Hizbollah - hiding behind civilians

It's becoming clear that one reason so many innocent Lebanese civilians are being killed by Israeli bombs and missiles is that Hizbollah fighters are launching their missiles from the middle of Lebanese towns. There was an article in today's New York Times about this and also Jan Egeland, the UN refugee chief, said the same thing a couple of days ago. For a really disheartening, first-person account, read this posting and comments from a Lebanese blog, Free Ain Ebel.

The situation in Ain Ebel is unbearable. Thousands of civilians have fled to the village from nearby villages and more than 1000 rockets have hit the village, there is no more food neither clean water and diseases r spreading.

Now here comes the most sickening part:
Hezbollah has been firing rockets from the village since Day 1 hiding behind innocent people’s places and even CHURCHES. No one is allowed to argue with the Hezbollah gunmen who wont hesitate to shoot you and i ve heard about more than one shooting incident including young men from the village and Hezbollah.
Urgent appeals have been done through phone calls from terrified people who wouldnt give out their name fearing Hezbollah might harm or even eliminate them.

This is the true image of our brave Islamic Resistance, putting the civilians and their homes as body shields to the Israeli bombardements.

Let the message spread and let those criminals move out of the village once and for all.
Free Ain Ebel from the terrorists !

Have I mentioned recently that this war is making me so sick? It is so sad that all these innocent Lebanese are being killed, having their homes and businesses destroyed, being driven from their homes - I can't stand it. I think that Israel is justified in defending itself, and in trying to destroy Hizbollah - but this has got to stop before even more of Lebanon is destroyed.

Secretary of State Rice is apparently back in the Middle East (in Israel tonight) supposedly trying to get a UN resolution passed this week calling for a ceasefire, along with a whole list of other demands. Why couldn't this have happened two weeks ago? Why didn't she stay in the Middle East during her previous visit? Why hasn't the U.S. done its best to crack heads together and tell Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and anyone else who would listen, that it's time to stop the killing? I don't understand. It certainly looks to me that she and Bush have dragged their feet on insisting on a ceasefire in order to further their grand strategic plan for the Middle East - and said plan doesn't involve any care or concern that hundreds of innocent people have died in the last two weeks.