France will greatly increase the size of the contingent it is promising for a peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, possibly making it easier to recruit other nations, officials and diplomats said on Thursday. Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema said he expected French President Jacques Chirac to announce a ”substantial increase” in the contribution.
A United Nations-brokered ceasefire to end the month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas went into effect at 7am South African time on Monday, and Lebanese security sources said the guns had fallen silent across southern Lebanon.
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.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for an urgent ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah but the guerrilla group’s leader on Monday vowed no let-up in missile attacks against the Jewish state. Israeli warplanes pounded south Lebanon early on Monday after Hezbollah missiles hit northern Israel over the weekend.
Israeli warplanes pounded Lebanon and soldiers clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas along the border on Thursday as United States marines landed near Beirut to rescue 1 200 Americans trapped by the fighting. Frightened civilians in Lebanon feared the bombing would get worse once the evacuation of thousands of foreign nationals is completed.
Israeli air raids shook Beirut on Sunday, the fifth day of a devastating assault on Hezbollah and Lebanon that has prompted no United Nations Security Council action and only a mild plea for restraint from Israel’s United States ally. US President George Bush, speaking at a G8 summit in Russia, characterised Israel’s campaign as self-defence and did not back Lebanon’s pleas for an immediate ceasefire.
Residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs hit by Israeli air strikes overnight vowed on Friday to stand by Hezbollah, despite rising casualties from attacks triggered by its capture of two Israeli soldiers. The raid on the guerrilla group’s stronghold in the south of the capital killed three people and wounded 40.