Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday appeared before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to give his testimony on the events of the second Lebanon war.

On Sunday, the committee concluded taking testimonies by Israel Defense Forces officers and soldiers, who described serious shortcomings in the functioning of the army during the war.

Colonels, majors and captains told the committee that in the first three weeks of the war the IDF fielded ground forces close to the border, where Hezbollah was thickly deployed, instead of using them to counter the short-range rockets hitting northern border communities.

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Officers and soldiers said ambiguous orders resulted in forces' moving toward targets in daylight along Hezbollah-controlled routes, resulting in unnecessary casualties.

Ground forces were not given air assistance when needed, some reservists said. A serious lack of medical supplies, including anesthetic, was also reported, as was the fact that units were given drugs that had expired.

Over recent weeks, the committee heard testimony from 45 reserve officers who volunteered to assist it in investigating the war. Behind closed doors, the officers also described a lack of intelligence information.

Committee chairman MK Tzachi Hanegbi said that the testimony by reservists had been completed, and that the committee would now hear from senior officers and the chief of staff, as well as the prime minister and the defense minister.