Lebanon's UN envoy decries Israeli aggression: 'No more limited operations'

During an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, Al-Sayyid Hadi Hashim, Chargé d'Affaires ad interim for Lebanon, said that "everything Israel says about limited surgical military operations is not true."

In his statements, he condemned an attack in the village of Ain al-Delb, which is "the best proof of" Israel's aggression, as on September 29, an Israeli strike targeted a residential building that ended up with 71 people, including women and children, buried in a mass grave.

He added that the Middle East "is burning from all sides." 

Meanwhile, Hashim recalled Israel's massacres in 1996 and 2006, and asked, "How many times have we come to this Council and warned of the catastrophic situation?"

"What is happening today in terms of unprecedented killing, displacement, and destruction cannot be tolerated and ignored," he said, pointing to Israel's aggression and crimes against Lebanon and Beirut.

"The policy of putting heads in the sand and fearing, confronting, and deterring Israel is no longer useful," Al-Sayyid Hadi Hashim stressed. 

He indicated that the people and Government of Lebanon reject war and want the full implementation of Resolution 1701 and the deployment of the Lebanese army in the south along the border with support from UNIFIL.

He warned that this situation is likely to continue as long as Resolution 1701 is not implemented fully and as long as the focus is on imposing military rather than diplomatic solutions.

He added that Lebanon is facing an unparalleled humanitarian crisis and is in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

"Today, we have reached a humanitarian catastrophe, with one million internally displaced people, including thousands on the roads, without food, drink or medication," he declared.

"Lebanon is today caught between the hammer of the Israeli destruction machine and the ambitions of some in the region," he expressed. "Lebanon and the Lebanese deserve to live."