Hezbollah fired more rockets into Israel yesterday 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 northeastern Lebanon killed 19 people,
including four children.
In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would fight
on until an international force reaches south Lebanon even though
no country has volunteered to send troops in the absence of a truce
and a durable ceasefire agreement.
Olmert called for an international combat force to implement a
UN resolution calling for Hezbollah to be disarmed, saying Israel
had already destroyed much of the group's military power.
Soon after he spoke, one of more than 180 rockets launched by
Hezbollah landed just inside the West Bank after flying further
than any fired at Israel in the past three weeks.
Israeli police and Hezbollah both said it was the highest number
of rockets fired into Israel on one day since the war began. The
barrage, which killed one person near the northern city of
Nahariya, followed a two-day lull in such attacks.
Olmert said earlier Hezbollah's infrastructure had been
"entirely destroyed" in the Israeli offensive.
Battles raged between Hezbollah guerrillas and around 6,000
Israeli troops in south Lebanon, especially around the villages of
Aita Shaab and Kfar Kila, where there was intense Israeli shelling
and airstrikes, a source in the UN peacekeeping force said.
The source said Israeli forces were present in five areas of the
south and troops had landed by helicopter during the night near the
southeastern border village of Meis al-Jabal.
Lebanese security sources said the Israelis had captured a
hilltop at al-Aweida overlooking several villages, including Kfar
Kila and Adaiseh where fighting has raged this week.
At least 643 people in Lebanon and 55 Israelis have been killed
in the conflict, now in its fourth week. Lebanon's health minister
puts the toll at 762, including unrecovered bodies.
Israeli bombing has inflicted US$2 billion of physical damage
across Lebanon, the transport and public works minister said.
Israel said its troops seized five Hezbollah militants in the
night raid on Baalbek, which is 95 kilometers northeast of Beirut.
Hezbollah denied those taken belonged to the group. Security
sources said two Hezbollah fighters were also killed.
It was the first helicopter-borne assault deep inside Lebanon in
the conflict since July 12.
UN again postpones meeting on int'l force for
Lebanon
The UN yesterday canceled for the second time this week a
planned meeting of governments over offering troops to an
international force to be deployed in southern Lebanon.
"The troop-contributing countries meeting that was due to be
held tomorrow has been again postponed," UN official Ahmad Fawzi
said.
"It is clear that it remains premature for such a meeting to be
held because of the absence of an agreed political framework for
ending the conflict," the UN official added.
The meeting, initially scheduled for Monday, was delayed until
Thursday to give the international community more time to make
progress on a political settlement of the conflict.
France, considered as a possible leader of the international
force, announced yesterday that it would not attend today's
meeting, saying a political agreement on how to end the three-week
conflict must be worked out first.
Members of the UN Security Council are discussing a
France-sponsored draft resolution that would call for a ceasefire
in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and set out conditions
for a political settlement.
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency August 3, 2006)
