory, and the UN was (evidently) unable to confirm or deny that. But the UN’s lack of definite knowledge is not surprising, as Hezbollah was attempting to control UN access to their territory:
Other sources, like the the NY Times, however, reported that after Israel retaliated against the group they believed to be responsible for the rocket attacks, mortars and rockets were launched at Israel and that the IDF found Hezbollah to blame for those attacks.
I find several things likely: that the group that launched the first rocket strikes did not intend to launch a full offensive. I base this on the fact that no group took responsibility or stated that they would launch further attacks. For all practical purposes, after Israel responded to those attacks, the conditions of the cease fire were back in effect. Israel did not continue its offensive, and conducted rather limited strikes in retaliation for the rocket attacks. But then, of course, forces from Hezbollah controlled areas joined in and launched attacks. In my view, this makes Hezbollah equally guilty of breaking the ceasefire as whatever group it was that launched the original rocket attacks, especially as Hezbollay simply joined in the fun without having been attacked themselves. But I’d wager that reasonable people can differ on that point.
So I suppose that one not only had to read the cite but also other news reports to know that the most likely situation was that certain militia groups attacked Israel, and then after Irael responded and ceased attacking militant targets held responsible for the rocket attacks, Hezbollah took the opportunity to attack. I would certainly view that as Hezbollah violating their part in the ceasefire, but I’d wager that reasonable people can disagree on that point.
Just wanted to make that clear and make explicit my conclusions and the logic behind them. .
(yeesh, that’s a lot of ink spilled)
