Hezbollah guerrillas fought Israeli troops pushing further into south-east Lebanon on Thursday, though an Israeli Cabinet minister said plans for a deeper ground assault were on hold to give diplomacy a chance.
Hezbollah also fired nearly 70 rockets into Israel, killing a woman and a toddler in an Israeli Arab village, medics said.
The Israeli force headed towards the south-eastern town of Khiam amid heavy artillery shelling and air strikes on Hezbollah positions, residents said. Infantry moved through the Christian towns of Marjayoun and Qlaiah overnight and imposed a curfew.
The fighting intensified even though Israel’s minister of tourism said plans for an expanded ground offensive, approved on Wednesday, had been put on hold to allow more time for United States-led diplomatic efforts to bear fruit.
The United Nations Security Council has been divided over a resolution aimed at stabilising the area by deploying an international force to back the Lebanese army. No vote seems imminent.
”We can allow a little more time to see if there’s a possibility for a diplomatic process,” said minister Yitzhak Herzog, a member of Israel’s security cabinet.
US Assistant Secretary of State David Welch paid another visit to Jerusalem for what diplomats described as a last-ditch push for a deal on a UN resolution.
He visited Beirut on Wednesday.
”Fifteen casualties in one day prove what price we could pay if we do not try to make the most of the political move,” Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said, referring to Israeli military casualties on Wednesday.
Israel’s well-flagged plans for a bigger offensive are intended partly to ratchet up pressure on the Beirut government to accept the Jewish state’s terms for halting hostilities.
Israeli leaf dropped on Beirut told people in the crowded Shiyah, Burj al-Barajneh and Hay al-Sulloum districts to leave or be bombed. The Shi’ite suburbs have already been heavily hit.
Humanitarian crisis
The conflict, now in its fifth week, has created an acute humanitarian crisis, especially for an estimated 10 000 people trapped in south Lebanon, where aid agencies said hospitals were running out of food, fuel and other supplies.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) urged both sides to stop fighting, saying relief efforts were now facing paralysis.
”Above all, we require a cessation of hostilities by both sides to allow humanitarian aid through,” Zlatan Milisic, WFP emergency coordinator in Lebanon, said in a statement.
He said the destruction of bridges and Israel’s refusal to guarantee the safety of aid convoys were crippling WFP efforts.
The Israeli infantry advance towards Khiam was followed by tanks that drew intense Hezbollah fire. ”I can see two tanks burning some 500m from Marjayoun,” one resident said.
A third tank arrived later and removed several casualties, he said, adding that Hezbollah fighters were raining rocket and mortar fire on the Israeli force between Marjayoun and Khiam.
The war has cost the lives of at least 1 011 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 121 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
Missiles
Israeli Brigadier General Ido Nehushtan said 50 Hezbollah fighters had been killed in Wednesday’s fighting, bringing the guerrilla death toll in the conflict to ”between 400 and 500”.
Lebanese security sources estimate Hezbollah’s losses at about 100. Hezbollah has acknowledged only about 60 dead.
Herzog made clear a push by ground forces to the Litani River, about 20km inside Lebanon, remained an option.
An Israeli military source said the incursion in the eastern sector aimed to stop Hezbollah rocket fire from Khiam.
In Beirut, an Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a disused radio tower in the heart of the capital, wounding two people, security sources said. Another missile hit a radio mast in the Christian town of Amsheet, north of Beirut.
And an Israeli air raid killed a motorcyclist near Tyre on Thursday. Another strike killed a civilian in the Bekaa Valley.
Hours before the overnight Israeli advance, Hezbollah’s chief vowed to turn the south into a graveyard for the invaders.
But for the first time, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah also said Hezbollah backed a Lebanese government decision to send 15 000 troops to the border if that would promote a peaceful solution.
Hezbollah, which has controlled the south since Israeli occupation troops left in 2000, has long resisted international pressure on Lebanon to deploy the army to the region.
Lebanon wants an immediate ceasefire and a swift Israeli withdrawal. Israel says it will fight on until foreign troops and the Lebanese army move in — a stance backed by Washington, which fears a security vacuum that could let Hezbollah regroup.
France, which may lead the foreign force, does not want it to deploy before a ceasefire and a political agreement. — Reuters