Soccer Dad

Terrorists in the hospital

I love reports like this:

Hezbollah's chief spokesman, Hussein Rahal told AP that fierce fighting raged for more than one hour at the hospital.

"A group of Israeli commandos was brought to the hospital by a helicopter. They entered the hospital." He said Hezbollah guerrillas fought the commandos inside the hospital.

What does this tell us?

That Hezbollah was using a hospital to house its terrorists and ammunition. And yet there's no sense of outrage in this part of the report at this admitted violation of international law.

That comes later when Israel apparently hit a house belonging to the mayor of the village where the hospital was.

Riehl World View assumes that the reason for the strike is

They must have had intelligence that Hizbollah officials were using the hospital for cover.

Or could it be that it was close enough to the Syrian border to send a message to the boy dictator?

Powerline wonders if Israel seeing some (but not enough) success.

There has been a very significant reduction in the number of rockets Hezbollah is able to fire at Israeli civilians:

Hezbollah fired just 10 rockets across the border Tuesday, well below an average of about 100 a day since the fighting began 21 days ago, Israel said.
But the Hezbollah casualty figures seem disappointing:

Israeli Cabinet Minister Haim Ramon said the fighting to date had killed about 300 of Hezbollah's main force of 2,000 fighters, which does not include its less-well trained reserves. "That's a very hard blow," he said.
Not hard enough. It's no time for a cease-fire.

And Strangely Silent wants to know

If Israel's doing so poorly ... why is the Hezbollah chief hiding, either in Syria, or in the Iranian embassy?

And what’s the doomed, defeated, routed IDF doing striking at will in the Bekaa Valley, that impregnable bastion of Hezbollah?

(Source: Buzztracker)

UPDATE: More on the hospital raid via memeorandum.

Mere Rhetoric notes something special about the hospital

One other thing: the hospital that the commandos raided? Yeah, it was built for Hezbollah by Iran specifically to provide first-rate care to Hezbollah militia members.

UnInformed comment mentions an unconfirmed report

Some eyewitnesses are saying that the Israelis fired a missile at the Dar al-Hikmah hospital, setting it ablaze. Unless the hospital had been turned into a military base, this action (if it occurred) was a war crime.

Hiding weapons and fighters in a hospital is a war crime. Going after them is not.

Technorati tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon.

Posted by SoccerDad at August 2, 2006 8:55 AM