While the Security Council discusses a resolution that aims at ending the war in Lebanon, Israel continues to brazenly pound away at the country with scarce regard for civilians. At least 19 were killed in attacks across the country Sunday, the 26th day of the war.
Near Baalbek, Hizbullah picked up a group of photographers and journalists, who were attempting to photograph a petrol station that was being thronged by motorists trying to buy scarce gasoline before the station went dry.
The journalists were driven to a local Hizbullah headquarters where they were questioned by a deputy of the organization as to what they were doing near Baalbek.
"These are just procedures that we have to go through in order to make sure you are safe," the deputy said, once he was satisfied with the answers, as he offered the group tea, coffee and grapes. "We just need to do this for your own protection," he added.
As the group of reporters sat and fielded question after question from the deputy, the conversation turned toward a discussion of the current war.
"When you cover bombings [by Israeli forces], are there really Hizbullah soldiers there?" the deputy, who did not give his name as he was not authorized to speak to the media, asked.
"I don't understand why the governments of Israel and America lie to the world [by saying they are targeting Hizbullah] when they kill innocent civilians ... it isn't right," he said.
United States Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch was in Beirut Sunday in an attempt to help end the war.
"President [George W. Bush and Secretary [Condoleezza] Rice are determined to support Lebanon, as are the American people," Welch said after a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
But Hizbullah is skeptical of any attempt by the US to mediate in the war due to the unyielding support it believes the American government has for Israel.
"We have No Problem with the American people," the deputy said. "But it is the [US] government that lies and lets Israel continue to destroy our people and country ... How are we supposed to deal with them [US]?"
With a smile, the deputy held up a pen suggesting that Hizbullah has yet to show its true force in southern Lebanon. The deputy said that the best soldiers Hizbullah has have yet to make an entrance into the war.
"It is like a pen before it is put to paper. We are just now holding the pen up and getting ready to put words to the paper," the deputy continued. "We, the people of Hizbullah, have just shown a small part of our true capabilities."
On Sunday, Hizbullah rockets killed 12 Israeli soldiers in northern Israel, in a day that saw an escalation of violence across the two countries.
An organization known for kidnappings during the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War, Hizbullah treated the journalists courteously, noted Swedish freelance journalist Bengt Sigvardsson afterwards.
"When they took us behind the petrol station, I thought this may be the beginning of a new campaign of kidnapping foreigners, like resistance groups are doing in Iraq," Sigvardsson said.
Almost all journalists are detained at least once by Hizbullah in Lebanon where they have their passports photocopied, according to an article by Lawrence Pintak in Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper.
Hizbullah "dictates where the media can and cannot go [and] few are likely to forget that it was Hizbullah itself that elevated the kidnapping of journalists to an art form," the article read.
Sigvardsson suggested that Hizbullah no longer wanted to kidnap reporters, as they were "the only objective Western outlets for the group."
Nevertheless, it was apparent that Hizbullah did not feel safe even among journalists.
"We are sorry that we have to do this, but with so many Israeli and American spies in the country we have to be safe during this war," the deputy said.
"We, Hizbullah, hope that you [journalists] see what is happening to Lebanon and its people and go and tell your nations and your people about the truth of what is going on," the deputy added as he motioned the reporters back to their minibus.
Hizbullah picks up reporters to 'get the truth out'
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