[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:

Question: How can Israeli officials consider 3rd parties as a solution in
Gaza given the UNIFIL experience in Lebanon?

And please note that these reports are most likely only the proverbial tip
of the iceberg.]

Israel: UNIFIL hiding info about Hezbollah from Security Council

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent Last update - 08:16 28/04/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/978382.html

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is intentionally
concealing information about Hezbollah activities south of the Litani River
in Lebanon to avoid conflict with the group, senior sources in Jerusalem
have said. In the last six months there have been at least four cases in
which UNIFIL soldiers identified armed Hezbollah operatives, but did nothing
and did not submit full reports on the incidents to the UN Security Council.

The Israel Defense Forces and the Foreign Ministry are reportedly very angry
about UNIFIL's actions in recent months, especially about the fact that its
commander, Major General Claudio Graziano, is said to be leniently
interpreting his mission, as assigned by Security Council Resolution 1701,
passed at the end of the Second Lebanon War.

Senior IDF officials said recently behind closed doors that Graziano is
"presenting half-truths so as to avoid embarrassment and conflict with
Hezbollah," and that Resolution 1701 has been increasingly eroded in recent
months.

A senior government source in Jerusalem said that, "There is an attempt by
various factors in the UN to mislead the Security Council and whitewash
everything having to do with the strengthening of Hezbollah in southern
Lebanon." The source also said, "The policy of cover-ups and whitewashing
will not last long and, hopefully, now that the concealing of information
has been revealed, things will change."

Israeli anger reached boiling point over a week ago after the release of a
new report by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with regard to another
Lebanon-related Security Council resolution, 1559. The report briefly
mentioned an incident at the beginning of March in which UNIFIL soldiers
encountered unidentified armed men, and included no additional details.
Officials in Israel, familiar with the incident, reportedly were aware that
the Security Council had not been apprised of numerous details of the
incident.

A day after the release of the report, Haaretz revealed that the incident
described in the report had actually been a clash between UNIFIL and armed
Hezbollah activists. The latter, driving a truck full of explosives,
threatened the Italian UNIFIL battalion with weapons. Instead of using force
as required by their mandate, the UN soldiers abandoned the site. A
diplomatic source at the UN told Haaretz that senior officials in UNIFIL and
in the UN Secretariat brought heavy pressure to bear to have the incident
erased from the report or at least to blur it.

When the incident was made public, UNIFIL was forced to admit that it had
indeed occurred and to request Lebanon's assistance in investigating it.
UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane said that during the incident, which
took place near the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon, five armed men had
threatened UNIFIL troops. Bouziane said the identity of the armed men was
uncertain.

A day later, a second report was transmitted to the Security Council on the
matter, this time including all the details. However, the report stated that
this was the first incident of its kind. According to a security source in
Israel, this was a misrepresentation; he said that in fact there had been
many similar incidents in the past. A response from UNIFIL with regard to
Israel's claims was unobtainable.