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.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Cabinet on Sunday approved a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a cessation of hostilities with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, a political source said. However, both Israel and Hezbollah showed little inclination to stop fighting ahead of Monday’s proposed truce. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had said the prime ministers of Israel and Lebanon agreed fighting would end on Monday.
The United Nations said Israeli and Lebanese leaders had agreed a ceasefire that will take effect on Monday to end the month-old war, but fighting raged on Sunday as Israeli forces met fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas. Israeli aircraft also launched scores of strikes on more than 50 villages and towns across Lebanon on Sunday.
The United Nations said Israeli and Lebanese leaders had agreed to a ceasefire to take effect on Monday, as Israel reported its worst death toll yet in the month-long war against Hezbollah guerrillas. Israel, stepping up an offensive in southern Lebanon before the truce, said 19 of its soldiers were killed in clashes on Saturday and five declared missing.
Israel’s army thrust deeper into Lebanon on Saturday and its commander said he would keep fighting Hezbollah guerrillas, despite a United Nations Security Council demand for a ”full cessation of hostilities” in the month-old war. Air strikes killed up to 20 people in Lebanon, hours after the council adopted a resolution aimed at ending the conflict.
The United States and Lebanon said on Friday a deal on a United Nations resolution to end Israel’s month-old war with Hezbollah guerrillas is in sight. But Israel told the US it would not automatically accept any such resolution, Israeli television said. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also ordered the army to expand its ground offensive.
Israeli air raids killed 11 people in north Lebanon on Friday as the United States and France strove to clinch a draft United Nations resolution to end the month-old war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas. The bombing of a bridge near the border with Syria wounded 18 people, hospital staff said.
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.
Israeli air strikes killed 14 villagers in south Lebanon on Tuesday as Beirut pleaded for a swift end to Israel’s war with Hezbollah guerrillas that has cost up to 1Â 000 Lebanese and 100 Israeli lives in four weeks. Diplomats at the United Nations in New York said a vote on a resolution to end the war might not take place before Thursday as fighting in south Lebanon raged on.
Lebanon’s prime minister, choking back tears, demanded a "quick and decisive ceasefire" on Monday after an Israeli air raid that he at first said killed more than 40 civilians sheltering from fighting in a southern village. Later, though, he said that only one person had been killed. Air raids elsewhere killed at least 24 Lebanese.
Israeli bombs killed at least 18 civilians in Lebanon and cut a vital aid lifeline to the south on Monday in renewed fighting after diplomatic efforts to end the 27-day-old war stalled. Hezbollah guerrillas responded by firing more rockets into northern Israel, wounding one person.
Israeli air strikes killed 14 civilians in Lebanon and Hezbollah battled Israeli ground troops on Monday as the United Nations Security Council failed to agree on a draft resolution seeking to end 27 days of fighting. Opposition from Lebanon caused the United States and France to delay a vote on the resolution also aimed at setting terms to settle the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
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.
Waves of Israeli air strikes destroyed three highway bridges north of Beirut on Friday, forcing United Nations relief agencies to cancel several convoys of aid for the 900Â 000 people displaced by the conflict. The Israeli air force’s bombing of bridges in the Christian heartlands north of the capital cut off the main coastal highway to Syria.
The Israeli army on Friday prepared for a possible push deeper into southern Lebanon to drive out Hezbollah which threatened to launch rockets further into Israel if it hits central Beirut. While world powers worked on a United Nations resolution to end the 24-day-long conflict, Israeli jets targeted Hezbollah offices and the house of a senior guerrilla leader in southern Beirut.
Hezbollah guerrillas killed eight people in Israel in a rocket barrage on Thursday despite an intensive Israeli ground and air campaign to wipe them out, as world powers struggled to end the 23-day-old war. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the war had killed 900 people in Lebanon.
Israeli jets pounded Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold and troops battled the guerrillas in the south on Thursday while world powers struggled to come up with a plan to stop a war now in its fourth week. The United States, France and Britain hope for a United Nations Security Council resolution within a week that would call for a truce and perhaps beef up existing United Nations peacekeepers.
Hezbollah fired more rockets into Israel on Wednesday than on any previous day of the 22-day-old war, after helicopter-borne commandos attacked guerrilla targets in Israel’s deepest raid into Lebanon. Air strikes in support of the helicopter raid in the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek in north-eastern Lebanon killed 19 people, including four children.
Hezbollah guerrillas bombarded northern Israel with rockets and fought up to 6Â 000 Israeli troops in south Lebanon on Wednesday after Israel vowed to pursue the war until a strong international force arrived. Israeli commandos snatched suspected Hezbollah members from the ancient city of Baalbek in a helicopter-borne raid backed by air strikes that killed 19 people, including four children.
Hezbollah guerrillas battled up to 6Â 000 Israeli troops on five fronts in south Lebanon on Wednesday, escalating a conflict that Israel’s prime minister vowed to pursue until a strong international force arrived. Israeli commandos snatched suspected Hezbollah members from Baalbek in a helicopter-borne night raid backed by air strikes that killed 19 people, including four children.
Israeli forces thrust into southern Lebanon on Tuesday and pounded towns and villages, meeting fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas who reportedly killed three soldiers. Three weeks after the war erupted when Hezbollah snatched two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid, Israel’s security Cabinet agreed to step up its offensive.
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.
Hezbollah pledged on Saturday to deny the United States and Israel any political gains from the war in Lebanon as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Jerusalem to discuss ways to end the 18-day-old conflict. Israel rejected as unnecessary a United Nations plea for a truce to aid civilians trapped by fighting.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice headed to Jerusalem on Saturday to discuss ways to end the 18-day-old war in Lebanon as Israel rejected a United Nations plea for a truce to aid civilians trapped by fighting. ”There is no need for a 72-hour temporary ceasefire because Israel has opened a humanitarian corridor to and from Lebanon,” said Israeli government spokesperson Avi Pazner.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice headed for Israel on Saturday to discuss terms for a United Nations Security Council resolution to end its 18-day-old war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. Rice, who visited Jerusalem and Beirut earlier in the week, was expected to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in the evening and hold more talks in Israel on Sunday.
Israel battered Lebanon on Friday, killing 11 people as waves of air raids struck villages in the hills behind the southern port of Tyre and hundreds of artillery rounds crashed across the border.
Israeli warplanes and artillery hammered Lebanon again on Thursday as the Beirut government said up to 600 people may have been killed in Israel’s 16-day-old campaign against Hezbollah guerrillas. Israel’s inner Cabinet chose to pursue a strategy of air strikes and limited ground incursions, rather than a full-scale invasion of Lebanon.
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.
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.