Portal:Current events/Middle East/August 2006 in the Middle East

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August 18, 2006 (Friday)

 * 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict:
 * Hezbollah hands out cash to war victims in Lebanon as it buries its dead. (Reuters), (Aljazeera)
 * Israel has set up a commission to investigate how the military campaign in Lebanon was conducted. (BBC NEWS)
 * Israel says it would be difficult to accept nations which do not recognise its right to exist as part of a UN force in Lebanon. (BBC)

August 17, 2006 (Thursday)
Lebanese troops deploy south of the Litani River in Lebanon as part of the ceasefire agreement (Reuters)

August 16, 2006 (Wednesday)

 * 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
 * The Israeli ambassador to Canada, Alan Baker, criticises Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe for participating in an Aug. 6 Montreal march in which a few Hezbollah supporters also took part. The march was, however, a protest against war and not a show of support for Hezbollah. (CTV)
 * The Government of Israel says the withdrawal from South Lebanon will stop if Lebanese troops are not deployed there within days. (Reuters)
 * Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader and the supreme religious authority to Hezbollah followers, praises Hezbollah resistance. (AP via Yahoo!)

August 15, 2006 (Tuesday)

 * 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict:
 * Israel claims that Hezbollah fired 10 Katyusha rockets into Southern Lebanon with none reaching Israel. (Associated Press)

August 14, 2006 (Monday)

 * An Israeli air strike hits a house in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Israel claims that it is a command centre for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. (Associated Press)
 * Fox News journalists Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig are kidnapped in Gaza. (Associated Press)(Reuters)
 * 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict:
 * Israel will pursue Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon despite the ceasefire ending the month-long conflict, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has told parliament.(BBC NEWS)
 * Thousands of displaced Lebanese have begun returning home hours after a UN ceasefire to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah came into force.(BBC NEWS)
 * The ceasefire takes effect at 8am Lebanese time. (CNN)

August 13, 2006 (Sunday)

 * Iraq sectarian violence:
 * Three successive explosions in south Baghdad kill at least 62 people and injure more than 140. (Associated Press), (CBS News)
 * 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict:
 * Israeli government endorses the UN Security Council resolution calling for an end to fighting in southern Lebanon. (BBC)
 * A Lebanese government meeting on the disarming of Hezbollah south of the Litani River is cancelled following an announcement by the Shi'ite organization that it was not willing to discuss the subject. (Haaretz)
 * Kofi Annan announces that a ceasefire will commence on August 14 at 8 a.m. Israeli-Lebanese time (0500 UTC). (Boston Globe)
 * Iran says disarming Lebanese Hezbollah would be "illogical". (Reuters)

August 12, 2006 (Saturday)

 * 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
 * The United Nations Human Rights Council has voted to send a team to Lebanon to investigate alleged abuses by Israel. (BBC)
 * Lebanese officials claim that Israeli missiles killed 15 civilians in the village of Rachaf 10 kilometres from the border with Israel. (AP) (BBC)

August 11, 2006 (Friday)

 * 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
 * The UN Security Council adopts a resolution, 15-0, calling for a ceasefire in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. (Reuters)
 * Ehud Olmert accepts the emerging Middle East peace deal after earlier threatening an expansion of the ground war in Lebanon. The agreement calls for the deployment of 30,000 Lebanese and U.N. troops along the Israel-Lebanon border. (Boston Herald)

August 10, 2006 (Thursday)

 * 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict: Israel launches its long-anticipated offensive to reach the Litani river

August 9, 2006 (Wednesday)

