Publicité
Israel advances in Lebanon, Hizbollah fights back
Par
Partager cet article
Israel advances in Lebanon, Hizbollah fights back
Israeli troops thrust deeper into Lebanon yesterday and four soldiers were reported killed by Hizbollah rockets as Israel’s inner cabinet debated whether to order a bigger advance before any UN move to end the war. A vote on a UN Security Council resolution may not take place before Thursday because of wrangling over its contents.
US Assistant Secretary of State David Welch held talks with Lebanese leaders in Beirut as part of efforts to persuade Lebanon and Israel to agree on the terms of a resolution. Lebanese security sources said Israeli forces pushed west from Taibeh, some 5 km (3 miles) from the border, towards the village of Qantara and north towards Burj al-Molouk and Qlaiah villages. The sources also reported fighting near the town of Bint Jbeil and the village of Aita al-Shaab.
Al Arabiya television said four Israeli soldiers had been killed by Hizbollah rocket fire near Aita al-Shaab. Hizbollah said it had inflicted at least 10 casualties and knocked out six tanks in battles around Qantara and elsewhere. It did not say if its own fighters had suffered any losses.
Israel’s army, which has about 10,000 troops inside Lebanon, reported fighting near Qantara, but had no word on casualties. Israeli planes bombed targets across Lebanon. Five people died in a raid that hit the home of a local Hizbollah official in the Bekaa Valley town of Mashghara, medics said.
Two people were killed in air strikes on a position of the Palestinian Fatah movement in Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp near the coastal city of Sidon, hospital sources said. The death toll from an air raid on a south Beirut suburb on Monday rose to 41 from 30, police said. Sixty-one people were also wounded in the strike on the mainly Shi’ite Shiyah area. At least 1,005 people in Lebanon and 101 Israelis have been killed in four weeks of bloodshed sparked when Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
Wrangling at United Nations</B>
The United Nations has yet to act to halt the conflict. An Arab League delegation warned that civil war could erupt in Lebanon if Beirut’s terms were not met. Lebanon wants an immediate ceasefire and a quick pullout of Israeli troops from the south, where it says 15,000 Lebanese soldiers backed by UN peacekeepers can move in.
There was no immediate word on the outcome of Welch’s talks with Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh. Israel, planning to pull out only when a foreign force and the Lebanese army take over to keep Hizbollah at bay, has vowed in the absence of agreement to expand an offensive in south Lebanon to curb Hizbollah’s rocket attacks on the Jewish state.
More rockets hit northern Israel and four landed in the occupied West Bank. No casualties were reported. Hizbollah said it had fired “Khaibar 1” rockets at the Israeli town of Beit Shean, not far from the West Bank.
A deeper Israeli advance into Lebanon could step up pressure for a deal on terms that suits Israel and its ally Washington, but it could also cost Israel more casualties, without necessarily halting Hizbollah rocket fire.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s inner security cabinet met to discuss pushing to the Litani river, some 20 km (13 miles) inside Lebanon, and possibly beyond. Israel’s top officers and defence minister favour the plan, hoping to damage Hizbollah as much as possible before a ceasefire takes hold.
“The rockets must be eliminated and we must leave a fenced and clear area ... into which the multinational force will enter,” cabinet minister Gideon Ezra told the Ynetnews Web site. At the United Nations, Arab League envoys pushed on Tuesday for changes to a US-French draft resolution which Lebanon has rejected even before its submission to the Security Council.
France and the United States are now revising their draft. They are debating what kind of an international force should be formed to back the Lebanese army and when it should deploy. US officials say the army is too weak to subdue Hizbollah.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Beirut’s offer to send troops to the south was significant but called on Lebanon to guarantee the simultaneous withdrawal of Hizbollah. Humanitarian efforts in south Lebanon stalled for a second successive day as aid workers tried to reach the area.
On Sunday, Israeli warplanes destroyed a makeshift bridge over the Litani river, the last main route for aid agencies to reach the port of Tyre and the rest of the south.
 |
SESSION
New UN rights body to meet on Lebanon </B>
■ The UN’s Human Rights Council will meet tomorrow at the request of Muslim states to discuss the war in Lebanon and Israel’s role there, the UN announced yesterday. A letter calling for the session presented by Tunisia said the 47-member body should take action “on the gross human rights violations by Israel in Lebanon” including “country-wide targeting of innocent civilians”. Countries who backed the request for the latest session included Russia, China, Algeria, Bangladesh, Cuba, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan and South Africa. The new body, launched in June to replace the widely criticised human rights commission, has no enforcement powers. It aims to exert moral pressure on countries it deems to be violating UN accords. Decisions can be approved by majority vote. The Tunisian letter followed a meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Malaysia last week which was fiercely critical of Israel over its now four-week assault on Lebanon in a bid to crush the Hizbollah militia. Special sessions of the Council can be called at the request of any country on it which gathers the support of one third of the membership. A special session was also held in July, at which Israel was condemned for attacks in Gaza.
Publicité
Publicité
Les plus récents
