VARIOUS: Fighting rages on in southern Lebanon as both sides prepare for ceasefire

Israeli troops battled Hizbollah guerrillas across southern Lebanon on Sunday (August 13) and air strikes battered Beirut's suburbs as the Israeli army pressed on with its offensive in the hours until a U.N.-brokered truce began. Israel's cabinet approved Friday's (August 11) U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an end to the fighting, and the United Nations said Israeli and Lebanese leaders had agreed that a truce would take effect from 0500 GMT on Monday (August 14). Correspondent for Channel 10 in Israel, Alan Ben David, believes Israel's objective is to destroy Hizbollah's infastructure as much as possible before the ceasefire comes into effect. "Israel is trying to improve its hold and positions in Southern Lebanon until the last hours of the ceasefire, recognising that what will not be destroyed by Israel cannot be destroyed by anyone else. By that, I mean the Infrastructure of Hizbollah. So, the attempt is to destroy as much Hizbollah infrastructure as the IDF could find there and to finish or reach the ceasefire line." He added: I think the operation went a bit too slow. There is a lot of criticism amongst the Israeli public about the way it was conducted, but eventually, as we approach the end line, yes, Israel has some achievement. It demonstrated that an operation kidnapping two of its soldiers is not something you do without paying a price for." The resolution approved by the Security Council on Friday calls for a "full cessation of hostilities" and for Israel to withdraw its troops "at the earliest". As they withdraw, 15,000 Lebanese soldiers and an expanded international force of 15,000 foreign troops, likely to be led by France, will be deployed. Hizbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said on Saturday (August 12) his guerrillas would observe a truce, but reserved the right to fight Israeli soldiers still on Lebanese soil. Lebanon rejected initial drafts of a U.N. resolution to end the fighting because they did not call for an immediate Israeli withdrawal. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak hopes the ceasefire will last longer than a few weeks. At least 1,082 people in Lebanon and 144 Israelis, including 104 soldiers, have been killed in the war. Analysts cautioned that a truce may not hold, particularly with Israeli troops still in Lebanon. Lebanon's cabinet approved the U.N. resolution on Saturday, but another cabinet meeting scheduled for Sunday was postponed because of divisions over whether to discuss the disarmament of Hizbollah, a government source said. The Security Council resolution approved on Friday calls for the "disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon". Hizbollah, the only Lebanese group to keep its weapons after the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, has traditionally defended its right to keep them as a deterrent against Israel.

ITN Source | August 14, 2006

Tags:. .else. .traditionally. .anyone. .analysts. .agreed