Violations across the Blue Line – Letter from Lebanon

Letter dated 10 December 2003 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 hereinafter of an incident involving Israeli aggression and violation which resulted in the killing of Lebanese nationals.

At 16.15 hours on 9 December 2003 an Israeli occupation forces patrol in the neighbourhood of the village of Ghajar fired on two Lebanese nationals who were on a hunt, carrying two 12-gauge hunting guns for that purpose. The attack resulted in their deaths. The occupation forces then proceeded in stealth to the scene of the incident and dragged the two bodies into occupied territory.

The enemy Israeli media alleged that Israeli forces had killed two armed persons near the village of Ghajar who were attempting to sneak into Israeli territory in order to carry out an operation against Israeli forces. The enemy later admitted that the two men who were killed had hunting guns, stating that their corpses would subsequently be returned to Lebanon.

It later became clear that the Lebanese victims of this act of treachery were university student Muhammad Mahmud al-Hadi, of Kafr Killa, born 1980, and Khudr Mustafa Arabi, of Katarmaya, born 1981, a resident of Kafr Killa, and that they were hunting along the course of the Wazzani river near the occupied village of Ghajar.

In this act of aggression perpetrated by enemy Israeli forces in flagrant violation of the Blue Line, those forces fired on Lebanese nationals travelling within Lebanese territory, causing their deaths, and subsequently proceeded in stealth to the scene of the incident in order to drag their bodies into occupied territory.

This inhumane act of aggression once again shows Israel’s intent to keep the region in a state of tension and instability and its arrogance over its military superiority. Indeed, there is no doubt that one can distinguish, even from afar, between civilian hunters and bearers of military weapons. The intention, however, is to commit aggressive and totally unjustified murder.

The Mission of Lebanon, in drawing the attention of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to the gravity and possible consequences of this act of aggression, requests to have this letter of complaint circulated as a document of the General Assembly, under agenda item 37, and of the Security Council.