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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says a comprehensive investigation will be carried out into the deaths of UN observers in an Israeli air strike, as nine Israeli soldiers were hit in heavy fighting with Hezbollah fighters.
Source:
AAP, AFP
26 Jul 2006 - 12:00 AM  UPDATED 22 Aug 2013 - 12:18 PM

Mr Olmert’s office said he "expresed his deep regret" over the killing of up to four observers in south Lebanon in a phone call with UN chief Kofi Annan.

Israel has said the strike was an accident and in the phone call Mr Olmert also expressed "reservations" about Mr Annan's comments that the air strike was an "apparently deliberate targeting," his office said.

"It was inconceivable that the error that was made would be defined by the UN as an action that seemed deliberate," it added.

The nine Israeli soldiers were hit in heavy fighting with Hezbollah fighters in the key southern border town of Bint Jbeil.

Israel's army radio said 13 soldiers were hit.

In other developments:

  • At least six people have been wounded, one seriously, in rocket attacks from Lebanon on Israel's northern port of Haifa, medical sources said. At least 11 rockets also landed in the town of Carmiel.
  • A Jordanian military plane transporting UN humanitarian aid to Lebanon landed at Beirut international airport, the first flight to land after a two week closure. Some 150 people seriously wounded in the Israeli bombardment will be evacuated from Lebanon on the board the Jordanian military aircraft.
  • The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says Lebanon is heading for a "major food crisis" with the mass flight of people and damage to infrastructure hampering food imports and the country's main cereal harvest.
  • Australians will have to rely on the goodwill of other nations if they want to flee Lebanon after the last government-sponsored ship sailed from Beirut.

    Canberra believes most Australians who wanted to leave the war zone are now out and has finished its regular evacuation services from Lebanon.

    "It's not the end of it, but there are no Australian chartered vessels operating today," said a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), following the last evacuation overnight.

    "We will still help Australians who need to be helped. Any Australians still wishing to be evacuated should contact the Australian embassy, which will try to arrange evacuations on vessels chartered by other countries.

    "But we can't guarantee getting a place on those charters."

    About 4,400 Australian citizens have fled Lebanon with government help.

  • Tens of thousands of Asian workers are reportedly remaining in Lebanon, deciding that enduring Israeli bombardment is less of a torment than losing their jobs and returning to a life of poverty and hunger at home.
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