Israel complains to UN after Katyusha strikes

By Barak Ravid and Jack Khoury
Janaury 9, 2008
Haaretz
Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=942928 

Israel has filed a complaint with the United Nations Security Council and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon over the firing of two Katyusha rockets from Lebanon early yesterday morning. 

The rockets struck the western Galilee town of Shlomi, causing no injuries. One of the rockets lightly damaged a house, and the second hit a street in the town. 

The complaint called the rocket fire a severe violation of Security Council Resolution 1701, which brought the Second Lebanon War to an end. 

According to the complaint, the rocket fire was additional evidence that the resolution has yet to be fully implemented, and that armed groups in Lebanon still pose a threat both to Israel and to UN peacekeepers. Two peacekeepers were lightly wounded yesterday in an attack on their vehicle in south Lebanon. 

Israel urged UNIFIL (the UN Interim Force in Lebanon) and the Lebanese government to take immediate action to halt the rocket fire. 

But Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the grave incident would not cause Israel to alter the status quo. We will study what happened, together with army commanders; we will think about it and decide how to act, he said. 

Simona Solomon, whose home was struck by one of the rockets, did not realize what happened until her son-in-law came over and found a hole in the wall. 

We thought it was from the thunder and lightning, said Solomon, 63. We didn't think for a moment that it was a Katyusha. 

The incident took Shlomi resident Roni Zilberman back to the days of the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006. 

It's really scary for me, said Zilberman. I hope it's not the beginning of something new.