Italy has offered to lead a United Nations force for Lebanon, but a week after a truce calmed Israel’s war with Hezbollah guerrillas, few other countries with proven military capacity have made substantial commitments. European Union countries are meeting on Wednesday to discuss concerns about clear rules of engagement for the force.
Hezbollah handed out bundles of cash on Friday to people whose homes were wrecked by Israeli bombing, consolidating the Iranian-backed group’s support among Lebanon’s Shi’ites and embarrassing the Beirut government. ”This is a very, very reasonable amount. It is not small,” said Ayman Jaber (27).
Lebanese army troops prepared to move on Friday to the edge of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, the main flashpoint for fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas before the war that a United Nations truce has halted. Trying to consolidate the five-day-old truce, the UN said it has received substantial offers of more troops for Lebanon.
Lebanon’s government on Wednesday ordered 15 000 troops to move south to take full control, with United Nations peacekeepers, when Israeli troops withdraw after a 34-day war with Hezbollah guerrillas. Officials said Lebanese troops would deploy south of the Litani River, about 20km from the Israeli border, on Thursday.
Israeli troops thrust deeper into Lebanon on Wednesday and were reported to have lost four dead to Hezbollah rocket fire as Israel’s inner cabinet debated whether to order a bigger advance before any United Nations move to end the war. A vote on a UN Security Council resolution may not take place before Thursday because of wrangling over its content.
An Israeli air strike killed at least 33 farm workers in north-eastern Lebanon on Friday and Hezbollah fired scores of rockets into Israel in a worsening conflict that world powers have failed to halt. It was the second-deadliest strike in Lebanon after an air raid killed up to 54 civilians in the village of Qana on Sunday.
Hezbollah guerrillas killed up to 13 Israeli soldiers in fighting in Lebanon on Wednesday and world diplomats met in Rome but stopped short of calling for an immediate end to the 15-day-old war. Foreign ministers at the crisis conference pledged to work urgently for a ”lasting, permanent and sustainable” ceasefire, but did not call for the fighting to stop immediately.
Thirteen Israeli soldiers were reported killed in fierce fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon on Wednesday while United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan told world diplomats in Rome that the 15-day-old war must end. Al Jazeera television said 13 soldiers had been killed in clashes in the southern town of Bint Jbeil, which Israel calls a Hezbollah stronghold.
Fierce fighting raged in Lebanon on Wednesday as an international conference opened in Rome on how to end Israel’s 15-day-old war with Hezbollah guerrillas. Al-Jazeera television said nine Israeli soldiers had been killed during clashes with Hezbollah guerrillas in a south Lebanese village. Israeli medics reported heavy casualties.
Israel’s killing of four United Nations observers piled pressure on an international conference in Rome on Wednesday to end a 15-day-old Middle East conflict, as Hezbollah vowed not to accept any ”humiliating” truce terms. Israel, with apparent United States approval, has said it would press on with its offensive.