News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will demand that Israel pay Lebanon $1 billion in compensation for damages caused during Israel's 2006 war against Hizbullah, Lebanese media reported Saturday. According to the report, the sum, based on World Bank appraisals, is aimed at covering the environmental and material damages caused by the Second Lebanon War.

The fundamental part of the compensation demanded is for the damage caused to the Lebanese coast due to an oil spill following an Israeli bombing of a southern Beirut power plant, which the Lebanese said had caused "an ecological disaster," and caused some 110,000 oil barrels to leak into the Mediterranean Sea.

According to the report, Ban plans to submit a report to the United Nations General Assembly at the end of the month, stating that damage Israel caused to the oil reservoir polluted Lebanon's coast, and that the pollution spread to neighboring countries, especially Syria.