Deliberate Bombing Of UNIFIL Base?

Four UN peace forces were killed by Israeli precision guided missiles on Tuesday 7/25. The deaths occurred after repeated contacts with the Israeli army. Prompting Annan to accuse Israel of deliberately bombing the UNIFIL post, with an outraged denial from Israel.

The UNIFIL post was an established and well marked post in Khiam in southern Lebanon was targeted repeatedly by Israel. The bombing went on for hours. The UN monitors contacted the Israeli military after each strike (10 of them), and was assured that the bombing would stop. It did not, and four UN monitors died in the bombing. The UN observers were form Austria, Canada, China and Finland. (BBC, 7/26/06)

Israel has expressed its "regret" for the "unfortunate incident." On Tuesday night's CNN news, an Israeli government representative argued that war is an awful thing, and unfortunate accidents happen. However, the UNIFIL monitors contacted the Israeli forces ten times. Israel was targeting the post with "precision" missiles. One could argue that one missile might have gone astray, but this was ten missiles fired over a period of hours. This is not a simple mistake, and Annan's anger is well justified. As is his conclusion that the post was deliberately targeted.

I can't even speculate why Israel would deliberately target a UN post. However, this was anything but "accidental." One can only assume that for some reason, Israel did not want UN observers in the area they are attempting to occupy. In this regard, it bears similarity to the destruction of radio and TV infrastructure in Lebanon. While Hizbullah might also broadcast there, it is the primary source for the Lebanese government to communicate with the population. Perhaps Israel doesn't want the world to see what is happening.