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Hezbollah Broke U.N. Ceasefire

Official says group is rearming against Israel

by
Marc Tracy
July 24, 2009

By maintaining arms in southern Lebanon less than fifteen miles from the Israeli border, Hezbollah committed a “serious violation” of the United Nations resolution that formally ended the 2006 war between it and Israel, a top U.N. official told the Security Council today. The existence of the arms depot, which contained long-range rockets, became apparent when there was a large, conspicuous explosion in a Lebanese town last week. Israel’s U.N. Ambassador cheered the official’s finding: “Hezbollah violates [the cease-fire] all the time, but now is the first time that one of the violations has been recognized.” While Hezbollah claims the arms have been there since before the 2006 war, the U.N. official asserted that the group “actively maintained” the cache.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.