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Israeli troops fight Hizbollah in south Lebanon

Posted on: Monday, 31 July 2006, 18:53 CDT

By Alaa Shahine

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Israeli troops fought fierce battles with Hizbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon early on Tuesday, as Israel gave the green light to widen a ground offensive and push deep into Lebanese territory.

An Israeli military source reported "on and off" clashes in the areas of Aita al-Shaab and Taibe on the Lebanese side of the border and Hizbollah said it was resisting another Israeli incursion near the border village of Kfar Kila.

The southern village of Qana was set to bury bodies of at least 54 civilians, including 37 children on Tuesday, two days after they were killed in an Israeli air strike that sparked international outrage and calls for a swift end to the fighting.

At least 598 people have been killed in Lebanon, although the health minister puts the toll at 750 including bodies still buried under rubble. Fifty-one Israelis have also been killed in the violence ignited by Hizbollah's July 12 capture of two Israeli soldiers.

Despite international condemnation of the Qana attack and the U.S. Secretary of States Condoleezza Rice's view that a ceasefire could be reached this week, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said there was no sign fighting would end soon.

"The fighting continues. There is no ceasefire and there will not be any ceasefire in the coming days," Olmert told a gathering of northern Israeli mayors on Monday.

Civilians fled battered villages in southern Lebanon after Israel said it had agreed partially to halt air strikes for 48 hours, and aid convoys headed into the area to deliver supplies.

Rescue workers found 49 bodies buried for days in collapsed buildings or inside destroyed vehicles, medical sources said.

GROUND OPERATIONS EXPANDED

Israel's inner security cabinet gave the green light to widen the ground offensive against Hizbollah.

"The security cabinet approved a widening of ground operations without any objections," a government official said early on Tuesday.

The aim was to push Hizbollah back to the Litani River, some 20 km (13 miles) north of the border, a political source said.

Israel announced a partial 48-hour suspension of air strikes early on Monday and said it was giving a 24-hour window to allow aid workers to reach the worst hit areas and residents to flee.

But Israeli jets bombed targets in southern Lebanon later in the day and the United Nations said access had not improved.

At the United Nations, emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland said Israel had given no information on the scope and timing of any pause in the bombing.

Israeli artillery shells hit two villages. An air strike on a Lebanese army vehicle killed one soldier and wounded three.

At the main border crossing into Lebanon from Syria, Israeli drones fired at two trucks and a third truck was destroyed by a warplane, security sources said. Four Lebanese customs officials and the three drivers were wounded.

Syria, a key backer of Hizbollah, asked its military to raise readiness, pledging not to abandon support for the Lebanese resistance to Israel.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, whose country is another main backer of Hizbollah, met French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy in Beirut for talks on the crisis.

DIVISIONS OVER CEASEFIRE

Rice, ending her trip to Israel, said a ceasefire could be forged this week, but Israel said the war was not over.

"If an immediate ceasefire is declared, the extremists will rear their heads anew," said Defense Minister Amir Peretz.

Despite its pause in air raids from early on Monday, Israel said it may still use aerial strikes to target Hizbollah leaders and rocket launchers and back up ground operations.

Olmert said a ceasefire could be implemented immediately after an international force arrived in Lebanon.

A U.N. official said a meeting scheduled for Monday on a new peacekeeping force for Lebanon had been delayed "until there is more political clarity" on the path ahead in the war.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said an international force could be deployed only once a ceasefire and a clear political road map had been agreed. Russia also demanded an immediate ceasefire.

But the United States, which blames Hizbollah for the war, is refusing to back calls for an immediate halt to the fighting.

Hizbollah fired two shells into the northern Israeli border town of Kiryat Shmona on Monday, but nobody was wounded. The group also said its rockets hit an Israeli warship off Lebanon's south port city of Tyre, but an Israeli source denied the claim.

(Additional reporting by Jerusalem bureau)

Source: REUTERS

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