Mideast situation/Lebanon – Letter from Lebanon

Letter dated 31 December 2000 from the Permanent Representative

of Lebanon to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

On instructions from my Government, I have the honour to inform you that at 1450 hours on 30 December 2000 an Israeli patrol opened fire on the Lebanese citizen Hilal Ahmad al-Hajj, 22 years of age, as he was near the Fatimah checkpoint inside Lebanon’s territory, shooting him with two bullets in the head and killing him instantly.

This aggression constitutes a continuation of the Israeli attacks that on 22 December 2000 resulted in five Lebanese casualties, including a five-year-old child, and comes in addition to the daily aerial violations of Lebanese airspace and the breaking of the sound barrier over the capital, Beirut, and other Lebanese urban centres.

The fact that Israeli attacks have taken this course of grave escalation and the targeting of unarmed civilians is liable to lead to a large-scale deterioration of the situation for which Israel would bear sole responsibility.

Lebanon is deeply concerned about these acts of aggression, which cannot be passed over in silence, and, consequently, calls upon the international community and the Security Council to take measures to put a halt to Israel’s repeated attacks on Lebanese citizens and the violation of Lebanese airspace, territory and territorial waters.

I should be grateful if you would have this letter circulated as an official document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Sélim Tadmoury

Permanent Representative