“Israel has so far killed at least 274 Lebanese, all but 14 of them civilians, and inflicted the heaviest destruction in Lebanon for two decades, with attacks targeting ports, roads, bridges, factories and petrol stations.”
Latest targets of air blitz: milk and medicine
By Lysandra Ohrstrom
The Daily Star 19 July 2006
BEIRUT: Israel switched gears in its military campaign against Lebanon Monday and Tuesday, launching a series of debilitating air strikes against privately owned factories throughout the country and dealing a devastating blow to an economy already paralyzed by a week of hits on residential areas and crucial infrastructure.
The production facilities of at least five companies in key industrial sectors – including the country’s largest dairy farm, Liban Lait; a paper mill; a packaging firm and a pharmaceutical plant – have been disabled or completely destroyed. Industry insiders say the losses will cripple the economy for decades to come.
“I think the picture will be much worse than we can possible imagine when the whole thing ends, but the direct damage from yesterday’s attacks to the industrial sector alone will take years to recover from,” said Wajid al-Bisri, the vice-president of the Lebanese Association of Industrialists (LAI).
Lorries destroyed by Israel carried medicine, provisions
Agence France Presse 19 July 2006
ZAHLE, Lebanon, July 19 2006– Four lorries destroyed by Israeli air raids near the Christian town of Zahle in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley on Tuesday were carrying nothing but medicines and food provisions, an AFP correspondent witnessed.
An Israeli military spokesman said the lorries had been carrying arms, munitions and explosives from Syria bound for Hezbollah fighters operating in the Bekaa valley.
An AFP journalist saw that one of the lorries was transporting medicine from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Another had been carrying vegetable oil, which spilled over the road, a third had a cargo of provisions and the fourth was empty.
Meanwhile Turkish diplomats in Beirut said that a Turkish truck carrying cooking oil was also destroyed by Israeli fire in the Bekaa valley on Tuesday.
Ahmed Amr: Lebanon, Gaza and Racist Standards
“For those who bother to pay attention to the Bush administration’s role in fomenting violence in the Middle East, there is an obvious method to the madness.”