LARNACA, 15 July 2006 — Cyprus yesterday evacuated 104 people from Lebanon via Syria early after Israel launched an air, land and sea blockade on Beirut. A government-chartered jet landed at Larnaca airport early yesterday morning. The island, the closest EU member to the Middle East, has also offered to evacuate Europeans on another flight should that be needed today.
The aircraft arrived more than six hours later than scheduled because security concerns forced a change in the route used in the evacuation from Beirut to Damascus by road on Thursday night, officials said. “The buses took a northern route instead of going southwards for security reasons,” Foreign Ministry Director General Sotos Zakhaeos told Reuters.
Israeli aircraft struck the main highway linking Beirut to Damascus shortly after midnight. The passengers were mostly Cypriots, but also included British, French and Czech citizens. “There was chaos because a lot of people were trying to leave Beirut worried the Israelis would come back again,” said French businessman Loic de Bretagne, 53. “The borders were packed,” he said. Several aircraft were diverted to Cyprus early on Thursday after Israel attacked Beirut international airport in reprisal for the capture of two Israeli soldiers by the Hezbollah guerrilla group.
Meanwhile, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbor yesterday added her voice to mounting international concern over civilians caught up in military violence between Israel and Lebanon. In a statement released in Geneva, Arbor said Israeli had legitimate security concerns but needed to respect international humanitarian laws and refrain from attacking civilians and civilian objects.
“In particular, they have an obligation to exercise precaution and to respect the proportionality principle in all military operations so as to prevent unnecessary suffering among the civilian population,” the former Canadian Supreme Court judge said. “The prohibition on targeting civilians is also being violated by Hezbollah,” she said.
In a separate statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urged Hezbollah militants to treat humanely the two Israeli soldiers they are holding and said it wanted access to them in order to assess their condition. The Swiss-based humanitarian body also told Israel to show respect for ambulances and emergency workers using the Red Cross and Red Crescent symbols.
