Mideast situation/Lebanon – Letter from Lebanon

Letter dated 8 September 1987 from the Permanent Representative of Lebanon

to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary -General

On instructions from my Government and further to our previous letters concerning Israeli criminal attacks on the towns and villages of the south and on the Palestinian camps there, I have the honour to inform you as follows:

On Saturday, 5 September 1987, a squadron of Israeli warplanes carried out three successive raids at 20-minute intervals on the Ein el-Hilweh camp and the surrounding area. These savage raids destroyed and set fire to property and caused heavy casualties. So far a count has been made of 49 dead and 70 wounded, most of them innocent civilians.

The timing of the three raids and the intervals between them are proof of Israel's intention of causing the greatest possible amount of injury to the civilian inhabitants and the first-aid teams which rushed to the scene after each raid in order to carry out their humane duty.

The Lebanese Government most strongly condemns this new inhumane attack, places full responsibility on Israel and once again calls upon the Security Council to take urgent measures to make Israel halt its attacks immediately and comply with Council resolutions and with the provisions of international law prohibiting such flagrant violation of the sovereignty of a State that is a founding Member of the United Nations and which protects civilian inhabitants and their property.

The Lebanese Government, in requesting that the text of this letter be transmitted to the Security Council as a matter of urgency, reserves its right to call for a meeting of the Council at a later date to consider this bloody, iniquitous and unjustifiable attack.

I request you to have this letter circulated as an official document of the General Assembly, under item 39, and of the Security Council.

(Signed)  Rachid FAKHOURY

Permanent Representative

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