United Nations

A/62/636­S/2008/12
Distr.: General 8 January 2008 Original: English

General Assembly Security Council

General Assembly Sixty-second session Agenda item 17 The situation in the Middle East

Security Council Sixty-third year

Identical letters dated 8 January 2008 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
I write to call your attention to an alarming incident which occurred on the night of Monday, 7 January 2008, in grave violation of Security Council resolution 1701 (2006). Late on the evening of Monday, 7 January 2008, two rockets landed in the western Galilee region of Israel. One of the rockets fell within the proximity of a public building, causing damage to the area, while the other rocket fell near a road. The rockets were of 107 mm gauge, with a range of 10 kilometres. As the area where the rockets landed is a 23-kilometre distance from the Litani River, there is no doubt that the rockets were fired from territory in southern Lebanon under the responsibility of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). As mentioned, the launching of those rockets constitutes a grave breach of Security Council resolution 1701 (2006). This incident is the second major violation since the adoption of the resolution, the first of which occurred on 17 June 2007. Both violations underscore the fact that the security situation in southern Lebanon cannot afford to be deferred until the political issues in Lebanon are resolved. Despite the adoption by the Council of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1701 (2006), Hizbullah and other militias continue to rearm and operate in the area. As this incident proves, the failure to fully implement resolution 1701 (2006), in particular the disarming of Hizbullah and all other militias and terrorist organizations, greatly endangers the peace and stability of the region. Israel holds the Lebanese Government responsible and expects it to assert complete control over all its territory. Moreover, the fact that the rockets were fired from a UNIFIL area of responsibility emphasizes the need for UNIFIL to be more proactive and to take further action to prevent such attacks in the future.

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Israel reserves the right to defend itself and its citizens from hostilities and acts of aggression, as any other sovereign nation would, in accordance with article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations. Israel calls upon the Security Council to denounce this violation of resolution 1701 (2006), which is a direct threat to regional peace and security. I should be grateful if you would circulate the content of the present letter as a document of the sixty-second session of the General Assembly, under agenda item 17, "Situation in the Middle East", and of the Security Council. (Signed) Gilad Cohen Counsellor Chargé d'affaires, a.i.

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