 * 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict:
 * Israeli Arab officials reject Hassan Nasrallah's call to leave Haifa metropolis, arguing against the attacks on civilian populations. (YNET NEWS)
 * Spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert calls BBC "the only international English-speaking news outlet that is downright hostile to Israel on every level." The BBC's response to that noted that "our duty is to provide independent reporting and analysis of all perspectives of a story, so our audiences can make sense of what's going on in the world." (Jerusalem Post)
 * Dr. Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Red Cross, comes under rocket attack on a visit to the Israeli city of Nahariya. (Ynet)
 * Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah says that the United States imposes Israeli demands through the United Nations draft resolution. He also backs a Lebanese army deployment to South Lebanon. He also vowed for South Lebanon to become a "graveyard" for invading Israeli troops. (Reuters) (Reuters)
 * Syrian-made missiles land in near Haifa and in the West Bank. (Ynet)
 * Palestinian and Lebanese officials claim Israeli gunboats shelled Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon. (CBS)

August 8, 2006 (Tuesday)

 * 2006 Israel-Lebanon crisis
 * Israel recalls its ambassador to Caracas following antisemitic comments made by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Venezuela's ambassador to Israel was called back on August 3, in protest of the war in Lebanon.(YNET NEWS)
 * Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister of Israel describes Lebanon's decision to deploy 15,000 troops in southern Lebanon as an "interesting step" which Israel would review. (Reuters)

August 7, 2006 (Monday)

 * Israeli troops have detained another Hamas member of Palestinian parliament during an overnight raid in the West Bank. (BBC NEWS)
 * Conflict in Iraq:
 * A US military hearing has examined the testimony by one of the accused in an incident where a 14-year-old girl and three family members in Mahmudiya were allegedly killed by four US soldiers after the girl's rape in March. (BBC)


 * 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict:
 * Reuters has withdrawn 920 photographs by a Lebanese photographer after a review of his work showed that he had changed two images from the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. (Reuters), (YNet)
 * Lebanon's government meets today, to decide to send the Lebanese army to the southern end of the country, according to political sources. It decides unanimously to send 15,000 troops to the south of the country as Israeli troops pull out. (Reuters)
 * IDF planes have shot down a UAV suspected to be Hezbollah controlled as it flew over Israeli territory. (Reuters)
 * An Israeli air strike has killed 1 person in the southern Lebanese border village of Houla. Lebanon's prime minister has retracted his earlier statement that more than 40 were killed. (BBC)

August 6, 2006 (Sunday)

 * 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict:
 * Lebanon rejects a draft U.N. resolution calling for an end to the conflict between Israel and Hizbollah, insisting it must include an explicit demand for a full Israeli pullout from south Lebanon.(The Hindu)
 * In an interview with the German magazine Welt am Sonntag, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asks European nations, "Where do they get the right to preach to Israel? European countries attacked Kosovo and killed ten thousand civilians. Ten thousand! And none of these countries had to suffer before that from a single rocket. I'm not saying it was wrong to intervene in Kosovo. But please: Don't preach to us about the treatment of civilians." (al Jazeera)
 * Israeli troops attack the Lebanese town of Qana claiming to destroy the launchers that launched the missiles at Haifa. (USA Today)
 * At least six rockets hit Haifa, Israel; one more rocket hits right outside of Haifa, and others hit the Ma'alot, Carmiel area, and Kiryat Shmona. The death toll is at least three in Haifa and 12 for Northern Israel as a whole. (Ynet News), (AP)
 * Reuters has pulled a photograph of Beirut, Lebanon, admitting that it was altered by the photographer, saying "photo editing software was improperly used on this image. A corrected version will immediately follow this advisory. We are sorry for any inconvenience." (Ynet News)(Reuters)
 * Hezbollah rockets kill at least ten people in Israel. (Associated Press)
 * Israel arrests the Speaker of the Palestinian Parliament, Abdel Aziz Duwaik. Duwaik is a member of Hamas. (ABC News)

August 5, 2006 (Saturday)

 * Iran bans Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi's Defenders of Human Rights Center on the grounds that the human rights organization did not have a permit from the Interior Ministry. According to Iranian law, to form a nongovernmental organization, one does not need a permit. (AFP)
 * Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi calls for the "formation of an international investigation committee to probe the ongoing atrocities of the Zionist regime in Lebanon, and to prosecute and punish the ones responsible for these catastrophes." (AFP)
 * 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict:
 * The US and France have agreed the wording of a UN resolution to end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.(BBC NEWS)
 * Israeli commandos stage a nighttime raid on Tyre.(BBC NEWS)

