OMEN
08-09-2006, 09:13 PM
UPDATED REPORT - 7.15am
JERSUSALEM: Israel has decided to expand its ground offensive in Lebanon, while Hizbollah's leader vowed to turn southern Lebanon into a graveyard for Israeli troops and to unleash more rockets on the city of Haifa.
With world powers divided on a draft UN resolution to end the four-week-old war, Israeli troops thrust deeper into Lebanon and 11 Israeli soldiers were reported killed in fierce clashes.
"You won't be able to stay in our land, and if you come in, we'll force you out, we will turn our precious southern land into a graveyard for the occupying Zionists," Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
He warned Arab residents of Haifa to leave to avoid being hurt by Hizbollah rocket attacks on the Israeli city.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet authorised the move to send troops further, possibly to the Litani river, up to 20 km from the border. A senior political source said the expanded offensive could last 30 days.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Israel had a right to defend itself from Hizbollah but that Washington was very concerned about the humanitarian situation and Israel "must take the utmost care" to avoid civilian casualties.
Israel already has about 10,000 troops in southern Lebanon, and it was not immediately clear how many more would join them. Soldiers filled the streets in Israeli border towns as tanks lined the roadsides in signs of preparation for a bigger operation. On a ridge, a group of 30 soldiers plodded towards Lebanon. The thunder of artillery was constant.
The Israeli move could complicate UN diplomacy to halt the fighting, though Western diplomats said Israeli officials had assured them the army was prepared to halt the wider campaign within days if an agreement was reached at the United Nations.
There has been mounting domestic pressure in Israel to strike harder against Hizbollah, which has proved unexpectedly resilient against the Middle East's most sophisticated army.
A Tel Aviv University poll showed 93 per cent of Israelis believed the campaign in Lebanon was justified, and 91 per cent backed the air strikes even if they destroyed Lebanese infrastructure and inflicted suffering on civilians.
"COSMETICS"
Diplomats are still working on a UN resolution aimed at ending the war no Security Council vote seems imminent.
US Assistant Secretary of State David Welch held talks in Beirut as part of efforts to win agreement for such a resolution, but appeared to have made little headway.
"All he is carrying is cosmetics for what remains a very ugly resolution," Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a key Shi'ite politician and Hizbollah ally, said after talks with Welch, who also met Prime Minister Fouad Siniora twice.
Lebanon wants an immediate ceasefire and a quick pullout of Israeli troops from the south, where it says 15,000 Lebanese soldiers backed by UN peacekeepers can move in.
The United States and France differ on when an international force, expected to be led by France, should move in and when Israel should withdraw. Israel says it will only withdraw when a foreign force and the Lebanese army take over to keep Hizbollah at bay, and the United States backs this position.
"Israel's withdrawal can only take place at the point when the Lebanese and an international force are there. The two cannot be delinked," a US State Department official said.
French President Jacques Chirac threatened to introduce his own resolution if no compromise was reached but said he hoped there could still be an agreement.
"I can't imagine that there would be no solution ... which would be the most immoral result, that we accept the current situation and that we abandon an immediate ceasefire," he said.
At least 1005 people in Lebanon and 101 Israelis have been killed in four weeks of bloodshed which erupted when Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
Israeli forces pushed deeper into parts of Lebanon despite fierce Hizbollah resistance, Lebanese security sources said.
The sources said four Israeli soldiers had been killed in a rocket attack in the village of Aita al-Shaab and seven more died when Hizbollah blew up a booby-trapped house near the village of Debel, 5 km from the border.
The sources said at least three Hizbollah fighters had been killed in the clashes. Israel's army had no immediate comment.
Israeli forces pushed west from Taibeh, 5 km from the border, towards Qantara and north towards Qlaia, the sources said. Fighting also raged near Bint Jbeil and Aita al-Shaab.
Israeli planes bombed targets across Lebanon. Five people died in a raid in the Bekaa Valley town of Mashghara, medics said. Two people, including an 11-year-old boy, were killed in air strikes on a Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon.
More rockets hit northern Israel and four landed in the occupied West Bank. No casualties were reported.
