Israel launches massive ground offensive

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel launched an expanded ground offensive into southern Lebanon on Friday as U.N. diplomats worked furiously on a cease-fire deal to end the monthlong conflict with Hezbollah.
Israel expressed dissatisfaction over an initial cease-fire plan, saying it failed to meet its basic requirements, such as stationing robust international combat troops in southern Lebanon once Israel withdraws.

But after France and the U.S. reached a deal on a revised draft resolution, Israel indicated it may accept the new arrangement and call off its offensive. The U.N. Security Council was expected to vote on the text later Friday.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was reviewing the draft, and an individual close to the government, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations, said there was a "good chance" Israel would accept it.

Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones-Parry said the resolution would give a U.N. force in Lebanon an enhanced mandate to help coordinate the eventual withdrawal of Israeli troops. But it would ultimately be deployed under Chapter 6 of the U.N. Charter — which Israel has previously opposed.

That decision was a key concession to Lebanon and Hezbollah. Israel wanted the force deployed under the Charter's Chapter 7, which would give the troops more robust rules of engagement.

"You'll find that the mandate for the force is very robust," Jones-Parry said.

"Although the government of Lebanon will have gained a certain amount in the changes that we've made, it's also the case that Israel has had concerns and no one has wanted to lose Israel from that equation," he said.

The two sides sent the new text to the governments of Israel and Lebanon, but a French diplomat said the vote would go ahead whatever the response.

Earlier Friday, Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz decided on the massive new ground campaign after meeting for several hours, and Olmert's spokesman told The Associated Press it had begun. Israeli troops and tanks massed along the Israel-Lebanon border, though the scope of the incursion was unclear.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned Olmert to ask him if there was any room left for diplomacy to solve the Mideast crisis, said an individual close to the government with direct knowledge of the conversation.

Olmert has indicated he'd be willing to call off the offensive if Israel's basic demands were met, said the individual, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the private conversation.

Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded Hezbollah positions throughout the day in an attempt to gain unchallenged command of strategic high ground and disrupt guerrilla rocket attacks across the border.

In far northern Lebanon, Israeli jets blasted a key bridge to Syria, killing at least 12 people, as the conflict for the first time touched the entire length of Lebanon — from skirmishes on the Israeli border in the south to the airstrike on the northern frontier about 105 miles away.

Marjayoun was taken by Israeli soldiers Thursday, and intense bombing and artillery fire has been reported in the region for the past 24 hours.

Daher also said there was a second attack on Red Cross and civil defense vehicles rushing to aid the stricken convoy. He said it was not known if any rescuers were hurt.

Hezbollah sent another barrage of more than 150 rockets toward northern Israel, it said. Israeli rescue workers said eight people in the port of Haifa were wounded by shrapnel, but they estimated the Hezbollah attack at about 80 missiles by midday.

The heaviest fighting continued around Marjayoun, an important hub just north of Israel's Galilee panhandle that juts into Lebanon. An AP reporter briefly entered the embattled city and saw intense Israeli bombardment of dug-in Hezbollah fighters.

The mostly Christian city gives Israeli gunners a view of the Litani River valley and other areas used as launching grounds for Hezbollah rockets. Israeli tanks rolled into Marjayoun on Thursday after coming under withering Hezbollah ambushes along the way.

Hundreds of civilian vehicles joined a convoy escorted by U.N. peacekeepers leaving Marjayoun. The exodus — which was slowed by nearby Israeli shelling — included about 350 Lebanese soldiers and police who were in the city when Israeli forces poured in.

Marjayoun Mayor Fuad Hamra told the AP by telephone from the convoy that he blames the Lebanese government for abandoning state institutions in the region. "As of tonight and in the coming days, Marjayoun will be a field for destruction," he said.

By taking Marjayoun, the Israeli army was closer to Beirut than at any time since the fighting began July 12 after a cross-border raid in which Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed three.

Powerful explosions resounded across Beirut. Local media reported Israeli warplanes hit Hezbollah strongholds in the southern Dahieh suburb.

Israel also struck an area close to the Lebanese border crossing at Masnaa in the Bekaa Valley, about 30 miles southeast of Beirut, but there were no reports of casualties. Masnaa is the main crossing into Syria, and the main escape route for hundreds of displaced Lebanese who fled the country over land.

An Israeli drone fired at a convoy fleeing attacks in southern Lebanon, killing at least one man and wounding other people, witnesses and hospital officials said. The state-run National News Agency said at least four people were killed.

The convoy of more than 100 civilian vehicles as well as vehicles carrying a detachment of 350 Lebanese soldiers and police was hit near the town of Chtaura in the Bekaa Valley. Hospital officials in the town of Job Jannine said they received 25 casualties from the attack; it was not immediately clear how many were fatalities.

Security officials in the Bekaa said at least nine rockets were fired on the convoy.

Two U.N. peacekeeping armored vehicles led the convoy out of the Israeli-occupied town of Marjayoun; it was not know if they were still with the convoy at the time of the attack.

Associated Press photographer Lutfallah Daher was with the convoy. He said he saw one dead man and many other people wounded.

Israeli planes dropped leaflets over parts of Beirut, saying Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah is "cheating" the Lebanese and hiding the number of losses among the militiamen. The paper included the names of about 90 fighters Israel said were killed.

Israel has imposed a virtual lockdown on traffic across southern Lebanon and key northern routes, seeking to cut off weapons and aid shipments to Hezbollah. The attack on the Abboudiyeh border crossing apparently reflected Israeli fears that Hezbollah was still being supplied via Syria — which is Hezbollah's main sponsor along with Iran.

At least 12 people were killed in the attack on the bridge, spanning the northern border, security officials said. That left the northern coastal road as the only official border crossing to Syria open for those trying to flee Lebanon.

Two other Lebanese civilians were killed elsewhere, officials said.

At the same time, Israeli forces were still locked in relentless clashes with guerrillas along the southern border.

Hezbollah said it killed or wounded 15 Israeli soldiers near the border village of Aita al-Shaab. It also said Israeli forces suffered casualties near the southern village of Rachaf. Israel did not immediately release information on battlefield losses.

Hezbollah said four of its fighters had been killed, but did not say when or where.

The guerrilla group's Al-Manar TV said Hezbollah fighters hit an Israeli gunboat off Tyre in southern Lebanon, but the Israeli military denied it.

More than 800 people in Lebanon and Israel have died since fighting erupted — 732 on the Lebanese side and 122 on the Israeli side.

In other developments:

• Poll results in Israel showed pessimism about the military action. A survey in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper showed 37% of the 500 people questioned believed Israel would cripple Hezbollah, compared with 40% in a previous survey. Seventeen percent thought Israel would lose the war and Hezbollah would return to south Lebanon, up from 13% earlier. The poll also showed Olmert's approval rating fell to 66% from 73%. It had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

• The spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Ronald Huguenin, said Israel refused to let a Greek ship carrying humanitarian aid and food dock in either Tyre or Sidon.

• In Geneva, the U.N. Human Rights Council condemned Israel for "massive bombardment of Lebanese civilian populations" and other "systematic" human rights violations, and decided to send a commission of inquiry to investigate.

European countries, Japan and Canada voted against the resolution, primarily because it lacked balance in failing to name the Hezbollah militia. The United States, which is an observer, has no vote on the 47-member council.

Israeli Ambassador Itzhak Levanon said the discussions were one-sided, referring only to civilian losses in Lebanon while ignoring deadly Hezbollah missile attacks on northern Israel.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-08...st_x.htm?csp=24