Diary of July 16 2006: Bombing Haifa

16 July 2010, the “Israeli” military machine continued its war; the southern Dahiyeh suburb witnessed a level of destruction not seen since the 1982 “Israeli” invasion, while warships and fighter jets participated in bombing the different regions and villages in the south, the Bekaa and the north. The Al Manar television station building was targeted and completely leveled. Haret Hraik area was targeted again. The number of martyrs who fell in the south on this day alone reached 50.

The Islamic Resistance responded by targeting vital places in Haifa city, the train station there was bombed, resulting in 8 deaths among the occupation settlers and dozens more wounded, this is according to enemy media sources. When later the enemy went too far in its attacks, the Islamic Resistance rockets started targeting areas beyond Haifa, “Thunder”- type rockets were for the first time falling in areas near Afula, Upper Nazareth and Givat Ela.

Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei said that “The crimes and atrocities and the violation of human values in Palestine and Lebanon committed by the Zionists in the past weeks proved once again that the Zionists’ presence in the region forms an evil entity, a malignant cancerous swelling.”

The Iranian Defense Minister warned against the possibility of a military aggression launched against Syria, stressing that “The commission of any Zionist idiocy will inflict the aggressors with losses that will make them regret their aggression.”

Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, made his second address to the nation through Al Manar television, in which he hailed the resistance fighters engaged in heroic clashes in the southern villages, and the victories they achieved by toppling the “Invincible army myth.”

He also clarified that “Keeping the chemical and petrochemical plants in Haifa out of missile fire, which were within the range of our missiles, was due to our keenness not to push matters into the unknown, in order to keep our weapon as a deterrent rather than one of vengeance… but we had only to fulfill a promise we had made and so we bombarded the city of Haifa.”

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said: “The issue of the two ‘Israeli’ soldiers is a pretext, and what is happening is a deliberate crime”, he also accused the United Nations of participating in the Marwahin town crime.

A UN delegation brought a message from the Secretary General Kofi Annan to the Lebanese government, containing three points:

1- Find a way out of the crisis
2- Protection of civilians and infrastructure
3- Implementation of a cease-fire and extend the rule of the Lebanese state over the entire Lebanese territory.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejected invitations to a temporary truce; meanwhile “Israeli” Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni announced that “‘Israel’ concurs with the international community in its position which holds extremist elements responsible for the conflict.”