Militants Ignore UN Resolution, Fire Rocket Into Israel

By Alan Gray, NewsBlaze

Note 10/29/2009: It was originally reported that the militants were Hezbollah, but Hezbollah has not claimed responsibility for this attack.

Despite UN Security Council Resolution 1701, Militants fire rocket from Lebanon into Israel

On Tuesday, militants in southern Lebanon fired a Katyusha rocket into Israel, the ninth since Israel ended it's retaliatory war against Hezbollah in 2006. Lebanese and UNIFIL forces discovered four more rockets close to the launch site, three of which were ready to launch.

Hezbollah re-armed, south of the Litani River, after the war in 2006, building bunkers, creating weapons caches and conducting paramilitary exercises and it is believed they have more than 40,000 artillery rockets. All these activities violate UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which called for Hezbollah's disarmament.

The primary source of Hezbollah's arms, funding and training, is Iran, which procures advanced anti-tank missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, artillery rockets and other weapons on behalf of Hezbollah and provides the terrorist group with approximately $200 million in annual funding. Iran's Revolutionary Guard trains Hezbollah operatives.

Two weeks ago, there was an explosion in a Hezbollah operative's home in Lebanon, believed to be an arms storage facility. Two days after that explosion, Israel's permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Gabriela Shalev, informed the UN Security Council of the continued threat of Hezbollah.

"The Hizbullah terrorist organization continues to receive deadly weapons from its sponsors, members of this organization. At the same time, Hizbullah builds a military infrastructure in the midst of the civilian population south of the Litani River. Its operatives and affiliated civilians openly threaten UNIFIL, obstructing it from discharging its mandate," Shalev said. "Hizbullah's violations are the greatest obstacle to the implementation of resolution 1701 ... Southern Lebanon ... is occupied by terrorism. Hizbullah terrorism."

UN Security Council resolution 1701 requires:

no armed groups in Lebanon except the Lebanese army.

no arms be supplied to any Lebanese militia or armed group other than the Lebanese army, to be enforced by UNIFIL.

Hezbollah withdraw all personnel, weapons and other assets from the territory between the Israel-Lebanon border (Blue Line) up to the Litani River.