LEBANON: Fightinig continues to intensify, as diplomatic efforts to halt conflict remain divided

Hizbollah guerrillas fought Israeli troops pushing deeper into southeast Lebanon on Thursday (August 10, 2006), though an Israeli cabinet minister said plans for a deeper ground assault were on hold to give diplomacy a chance. Hizbollah fired nearly 70 rockets into Israel, killing a woman and a toddler in an Israeli Arab village, medics said. An Israeli force headed towards the southeastern town of Khiam amid heavy artillery shelling and air strikes on Hizbollah positions, residents said. Infantry moved through the Christian towns of Marjayoun and Qlaiah overnight and imposed a curfew. The fighting intensified even though Israel's tourism minister said plans for an expanded ground offensive, approved on Wednesday, had been put on hold to allow more time for U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to bear fruit. The U.N. Security Council has been divided over a resolution aimed at stabilising the area by deploying an international force to back the Lebanese army. No vote seems imminent. Israel's well-flagged plans for a bigger offensive are intended partly to ratchet up pressure on the Beirut government to accept the Jewish state's terms for halting hostilities. It dropped leaflets on Beirut that told people in the teeming Shiyah, Burj al-Barajneh and Hay al-Sulloum districts to leave or be bombed. The conflict, now in its fifth week, has created an acute humanitarian crisis, especially for an estimated 10,000 people trapped in south Lebanon, where aid agencies said hospitals were running out of food, fuel and other supplies. The Israeli infantry advance towards Khiam was followed by tanks that drew intense Hizbollah fire. "I can see two tanks burning some 500 metres from Marjayoun," one resident said to Reuters. A third tank arrived later and removed several casualties, he said, adding that Hizbollah fighters were raining rocket and mortar fire on the Israeli force between Marjayoun and Khiam. An Israeli air raid killed a motorcyclist near Tyre on Thursday. Another strike killed a civilian in the Bekaa Valley. The war has cost the lives of at least 1,011 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 121 Israelis, mostly soldiers. Israeli Brigadier-General Ido Nehushtan told reporters near the border town of Metulla that 50 Hizbollah fighters had been killed in Wednesday's fighting, bringing the guerrilla death toll in the conflict to "between 400 and 500". Lebanese security sources estimate Hizbollah's losses at about 100. Hizbollah has acknowledged only about 60 dead. An Israeli military source said the incursion in the eastern sector aimed to stop Hizbollah rocket fire from Khiam. Marjayoun, a town of 3,000, served as the headquarters of the pro-Israeli South Lebanon Army militia during Israel's 22-year occupation of the region that ended in 2000. In Beirut, an Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a disused radio tower in the heart of the capital, wounding two people, security sources said. Another missile hit a radio tower in the Christian town of Amsheet, north of Beirut. Hours before the overnight Israeli advance, Hizbollah's chief vowed to turn the south into a graveyard for the invaders. But for the first time, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah also said Hizbollah backed a Lebanese government decision to send 15,000 troops to the border if that would promote a peaceful solution. Hizbollah, which has controlled the south since Israeli occupation troops left in 2000, has long resisted international pressure on Lebanon to deploy the army to the south. Lebanon wants an immediate ceasefire and a swift Israeli withdrawal. Israel says it will fight on until foreign troops and the Lebanese army move in -- a stance backed by Washington, which fears a security vacuum that could let Hizbollah regroup. France, which may lead the foreign force, does not want it to deploy before a ceasefire and a political agreement.

ITN Source | August 10, 2006

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