LEBANON: Israel thrusts into southern Lebanon pounding towns and villages, meeting fierce resistance from Hizbollah guerrillas who reportedly killed three soldiers

Israel launched air strikes against Lebanese border villages on Tuesday (August 01), the second day of what it said would be a 48-hour halt to aerial bombardment against the south, Lebanese security sources and witnesses said. They said Israeli aircraft hit Bayyada and Mansoureh in southern Lebanon while Israeli artillery struck other areas. The United States won a 48-hour suspension of aerial bombardment from Israel after an air raid killed at least 54 civilians in the Lebanese village of Qana on Sunday (July 30), sparking world anger. The suspension was announced by the United States in the early hours of Monday (July 31), shortly after midnight local time. But Israel has continued artillery bombardment and launched air raids on eastern Lebanon and on southern areas where Israeli troops are fighting on the ground. Israel says it reserves the right to bomb Hizbollah forces, rocket launchers and use air power to support its ground troops. Israel on Monday rejected an immediate ceasefire to the fighting in Lebanon and vowed to expand and deepen its offensive against Hizbollah guerrillas until an international force is deployed. In the aftermath of the Israeli bombings, residents in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday searched through the rubble of their battered neighbourhood for any belongings they can retrieve. Most residents fled the area after the Jewish state began its bombardment of Lebanon on July 12. But in recent days, the area - a Hizbollah stronghold - has been spared heaving bombardment, as Israel continues to fight Hizbollah in the south of the country. Some residents made quick trips back to their neighbourhood, darting in and out of the area to collect possessions. "My husband's shops (destroyed in the bombings) are here. But we sacrifice all this for Sayyad Hassan Nasrallah. Everyone in the 'Dahyiah' (southern suburb) supports Hassan Nasrallah. We sacrifice our children, our earnings. We are happy despite all this destruction. We are fighting terrorism. They are the terrorists, we are the people of freedom. They are the blasphemers, we are the believers. They are the sinners but at least with us, even if we lose in the end, God will reward us," said one resident, Um Hassan. During a tour of the district, organised by Hizbollah, reporters, photographers and cameramen complained of a smell, which residents say they fear is of bodies trapped under the rubble. Meanwhile more people were fleeing the southern villages of Lebanon. Families from Aitaroun arrived in Bint Jbeil, a town in the centre of southern Lebanon which Israeli soldiers besieged for a week. Much of the town is destroyed, large buildings have folded-in on themselves. Chunks of concrete and power lines are piled waist-high so that leaving Bint Jbeil requires climbing mountains of rubble, something impossible for most of the dozens of people. Some, however, have stayed behind voluntarily. At the hospital, despite the devastation, a doctor is still tending to the wounded. "The people make me stay. There is no other hospital, there is no other medical facility in this area that covers the whole border. This is the only place where people can come to," explained doctor Fouad, operating in a hospital hit by bombs. Over one hundred refugees from Qana and surrounding villages were fleeing to Sidon from their bombarded homes on Tuesday. Buses and ambulances carrying families arrived at the Sidon city hall, where help was provided to the injured. Screams of panic and anger could be heard as the crowds entered the building. Some of the refugees were in a state of shock after living through days of arial and sea bombardment. "There are a lot of casualties there. Bazouriye is completely destroyed," said one woman, still in shock from her ordeal. "There were many bombs and we escaped. I have neurosis, I'm sick," another survivor said. In another village in southern Lebanon, rescue workers continued with the gruesome task of searching and digging up bodies from under the rubble. Red Cross rescue workers searched through the rubble in the village of Halousieh, where around 30 civilians were believed buried under houses destroyed in an Israeli air strike two weeks ago. Other workers were trying to retrieve bodies in nearby villages close to the Israeli border. The Lebanese government says dozens of bodies have yet to be recovered from beneath the rubble or from cars hit by Israeli missiles. On Monday, rescuers recovered 49 bodies, dug up and found in streets and burnt cars in at least 10 villages east of the port city of Tyre. Lebanese security forces began preparing a mass grave in Tyre on Tuesday (August 1), for those killed in Israeli air strikes in southern Lebanon. The mass grave is mainly for civilians killed in the Qana bombing, which killed up to 54 people, including dozens of children. Other bodies which have been recovered from neighbouring villages in recent days will also be placed in the mass grave. "This is for the victims and martyrs of Qana, Sreefa, Tila, and others from the villages where there are martyrs," said Abu Awad. The burials are expected to take place in the next few days. The bodies will be interred temporarily in the yard until they can be returned to relatives. Lebanese Health Minister Mohammad Khalifeh put the number of bodies still to be recovered at 200, taking the death toll in Lebanon to 750. Fifty-one Israelis have also been killed. The United Nations estimates up to 900,000 people have been displaced by the bombing and fighting in Lebanon but many civilians are still trapped, too poor to get transport or too scared to run the gauntlet of Israeli air strikes. Fifty-one Israelis have been killed in the conflict between Hizbollah and the Jewish state, which is trying to stop the guerrillas from launching rockets into Israel. Hizbollah triggered the war by capturing two Israeli soldiers.

ITN Source | August 2, 2006

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