Mideast situation/Attacks – Letter from Israel

Identical letters dated 28 December 2005 from the

Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Israel

to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

and the President of the Security Council

  It is with great dismay that I report that yet another terrorist attack was perpetrated against the citizens of Israel.

  Yesterday, on 27 December 2005, terrorist organizations operating in southern Lebanon fired at least nine 107 millimetre rockets, some Katyusha rockets, towards Israeli towns and communities in northern Israel, making direct hits onto houses and apartment buildings, creating extensive damage and generating fear among residents.

  Two rockets landed in Kiryat Shmona; one landed on a staircase of a three-story apartment building and another completely destroyed a living room of a house. Other rockets landed in an open field near the kibbutzim Chanita, Yaara and Matsuba, near the Lebanese border. Two other rockets landed in Lebanese territory. As a result of these deplorable attacks, four individuals had to be treated for shock, and residents throughout the north were forced to flee into bomb shelters. It is only by chance that the number of casualties was not significantly higher.

  These grave incidents underscore once again the urgent need of the Lebanese Government to fulfil its obligations, as set out in Security Council resolutions 425 (1978) and 1559 (2004), to prevent further terrorist attacks emanating from Lebanon and employ full jurisdiction over its territory up to the blue line. Israel cannot tolerate the targeting of its citizens in terrorist attacks originating from a neighbouring country.

  Israel calls on the international community to strongly denounce the continuation of terrorist attacks, including those emanating from Lebanese territory, and to see to it that the Government of Lebanon takes immediate steps to prevent further terrorist attacks.

  I would be grateful if you would arrange to have the text of the present letter circulated as a document of the sixtieth session of the General Assembly, under agenda items 14 and 108, and of the Security Council.

(Signed) Ambassador Daniel Carmon

Chargé d’affaires a.i.

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