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July 19th - - The Globe and Mail -- What rules govern the conflict?

Citing various reports of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, U.S., Lebanese, British and other experts, Mr. Cordesman's document says that Hezbollah has roughly 2,500 to 3,000 men. At their core are about 300 fighters. He says Hezbollah is equipped with armoured personnel carriers, artillery, rocket launchers, mortars, anti-tank guided missiles, recoilless rifles, surface-to-air missiles, and anti-aircraft guns. A New York Times article yesterday said that of Hezbollah's estimated 13,000 missiles and rockets, about 11,000 are believed to have been shipped from Iran and that Syria has also armed them with short- and medium-range rockets, some of which have been used in the current attacks on Israel.
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19 July 2006: The Globe and Mail
 
ESTANISLAO OZIEWICZ
 
What international humanitarian law applies to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah?
 
According to New York-based Human Rights Watch, the current armed conflict is governed by Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, as well as the rules of so-called customary international humanitarian law, designed primarily to protect civilians and other non-combatants. The main principle of the rules is that warring parties must distinguish at all times between combatants and non-combatants and they are required to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians and civilian objects. Article 3 of the conventions relates to protections for non-combatants and for captured combatants.
 
How strong is Lebanon's military?
 
Anthony Cordesman, of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, says in a just-revised paper that Lebanese forces are "lightly armed, poorly organized for manoeuvre warfare and lacked both a meaningful air force and modern land-based air defence assets." He writes that the army, with 70,000 men and still emerging from the chaos of two decades of civil war, is the only element of the military forces capable of any serious potential war-fighting. He says Lebanon has no real air force or navy.
 
What is Hezbollah's arsenal, in firepower and men?
 
Citing various reports of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, U.S., Lebanese, British and other experts, Mr. Cordesman's document says that Hezbollah has roughly 2,500 to 3,000 men. At their core are about 300 fighters. He says Hezbollah is equipped with armoured personnel carriers, artillery, rocket launchers, mortars, anti-tank guided missiles, recoilless rifles, surface-to-air missiles, and anti-aircraft guns. A New York Times article yesterday said that of Hezbollah's estimated 13,000 missiles and rockets, about 11,000 are believed to have been shipped from Iran and that Syria has also armed them with short- and medium-range rockets, some of which have been used in the current attacks on Israel.