ISRAEL/LEBANON: Israel expands war as wounded soldiers arrive in hospital

Israeli forces continued their offensive in Lebanon on Wednesday (August 2) after Israel's security cabinet authorized ground sweep 6-7 km (4 miles) into Lebanon, a political source said. The Israeli army said three Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in the south. Hizbollah said it launched multiple rockets at Matzuva in northern Israel, and the Israeli army said five of its soldiers were wounded in cross-border fire. Early on Wednesday Israeli commandos snatched at least three Hizbollah members from a stronghold deep inside Lebanon, in a raid Lebanese security sources said killed at least seven civilians. Israel also said it would resume full air strikes in Lebanon early on Wednesday at the end of a partial, 48-hour suspension. Israeli artillery shells crashed down on the border area around the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab, where Hizbollah said it had destroyed a tank in battles with Israeli troops. The three Israeli soldiers killed in Aita al-Shaab were the first army deaths since Israel lost nine soldiers on July 26. Hizbollah said it had inflicted 35 casualties in house-to-house battles in the village, and its television station aired footage of captured equipment including blood-stained body armour. Israel's justice minister said about 300 of an estimated 2,000 Hizbollah fighters had been killed so far, and the tourism minister later said 400 had been killed. Hizbollah, which says it does not hide its dead and that it has many thousands more fighters, has announced 43 deaths in that period and said the Israeli statements were false. Israel wants to push Hizbollah back and stop it firing rockets over the border. But an Israeli minister said there was no way Israel's forces could destroy all the missiles, a remark apparently aimed at lowering his people's expectations.

ITN Source | August 2, 2006

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