August 4, 2006 (Friday)

 * 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict:
 * Three Hezbollah rockets hit near the Israeli town of Hadera, 50 mi south of the Lebanese border and the deepest penetration within Israel to date. (CNews via AP)
 * A senior Iranian official admits for the first time that Tehran did indeed supply long-range Zelzal-2 missiles to Hezbollah, capable of carrying a 600-kg warhead an estimated 210 km. (Haaretz)
 * 3 Israeli civilians are killed and at least 50 wounded as some 140 rockets hit Israeli towns, raising to 10 the number of Israeli Arab citizens killed in the ongoing conflict. (Ynet), (Haaretz),(MFA)
 * An Israeli air strike near Lebanon's north-eastern border with Syria has killed at least 23 people and injured 30, Lebanese officials have said.(BBC NEWS)
 * Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who heads the Iranian Council of Guardians, said, "[S]upport for Hizbollah [is] a duty."Islamic Republic News Agency
 * Somalia's transitional government is on the verge of collapse after 38 ministers and assistant ministers quit in the past nine days in protest against the governments failure to make a deal with the Supreme Islamic Courts Council. (csmonitor)

August 3, 2006 (Thursday)

 * 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
 * Following a French statement that “Iran is a stabilising element in the Middle East”, the president of Iran says the destruction of Israel is the "main solution" for the crisis in the Middle East.(Ynet), (Al Jazeera), (EJP)
 * 7 Israeli civilians are killed and at least 28 wounded as more than 150 rockets hit Israeli towns. All 27 civilian Israeli fatalities in the ongoing conflict were killed by Hezbollah rocket attacks. (Ynet), (Haaretz)
 * Israel resumes bombing Beirut. (CNN)
 * The IDF investigation into the attack on Qana that killed a number of civilians has been completed. It states that the IDF was not aware that there were civilians in the building and assumed that they had evacuated. The IDF also blamed Hezbollah for using civilians as human shields, and pointed out that over 150 rockets have been fired from the Qana area since the current conflict began. (Haaretz)(YNet)

August 2, 2006 (Wednesday)

 * 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict:
 * Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that there will be no ceasefire in Lebanon until an international force is deployed in the south of the country.(BBC NEWS)
 * Iran's supreme leader has urged the Muslim world to stand up to Israel and the US, criticising them for their role in the conflict in Lebanon.(BBC NEWS)
 * An Israeli civilian is killed and 16 wounded as more than 210 rockets are fired at northern Israel, the biggest daily number since the beginning of the conflict on 12 July. (Ynet), (Haaretz), (BBC NEWS)
 * A missile fired from Lebanon lands near the West Bank city of Jenin. No casualties reported. (Haaretz)
 * A massive Israeli operation is completed near Baalbek. (Haaretz)
 * Israel plans to resume air strikes after a 48-hour partial suspension. (ABC News Australia)

August 1, 2006 (Tuesday)

 * There is major outcry in Iran following death of democracy activist Akbar Mohammadi in Evin Prison. Mohammadi was condemned to death for his role in the 1999 student protests at Tehran University. He had been on a hunger strike for more than a week, protesting the refusal by the Islamic Regime to allow him to seek proper medical treatment for life-threatening injuries suffered as a result of torture. Reportedly he was beaten severely by prison guards the night of his death.(Persian Journal), (AKI), (Guardian)
 * 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
 * The Battle of Ayta al-Sha`b rages, with multiple Israeli casualties. (Yedioth Ahronoth)
 * The International Committee of the Red Cross have so far extracted 28 bodies from the rubble, 19 of whom are children, in the wake of Sunday's airstrike on Qana. Earlier reports by the Lebanese police reported double the current confirmed deathtoll, claiming at least 56 fatalities, including 37 children. (ICRC)
 * Israel's Security Council approves expansion of ground offensive in Lebanon and rejects a cease-fire until an international peacekeeping force is in place. (CBS)


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