The UN turned away refugees in Lebanon seeking shelter. Somehow, the summer vacation must have removed the filters at the New York Times. Otherwise, how would this ever get published in the Times?

On July 15, Israeli loudspeakers across the border warned villagers to evacuate after Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel from near the town. The families gathered in the center of the village and then went to a nearby United Nations base for shelter, but, they said, they were turned away.

Also note this:

The town's troubles began sometime last year when a local resident who had converted to Shiism was appointed the local representative of Hezbollah, residents said. Soon strange things began to occur: strangers came through for late—night meetings; trucks would come and go in the middle of the night; and a suspicious—looking white van was parked at each end of the village. [....]

On Thursday, one of the suspicious white vans was sitting next to the town mosque. The van had apparently been hit by an Israeli missile, but the launching platform for a Katyusha rocket could still be seen inside. A rocket that lay next to the van a few days earlier had been removed.

Elsewhere, villagers showed off a weapons dump that included heavy machine guns, mortar rockets and launchers, and numerous other rockets left behind. Part of the weapons store had been bombed, but a much larger store down the street was intact.

Residents said Hezbollah was using them as human shields. 'One man in this village was able to turn all our lives upside down for just a bit of money,' Ibrahim said. When the villagers left, he said, the fighters did too, as evidenced by the limited damage done to the town.

'We want the army and the United Nations to come in here and protect us.

Ed Lasky   8 26 06