ISRAEL: Israel's Olmert says no ceasefire in Lebanon in coming days

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday (July 31) there would be no ceasefire in the war against Hizbollah in Lebanon until the threat from the guerrilla group was removed and captured Israeli soldiers were freed. "The fighting continues. There is no ceasefire and there will not be any ceasefire in the coming days," Olmert said in a forceful address to mayors of northern Israeli towns under frequent Hizbollah rocket fire, drawing sustained applause. "We will stop the war when the (rocket) threat is removed ... our captive soldiers return home in peace, and you are able to live in safety and security," Olmert said, speaking at a podium in front of a large Israeli flag. "We are fighting against murderous terrorists and the war will not stop until we clear them from the border." U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said earlier on Monday she believed agreement on a ceasefire and an international peacekeeping force could be forged this week. Israel has come under mounting pressure to agree to a truce after an international outcry over the deaths of at least 54 civilians, most of them children, in an air strike on the Lebanese village of Qana on Sunday. "I apologise from the bottom of my heart for the civilians, elderly and children who were killed in the village of Qana. We did not seek to hurt them, we did not want their death. They were not our enemies and were not a target to our planes," Olmert said. "But we will not apologise to those who put a question mark on the right of Israel to exist," he added. Olmert said Israel's offensive in Lebanon had inflicted a heavy blow on Hizbollah from which it may never recover.

ITN Source | August 1, 2006

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