Our movements on the ground were restricted by the army to a limited area of the village, but the neighboring buildings and settlements looked untouched from a distance.
These incursions appear – so far – to be more “limited and targeted” geographically than militarily.
Graffiti on a building captured by troops read: “We wanted peace, you wanted war.”
“Most of the terrorists escaped,” Colonel Malka told me. “(But) dozens of houses were mined. When we went around the houses, we found landmines and weapons. We had no choice but to destroy them.’
We only have the army’s account of what happened here.
I asked the army representative if women or children were present when the operation began here. He replied that all civilians had been warned to leave.
Amnesty International this week called Israel’s evacuation warnings in southern Lebanon inadequate and overly general and said they did not absolve the country of its obligations under international law.
We were also shown three caches of weapons they said were found in civilian homes, including boxes of brand new mortars, new anti-tank missiles and mines, as well as sophisticated shoulder-fired missiles and night sights.
One anti-tank missile we saw was already semi-assembled.
