Ignoring growing calls for a ceasefire, Israel blasted eastern and southern Lebanon from the air on Tuesday and prepared to advance deeper into Lebanese territory to push Hezbollah guerrillas back from the border.
Three weeks after the war unexpectedly erupted, one Israeli minister said its armed forces needed at least another 10 days to complete its offensive.
Israel’s security Cabinet approved an expansion of its military operations in southern Lebanon. This would entail a military ground sweep 6-7km into Lebanon, a political source said.
”There is no intention of taking all of the territory up to the Litani [river],” said the source, referring to a strategic boundary about 20km north of the border.
Israel has rejected mounting international calls for a truce as world powers differ over the urgency of a ceasefire.
Most Arab and European governments have insisted an immediate halt to the fighting but Israel’s closest ally, Washington, has insisted any ceasefire must be part of a broader deal that ends the threat to the Jewish state from Hezbollah.
The United Nations has postponed discussion on mobilising an international force for Lebanon until at least Thursday, until there was more progress towards a political solution.
On the frontline, Hezbollah said it was battling Israeli troops near the border areas of Aita al-Shaab and the village of Kfar Kila. The Israeli army only reported ”on and off” clashes.
Israeli aircraft launched strikes against Lebanese border villages and areas in eastern Lebanon on the second day of what it had said would be a 48-hour partial halt to aerial bombardment, Lebanese security sources and witnesses said.
Three Hezbollah rockets hit an Israeli border village overnight, the Israeli army said. Its rocket salvos have declined markedly in the last two days.
Syria, which backs Hezbollah, ordered its military to raise readiness, pledging not to end support for resistance to Israel.
Two more weeks?
Israel’s Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a former defence minister, said the army needed up to two weeks to complete its objectives.
”I reckon the time required for the [army] to complete the job, and by that I mean that the area in which we want the international force to deploy is cleansed of Hezbollah, will take around 10 days to two weeks,” he told Army Radio.
The Israeli army was calling up at least 15 000 more reservists to support the ground operations, Israel Radio said.
At least 605 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 Hezbollah’s July 12 capture of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border operation.
The southern village of Qana was set to bury bodies of at least 54 Lebanese civilians, including 37 children on Tuesday, two days after they were killed in an Israeli air strike that sparked international outrage.
Despite international condemnation of the Qana attack and the United States 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.
The United Nations was forced to scrap an aid convoy destined for a village close to Lebanon’s southern border on Tuesday because it could not get security clearance from Israel.
Israeli forces have faced tough resistance from Hezbollah in a week of clashes near the border, with Hezbollah killing 16 Israeli soldiers. The Israeli army said it had killed scores of guerrillas there but Hezbollah did not confirm the casualties.
Israeli jets bombed roads near the north-eastern Lebanese town of al-Hermil and eastern areas near the Syrian border, security sources said. Aircraft also bombarded two villages in south Lebanon.
The raids on Hermil were aimed at ”preventing the transferring of weaponry” to Hezbollah, said an Israeli army spokesperson. Israel had said it would still use air strikes against Hezbollah forces and to back its ground forces.
Haaretz newspaper said Israel was ready to swap two Lebanese prisoners in exchange for the two captured soldiers as part of a ceasefire agreement. Israel had said it would not negotiate a prisoner exchange and demanded the release of the two. – Reuters