Sunday, 6 August 2006, 13:34 GMT 14:34 UK
At least 10 people have been killed in a barrage of Hezbollah rocket strikes on northern Israel.
Meanwhile Israel said it had detained a Hezbollah militant involved in the capture of two Israeli soldiers which triggered the crisis.
The UN is discussing a draft resolution on the Lebanon conflict, demanding that Hezbollah halt all attacks and Israel stop all offensive military operations.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a quick vote was important.
If the resolution was passed soon, it should quickly end large-scale violence, she said.
But she warned that ongoing "skirmishes" could not be ruled out, and the resolution was only the first step towards lasting peace.
A senior Lebanese official said his country would reject the resolution.
Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah negotiator, said the draft ignored a Lebanese government ceasefire plan, including calls for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon.
Israel has continued raids in Lebanon, killing at least eight people.
Israeli response
A spokesman for the Israeli ambulance service said Sunday's rocket attacks on northern Israel were the heaviest so far during the conflict.
At least 15 people were injured in the attacks, some of them seriously.
Eyewitnesses said the barrage had lasted more than 15 minutes.
Many of the casualties came in a single attack on the town of Kfar Giladi.
"The scene is very difficult, it can be described as a battlefield," Shimon Abutbul, a rescue worker at the scene, told the Associated Press news agency. "There was a lot of blood."
He added that this was the worst carnage he had seen in the conflict so far.
Hezbollah has fired more than 3,000 rockets into northern Israel since the conflict began.
Israeli artillery responded with heavy fire across the border into southern Lebanon.
Five Lebanese civilians died early on Sunday in an Israeli air raid on the village of Ansar, according to Lebanese sources.
Reports say three others were killed in an attack on the coastal town of Naquora.
Israel's campaign began three weeks ago after Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers.
In other developments:
The Israeli military said two reservists had been killed in separate clashes with Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon. They were the first reservists to die in the offensive
Israeli air strikes targeted roads in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, virtually cutting it off from the outside world
Positions in the region held by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a pro-Syrian group, were also attacked
Three Chinese UN peacekeepers are injured in crossfire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters
Lebanese authority
The UN draft resolution, agreed after much debate between France and the US, calls for a "full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations".
The French and US envoys to the UN said they were encouraged by the initial reactions from others on the 15-member Security Council.
Senior Israeli officials said they were broadly happy with the text of the resolution.
Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said it was good for Israel but the country had to pursue its military goals.
Ms Rice told reporters on Sunday the resolution was needed to stop the large-scale violence and create conditions on which a stable solution to the crisis could be built.
She said the current problem had been "festering and brewing in Lebanon for years and years and years", and was not going to be stopped by one Security Council resolution.
"This is really now an opportunity to extend the authority of the Lebanese government throughout its own territory," she said.
CRISIS in the MIDDLE EAST
Moderators: Cell_Leader, ikaotiki, Julstar
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Updated: 07:00 PM EDT
Hezbollah Rockets Kill 15 in Israel
By ARON HELLER, AP
KFAR GILADI, Israel (Aug. 6) - A defiant Hezbollah fired its deadliest rocket barrage of the war Sunday after taking no heed of a U.S.-French truce proposal, killing 15 Israelis, among them 12 soldiers heading for battle in Lebanon, and pounding Israel's third largest city, Haifa.
Three Israeli civilians were killed and dozens wounded in the attack on Haifa. Flames shot from damaged homes as firefighters tried to rescue panicked residents.
Israel also struck hard across Lebanon, killing 14 Lebanese, including five members of one family crushed in their home by an air strike. Warplanes attacked near Beirut and in southern Lebanon, where some villages were bombed continually for a half-hour, security officials said.
Both sides appeared to take advantage of the days before a cease-fire resolution, formulated by the U.S. and France, is put to a vote in the U.N. Security Council. The plan envisions a second resolution in a week or two that would authorize an international military force and creation of a buffer zone in south Lebanon.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the measure "the first step, not the only step," at a news conference in Washington. Israel has not commented, except to say the draft is important.
While Hezbollah has not issued an outright rejection of the plan, its two main allies said it was without merit because it did not call for an immediate Israelis withdrawal, among other demands.
The U.S.-French proposal uses language that says two Israeli soldiers held by Hezbollah should be released unconditionally.The soldiers' capture July 12 triggered the war, including massive Israeli retaliation.
Hezbollah has said it will not cease fire until all Israeli soldiers have left Lebanon; some 10,000 Israeli soldiers are fighting several hundred Hezbollah gunmen in that area, trying to track and destroy rocket launchers. Israel says it won't leave until a multinational force has been deployed.
