UNIFIL springs into action

The UN came out with a mighty press release:

9 January 2008 – A United Nations investigation team, including forensics and explosives experts, have inspected a site in northern Israel where two Katyusha rockets fired from southern Lebanon are reported to have landed and UN peacekeepers have combed locations for potential launching sites.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), enhanced as part of the arrangements that ended Israel’s war with Hizbollah in 2006, neither observed nor detected the firing of the rockets yesterday and the investigation is continuing, UN spokesperson Michele Montas told a news briefing in New York.

The Israeli authorities informed UNIFIL yesterday that the rockets hit the town of Shlomi early in the morning of 8 January, causing minor damage to a house but no injuries.

“If it is determined that there was firing from within Lebanon, the incident would be a serious violation of resolution 1701,” Ms. Montas added, referring to the UN Security Council resolution regarding the ceasefire that ended Israel’s war with Hizbollah.

Those crack investigators at the UN sure have a tough job in front of them to figure out what happened.

One the one hand, they've seen actual rocket fragments in Shlomi. But on the other hand, they didn't notice them as they were fired. So it really could be any sort of metal tubing. This will require deep, deep investigation.