Israel called up thousands of reservist soldiers on Friday but a military source ruled out a mass invasion of southern Lebanon, saying the army would step up pinpoint cross-border attacks against Hezbollah guerrillas.
Amid mounting world alarm as Israel kept up a 10-day-old air bombardment and Hezbollah fired more rockets into Israel, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza announced a diplomatic drive and said the conflict’s root causes had be tackled before any truce.
Fearing a large-scale Israeli ground attack, thousands of Lebanese civilians fled north after the Jewish state warned them to leave border villages.
The Israeli military source said the army had told 3 000 reservists to report for duty. The army could have three to four divisions on the border with Lebanon by the end of the weekend, the YNET news website reported.
The source said the army intended to step up pinpoint incursions into the south. ”You should not expect a full-scale incursion into Lebanon,” the source told Reuters.
Rice told a news conference in Washington she would visit the Middle East next week and attend an Italian-hosted international conference in Rome on Wednesday in an attempt to secure lasting peace.
The United States, Israel’s main ally, has rebuffed Lebanon’s appeals for an immediate UN-backed ceasefire, saying this would not last unless Hezbollah guerrillas, backed by Syria and Iran, were prevented from attacking the Jewish state.
”An immediate ceasefire without political conditions does not make sense,” said Rice. ”What I won’t do is … try to get a ceasefire that I know isn’t going to last.”
Washington supported proposals for an expanded international force on the Israel-Lebanon border but details were not fixed, a senior US official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. A 2 000-strong UN force monitors the border at present.
Israel has so far failed to stop Hezbollah cross-border rocket attacks despite its bombardment, which has killed 345 people in Lebanon and forced half a million to leave their homes. About 90% of those killed were civilians.
Hezbollah rockets crashed into the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Friday, wounding 19 people. Other towns were also hit. Rocket attacks have killed 15 civilians in Israel, which has also lost 19 soldiers in the conflict.
Elite Israeli troops have been launching small-scale raids in Lebanon to try to stop Hezbollah rocket attacks. But Israel has been wary of launching a full-scale invasion, only six years after it ended a costly 22-year occupation of the south.
Israel’s military chief, Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz, said Israeli forces had killed nearly 100 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon during the 10-day offensive. The guerrilla group says only six of its fighters have been killed.
Lebanese families packed into cars and pickup trucks and clogged roads to the north after Israeli planes dropped leaflets warning residents of south Lebanon to flee for safety beyond the Litani river, about 20km from the border.
An estimated 300 000 mostly Shi’ite Muslim Lebanese normally reside south of the Litani. There was no word on how many have already fled the bombing and fighting of the past few days. Air raids have wrecked many roads and bridges in the region.
Israel began its assault after Hezbollah captured two soldiers and killed eight in a cross-border raid on July 12. It has also waged a military campaign in Gaza since June 28 to recover another soldier, seized by Palestinian militants.
”The siege on Lebanon is not letting humanitarian aid in,” said Hisham Hassan, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). ”The south is isolated.”
US helicopters plucked frightened Americans from Beirut, adding to a swelling tide of foreign evacuees to Cyprus and Turkey. At a beach, people carrying suitcases and babies queued for a landing craft to take them out to US warships.
”My parents are staying. They think it will last three to six weeks but I think it might get worse when we leave,” said George Abi-Habib (25) one of many who voiced similar worries.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was involved in brokering a 2004 prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah, also plans a trip to the Middle East next week.
In Gaza, Palestinian medics said Israeli shelling killed a Hamas militant and four civilians on Friday, as tanks and troops withdrew from a refugee camp after a three-day assault. – Reuters