Berri Says Israel Consistently Violates 1701, Tattering Rules of Engagement
Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Saturday that Israel shattered the rules of engagement after its attack on Hizbullah's convoy in Syria's Quneitra, pointing out that the party's retaliation didn't violate the U.N. Security Council resolution 1701.
“It was a clean and fully examined operation that occurred on an occupied Lebanese land,” Berri's visitors quoted him as saying in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper.
He stressed that Israel violated several times the rules of engagement a day after Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah declared that the party no longer recognizes the rules of engagement with the Jewish state, saying that it has the right to respond to an Israeli attack in any way or time it deems fit.
“The escalation along the border seized after various contacts on the highest levels,” the speaker said, revealing that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the United States and the cabinet carried out the necessary endeavors to prevent any escalation.
Two Israeli soldiers were killed and seven wounded on Wednesday in a Hizbullah attack on a military convoy in the occupied Shebaa Farms.
The attack prompted Israel to shell areas in southern Lebanon in a significant escalation along the volatile border.
Hizbullah said in its claim of responsibility that it targeted several vehicles transporting officers and soldiers with missiles to avenge the Israeli raid on Syria's Quneitra that killed six of its fighters and a top Iranian general.
Berri stressed that Israel regularly violates resolution 1701 without taking into consideration any international law.
Israel routinely sends F-16 fighter planes over Lebanon, in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war. The Israeli planes have often broken the sound barrier over Beirut and other places as a show of strength, most recently after the drone incident.
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