Israel dropped leaflets over Beirut, telling them to rein in Hezbullah.
“To the Lebanese citizens, who protects Lebanon?” read the small leaflet written in Arabic. “Who is lying to you? Who is sending your children to a battle they are not ready for? Who wishes the return of destruction? Who is the tool in the hands of his Syrian and Iranian masters?”
Then in bold letters, it said: “Hezbollah is causing enormous harm to Lebanon,” and added that Israel was determined to protect its citizens.
The note was signed “The State of Israel.”
By the way, the AP quotes Hezbullah, but does not quote a single Lebanese citizen who is not a terrorist. Because, like, it’s not important to get the Lebanese point of view on having an Iranian/Syrian-controled terrorist army on their southern border. No bias there. Or here:
Hezbollah guerrillas attacked Israeli military outposts on Monday and Israel pounded guerrilla positions with artillery and by missiles from warplanes. Four guerrillas were killed and 11 Israeli soldiers were wounded in the clashes in a disputed area near the border in some of the worst fighting in three years.
Hezbollah, the militant Shiite Muslim group, is a close ally of Syria and is backed by Iran. The fighting may have been intended to take the pressure off Syria, which is facing an international probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri.
Hezbollah has denied it started Monday’s fighting. But the U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, Ibrahim Gambari, said Tuesday the shooting started on the Lebanese side of the border.
Israel, under military pressure from Hezbollah, withdrew its army from a border buffer zone in southern Lebanon in 2000, ending 18 years of occupation.
For the AP, that’s practically balanced: Getting a third party to affirm Israel’s statement that Hezbullah invaded her northern borders with the intention of killing and kidnapping her citizens.