Israel is also pressing on with an offensive in the Gaza Strip after a soldier was seized last month. A helicopter gunship fired into a Palestinian militant training camp in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing two gunmen and a girl.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/images/masthead/reuters.gif
JERSUSALEM: Israel has decided to expand its ground offensive in Lebanon, while Hizbollah's leader vowed to turn southern Lebanon into a graveyard for Israeli troops and to unleash more rockets on the city of Haifa.
With world powers divided on a draft UN resolution to end the four-week-old war, Israeli troops thrust deeper into Lebanon and 11 Israeli soldiers were reported killed in fierce clashes.
"You won't be able to stay in our land, and if you come in, we'll force you out, we will turn our precious southern land into a graveyard for the occupying Zionists," Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
He warned Arab residents of Haifa to leave to avoid being hurt by Hizbollah rocket attacks on the Israeli city.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet authorised the move to send troops further, possibly to the Litani river, up to 20 km from the border. A senior political source said the expanded offensive could last 30 days.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Israel had a right to defend itself from Hizbollah but that Washington was very concerned about the humanitarian situation and Israel "must take the utmost care" to avoid civilian casualties.
Israel already has about 10,000 troops in southern Lebanon, and it was not immediately clear how many more would join them. Soldiers filled the streets in Israeli border towns as tanks lined the roadsides in signs of preparation for a bigger operation. On a ridge, a group of 30 soldiers plodded towards Lebanon. The thunder of artillery was constant.
The Israeli move could complicate UN diplomacy to halt the fighting, though Western diplomats said Israeli officials had assured them the army was prepared to halt the wider campaign within days if an agreement was reached at the United Nations.
There has been mounting domestic pressure in Israel to strike harder against Hizbollah, which has proved unexpectedly resilient against the Middle East's most sophisticated army.
A Tel Aviv University poll showed 93 per cent of Israelis believed the campaign in Lebanon was justified, and 91 per cent backed the air strikes even if they destroyed Lebanese infrastructure and inflicted suffering on civilians.
"COSMETICS"
Diplomats are still working on a UN resolution aimed at ending the war no Security Council vote seems imminent.
US Assistant Secretary of State David Welch held talks in Beirut as part of efforts to win agreement for such a resolution, but appeared to have made little headway.
"All he is carrying is cosmetics for what remains a very ugly resolution," Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a key Shi'ite politician and Hizbollah ally, said after talks with Welch, who also met Prime Minister Fouad Siniora twice.
Lebanon wants an immediate ceasefire and a quick pullout of Israeli troops from the south, where it says 15,000 Lebanese soldiers backed by UN peacekeepers can move in.
The United States and France differ on when an international force, expected to be led by France, should move in and when Israel should withdraw. Israel says it will only withdraw when a foreign force and the Lebanese army take over to keep Hizbollah at bay, and the United States backs this position.
"Israel's withdrawal can only take place at the point when the Lebanese and an international force are there. The two cannot be delinked," a US State Department official said.
French President Jacques Chirac threatened to introduce his own resolution if no compromise was reached but said he hoped there could still be an agreement.
"I can't imagine that there would be no solution ... which would be the most immoral result, that we accept the current situation and that we abandon an immediate ceasefire," he said.
At least 1005 people in Lebanon and 101 Israelis have been killed in four weeks of bloodshed which erupted when Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
Israeli forces pushed deeper into parts of Lebanon despite fierce Hizbollah resistance, Lebanese security sources said.
The sources said four Israeli soldiers had been killed in a rocket attack in the village of Aita al-Shaab and seven more died when Hizbollah blew up a booby-trapped house near the village of Debel, 5 km from the border.
The sources said at least three Hizbollah fighters had been killed in the clashes. Israel's army had no immediate comment.
Israeli forces pushed west from Taibeh, 5 km from the border, towards Qantara and north towards Qlaia, the sources said. Fighting also raged near Bint Jbeil and Aita al-Shaab.
Israeli planes bombed targets across Lebanon. Five people died in a raid in the Bekaa Valley town of Mashghara, medics said. Two people, including an 11-year-old boy, were killed in air strikes on a Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon.
More rockets hit northern Israel and four landed in the occupied West Bank. No casualties were reported.
Israel is also pressing on with an offensive in the Gaza Strip after a soldier was seized last month. A helicopter gunship fired into a Palestinian militant training camp in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing two gunmen and a girl.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/images/masthead/reuters.gif