Situation Report
Office of the Secretary General
Regarding the Middle East Crisis

One month ago hard-line Likud leader Ariel Sharon was elected Prime Minister of Israel. This led to a new flare-up of violence in the Al Aqsa Intifada which has been ongoing since late September 2000. Last week in response to a continued Israeli security crackdown in the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian militiamen ambushed an Israeli Defense Force (IDF) convoy travelling from Ramallah killing 18 Israeli soldiers. The Palestinian militiamen attacked the Israeli convoy with 50 caliber machine guns and several shoulder-fired anti-tank missiles with obviously deadly effect. The new Likud government of Ariel Sharon responded with a massive unannounced air attack on Palestinian Authority (PA) office buildings in various locations in the West Bank and Gaza. The Israeli air-to-ground missile attack on PA offices in Gaza caused slight injuries to PA leader Yassir Arafat who was leaving the compound when the attack occurred. The attack also killed a special envoy from Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak who was also leaving the compound after having held consultations there with Arafat.

In reaction to the killing of the Egyptian envoy, an angry mob has besieged the Israeli embassy in Cairo seriously injuring several Israeli embassy guards with firebomb attacks. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is under tremendous pressure from his political opposition and from Egyptian public opinion to respond with force to the Israeli killing of the Egyptian special envoy, who was also a very close friend of Mubarak. The League of Arab States has called an emergency meeting to discuss the situation, and several key members are calling for a complete Arab economic blockade of Israel. Egypt's Mubarak has met with the Syrian defense minister and they are said to have explored the possibility of joint Syrian -Egyptian military action against Israel. Mubarak has also announced that Egypt will temporarily close the straits of Tiran and the Suez Canal to all Israeli ship traffic pending an investigation of the fatal Israeli air attack in Gaza.

In the past week 35 Israeli civilians have been killed and another 100 injured in 3 separate car and backpack bombings carried out by Hamas in Jerusalem and Beersheba. Lebanese Hizbollah militiamen have moved into Southern Lebanon and are harassing UN peacekeeping forces along the Lebanese-Israeli border that are part of the 4500 member UNIFIL deployment. Hizbollah forces have also launched several volleys of rockets into several villages in northern Israel killing four Israelis and wounding 14. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has threatened to send Israeli Defense Forces across the border into southern Lebanon in order to re-establish the security zone that was abandoned by the Israeli forces in the spring of 2000. The UNIFIL commanders are requesting that the UNIFIL be ordered to redeploy away from this potential war zone. The Secretary-General is seeking guidance on this question from Security Council members.

As Secretary General I am invoking article 99 of the United Nations Charter to call an emergency meeting of the Security Council to deal with this very dire threat to international peace and security. Here are some issues that several member states have said they would like to see addressed.

1. The need to stabilize the existing crisis on all fronts (Israeli -Egyptian, Israeli -Palestinian, and Israeli-Lebanese) by whatever means necessary.

2. Allegations of human rights abuses by Israeli Defense Forces against Palestinian civilians

3. The right of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war to return to their homes in Israel.

4. The repeated request made by Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat for the deployment of a UN observer/peacekeeper force to serve as a buffer force to protect the Palestinian people from continued Israeli violence.

Sincerely,

Koffi Annan,
Secretary-General