Reader Victor Steinbok writes:

A Financial Times piece has a couple of interesting contradictions that are worth noting.

"Lebanon's Hizbollah movement on Thursday denied that a massive Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut had hit any of its leaders." vs. "The Shia fundamentalist group took reporters on a visit to its devastated stronghold of Haret Hreik in south Beirut but did not provide access to an adjacent neighbourhood where Israel said it targeted a 'leadership bunker.'"

And, "A Hizbollah spokesman ridiculed Israeli claims that it had severely damaged the group's military capabilities in nine days of attacks, in which more than 300 people have been killed -- the overwhelming majority civilians -- according to Lebanese sources." vs. "A Lebanese military expert also said he doubted that Israel had made much headway against the group. 'Hizbollah has no visible personnel infrastructure on the ground. They are organised in cells, they look like civilians, they move fast and they are trained to hide.'"

And, "In the south, Hizbollah fighters were engaged in fierce clashes with Israeli soldiers on the border for a second day. The group's spokesman in Beirut said this underlined that Israeli claims that only military targets were hit, were clearly wrong. 'We have no fighters here in Beirut, they are all in the south, on the front.'" vs. "On the edge of the bombed-out southern neighbourhoods of Beirut, some Hizbollah supporters have remained. One expressed his pride in the movement. "We are only a small group standing up to a mighty nation. I hope that they will come in with ground troops so that we can face them."

So, let's take count: Hezbollah denies that the massive attack did any damage to their leadership and infrastructure, yet they refuse to show the actual damage; they claim that the casualties are mostly civilian, yet they [sic, it was a "Lebanese military expert"] also confirm that "they look like civilians" so it's easy for an outside observer to mistake dead Hezbollah troopers for civilians; and they claim that they have no fighters in Beirut, yet their supporters in Beirut are goading on the Israelis into a combat.