[Vision2020] Israel Goes For It Again

[J Ford]

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -        Israel decided on Wednesday to expand its 
ground offensive in Lebanon, increasing the pressure on major powers 
struggling to win agreement on a        United Nations resolution to end the 
four-week-old war.

Israeli troops thrust deeper into Lebanon and 11 Israeli soldiers were 
reported killed in fierce clashes with Hizbollah.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet authorized the move to send 
troops further, possibly to the Litani river, up to 20 km (13 miles) from 
the border, to strike at Hizbollah and halt its rocket attacks into Israel.

A statement from Olmert's office said the security cabinet had approved the 
plan presented by the Israeli military. Nine ministers approved the move and 
three abstained.

A senior Israeli political source said the expanded offensive could last 30 
days. "The military presented its timetable, saying it needed at least 30 
days, and this was endorsed by the cabinet," the source said.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Israel had a right to defend 
itself from Hizbollah guerrillas but that Washington was very concerned 
about the humanitarian situation.

"Israel must take the utmost care in avoiding civilian casualties," he said.

Israel already has about 10,000 troops in southern Lebanon, and it was not 
immediately clear how many more would join them.

The Israeli move could complicate U.N. diplomacy to halt the fighting, 
though Western diplomats said Israeli officials had assured them the army 
was prepared to halt the wider campaign within days if an agreement was 
reached at the United Nations.

There has been mounting domestic pressure in Israel to strike harder against 
Hizbollah, which has proved unexpectedly resilient against the Middle East's 
most sophisticated army.

A Tel Aviv University poll showed 93 percent of Israelis believed the 
campaign in Lebanon was justified, and 91 percent backed the air strikes 
even if they destroyed Lebanese infrastructure and inflicted suffering on 
civilians.

Diplomats are still working on a U.N. resolution aimed at ending the war, 
but no Security Council vote seems imminent.

"COSMETICS"

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch held talks in Beirut as part 
of efforts to win agreement for such a resolution, but appeared to have made 
little headway.

"All he is carrying is cosmetics for what remains a very ugly resolution," 
Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a key Shi'ite politician and 
Hizbollah ally, said after talks with Welch, who also met Prime Minister 
Fouad Siniora twice.

Lebanon wants an immediate ceasefire and a quick pullout of Israeli troops 
from the south, where it says 15,000 Lebanese soldiers backed by U.N. 
peacekeepers can move in.

The United States and France have agreed to change the resolution after 
Lebanon said it would deploy the soldiers. But they differ on when an 
international force, expected to be led by France, should move in and when 
Israel should withdraw.

Israel says it will only withdraw when a foreign force and the Lebanese army 
take over to keep Hizbollah at bay.

French        President Jacques Chirac said he believed U.S. "reservations" 
to an amended draft resolution, put forward by Paris to take Arab concerns 
into account, could be overcome.

At least 1,005 people in Lebanon and 101 Israelis have been killed in four 
weeks of bloodshed which erupted when Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers 
in a cross-border raid on July 12.

Israeli forces pushed deeper into parts of Lebanon despite fierce Hizbollah 
resistance, Lebanese security sources said.

The sources said four Israeli soldiers had been killed in a rocket attack in 
the village of Aita al-Shaab and seven more died when Hizbollah blew up a 
booby-trapped house near the village of Debel, 5 km (3 miles) from the 
border.

The sources said at least three Hizbollah fighters had been killed in the 
clashes. Israel's army had no immediate comment.

Israeli forces pushed west from Taibeh, 5 km (3 miles) from the border, 
toward Qantara and north toward Qlaia, the sources said. Fighting also raged 
near Bint Jbeil and Aita al-Shaab.

Israeli planes bombed targets across Lebanon. Five people died in a raid in 
the Bekaa Valley town of Mashghara, medics said. Two people, including an 
11-year-old boy, were killed in air strikes on a Palestinian refugee camp 
near Sidon.

The death toll from an air raid on a south Beirut suburb on Monday rose to 
41 from 30, police said. Sixty-one people were also wounded in the strike on 
the mainly Shi'ite Shiyah area.

More rockets hit northern Israel and four landed in the occupied        West 
Bank. No casualties were reported.

(Additional reporting by Beirut, United Nations and Paris bureaux)





J  :]

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