Lebanese bombarded with more phone messages from "Israel"
Source: Agencies, 22-8-2008
BEIRUT: Lebanese citizens on Thursday reported receiving recorded phone messages asking for information about missing "Israeli" soldiers.
The message asks people to view an "Israeli" Web site or call a phone number in the United Kingdom if they have any information on the whereabouts of the missing troops.
The Web site, www.10million.org, belongs to a foundation set up by the "Israeli" government, according to the Associated Press. The site pictures five missing "Israeli" soldiers, including Ron Arad, whose plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986. The Web site, in English, Arabic and Farsi, offers a $10 million reward for information on any of the missing troops.
One editor for The Daily Star and three Associated Press staffers were among those who received the calls on their mobile telephones Thursday. A foundation spokeswoman refused to say if it was behind the calls.
Last month, similar messages in Lebanon criticized Hizbullah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and prompted Lebanese outrage over what some officials said was the Zionist state's tampering with Lebanon's telecommunications system.
Telecommunications Minister Jebran Bassil said last month that he wrote a letter of protest to United Nations chief Ban Ki Moon protesting over the messages, calling them a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the summer 2006 war with "Israel".
"Israel's" War Ministry declined to comment on those claims. But an "Israeli" official told AFP that "Israel" uses "all sorts of methods to weaken Hizbullah" and that it was engaged in "intelligence and electronic warfare" against the group.
Many Lebanese had received similar phone messages urging them not to support Hizbullah during the course of the 2006 war, a conflict which killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians and more than 160 "Israelis", mostly soldiers.
BEIRUT: Lebanese citizens on Thursday reported receiving recorded phone messages asking for information about missing "Israeli" soldiers.
The message asks people to view an "Israeli" Web site or call a phone number in the United Kingdom if they have any information on the whereabouts of the missing troops.
The Web site, www.10million.org, belongs to a foundation set up by the "Israeli" government, according to the Associated Press. The site pictures five missing "Israeli" soldiers, including Ron Arad, whose plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986. The Web site, in English, Arabic and Farsi, offers a $10 million reward for information on any of the missing troops.
One editor for The Daily Star and three Associated Press staffers were among those who received the calls on their mobile telephones Thursday. A foundation spokeswoman refused to say if it was behind the calls.
Last month, similar messages in Lebanon criticized Hizbullah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and prompted Lebanese outrage over what some officials said was the Zionist state's tampering with Lebanon's telecommunications system.
Telecommunications Minister Jebran Bassil said last month that he wrote a letter of protest to United Nations chief Ban Ki Moon protesting over the messages, calling them a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the summer 2006 war with "Israel".
"Israel's" War Ministry declined to comment on those claims. But an "Israeli" official told AFP that "Israel" uses "all sorts of methods to weaken Hizbullah" and that it was engaged in "intelligence and electronic warfare" against the group.
Many Lebanese had received similar phone messages urging them not to support Hizbullah during the course of the 2006 war, a conflict which killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians and more than 160 "Israelis", mostly soldiers.
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