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JERUSALEM, Aug 16: Iraeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz on Wednesday appointed a commission to investigate Israel’s conduct of its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, a ministry spokeswoman said.
The commission will be headed by retired army chief Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, a former minister, and three retired generals including Herzl Bodinger, a former air force commander, will also serve on it.
“I can confirm that the defence minister has set up an investigation commission comprising five members,” the spokesman said.
The fifth member is a civilian, Eli Hurvitz, chairman of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. Teva is Israel’s biggest company and the world’s largest generic drugs maker.
A ceasefire to end 33 days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began on Monday and has largely held.
At least 1,110 people in Lebanon and 157 Israelis were killed in the month-long conflict.
Peretz has charged the commission with investigating the performance of the military and the rest of the defence establishment before and during the offensive.
He has asked it to deliver an interim report within three weeks. It was unclear whether the findings would be binding.
A poll published in Israeli newspapers on Wednesday showed a majority of Israelis wanted Peretz to resign and an inquiry to be held.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a career politician who lacks the combat credentials of many of his predecessors, has faced a political backlash for failing to deliver a fatal blow to Hezbollah and for accepting the U.N. truce.
INDEFINITE STAY: Israel’s embattled army chief said on Wednesday his troops could remain deployed on the Lebanese side of the border for months, fuelling opposition claims the war is being mismanaged.
Lt Gen Dan Halutz was reacting to an assessment presented by military intelligence chiefs to parliament’s foreign affairs and defence committee.
“The full deployment of the strengthened UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) will take months,” one intelligence chief was quoted as saying by a member of the committee.
Gen Halutz reacted by saying that ‘Tsahal (the Israeli army) will have to remain on the ground until then’, the source said.
During the same briefing, another senior military official said the thousands of Israeli troops still in Lebanon were gradually pulling back to the positions they held before the expanded ground offensive launched last weekend.
As part of the UN-brokered agreement for a cessation of hostilities, Israeli troops are due to hand over the areas they control in south Lebanon to a UN peacekeeping force and the Lebanese army.—AFP