Israel has refused to comment on the draft, but Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told Associated Press Television, "We have to make sure that what will be negotiated at the United Nations ensures that Hezbollah will not be allowed to be resupplied by Iran or Syria."
Hezbollah has fired more than 3,000 rockets at Israel, including dozens on Sunday, Israeli officials said. Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes have struck hundreds of targets across Lebanon.
In the deadliest attack on Israelis in this war, a rocket landed Sunday among the reservists near the entrance to the communal farm of Kfar Giladi on the Lebanese border. The rocket killed 12 soldiers and wounded five, one seriously, hospital officials said.
The attack was "a direct hit on a vehicle where there was a crowd. They were all wounded and scattered in every direction, some of them were in very bad condition," said Eli Peretz, a medic. "It was a very, very difficult scene. I have never seen anything like it."
Bloodied army boots were placed on a stone wall. The rocket scorch two parked cars.
Upon hearing of the slain reservists, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the weekly Cabinet meeting, according to a participant: "Lucky that we are dealing with Hezbollah today, and not in another two or three years."
Later Sunday, a rocket barrage hit the northern port city of Haifa, killing three civilians, injuring more than 40 and bringing down two buildings. A crowded residential district took five or six hits.
Three hours later, Israeli warplanes attacked the Lebanese town of Qana and near the port of Tyre and destroyed the launchers that fired rockets on Haifa, the army said. An Israeli attack on Qana last week had killed 29 civilians. At the time, Israel said the attack was a mistake but accused Hezbollah of shielding launching sites behind civilians.
Also, Israeli ground forces destroyed seven long-range rocket launchers in the area or Tyre, the military said. They encountered Hezbollah guerrillas and killed three. There were no Israeli casualties.
Sunday's deaths brought to 93 the number of Israelis killed, including 45 soldiers, the 12 reservists and 36 civilians. Israel's attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 591 people, including 509 civilians, 29 Lebanese soldiers and 53 Hezbollah guerrillas.
Israeli air strikes killed 14 Lebanese on Sunday, including 12 civilians, a Lebanese soldier and a Palestinian militant. In the southern town of Naqoura and several villages near Tyre, residents called rescue officials to report more people trapped under the rubble of crushed buildings, but crews could not retrieve the dead because of continued bombardment.
"We don't know how many and we can't get there," a civil defense official said.
Explosions rang across Beirut as warplanes fired more than six missiles into Hezbollah strongholds in districts just south of the capital.
Hezbollah announced the deaths of three of its fighters, but didn't say when. That would bring Hezbollah's total of fighters killed to 53, but Israeli officials said they confirmed 165 dead guerrillas - and even had their names - and estimated that another 200 had been killed. Israel said some 300 Hezbollah fighters remained in the area Israel was occupying in south Lebanon.
One air strike hit south Beirut just minutes after Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa touched down at a nearby airport. Missiles also struck in that area as Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem stood next to his Lebanese counterpart and declared Israel would never defeat the hardened guerrilla force.
Arab League foreign ministers were to meet in Beirut on Monday for a hastily convened session.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, speaking in Cairo, said the gathering "is a clear message to the world to show the Arab solidarity with the Lebanese people and in support of their demands."
Moallem, the Syrian foreign minister, said the cease-fire draft "adopted Israel's point of view only."
"As Syria's foreign minister I hope to be a soldier in the resistance," said Moallem, the first top Syrian official to visit Lebanon since Damascus ended a 29-year military presence in Lebanon last year.
Lebanon's parliament speaker and Hezbollah's negotiator, Nabih Berri, said the plan was unacceptable since it would leave Israeli troops in Lebanon and does not deal with Beirut's key demands - a release of prisoners held by Israel and moves to resolve a dispute over a piece of border territory.
"If Israel has not won the war but still gets all this, what would have happened had they won?" Berri said. "Lebanon, all of Lebanon, rejects any talks and any draft resolution" that do not address the Lebanese demands, he said.
The Lebanese government on Sunday asked the U.N. to revise the draft, demanding that Israel pull its forces out immediately with the end of hostilities.
Iran on Sunday gave its ally Hezbollah a green light to keep fighting in Lebanon, saying that the United States can't be a mediator in the crisis because of its support for Israel.
Many in the U.S., Europe, the Arab world and Israel accuse Iran of fueling the warfare in Lebanon through Hezbollah, in a bid to show its regional strength. Iran denies it is arming the guerrillas.
AP correspondents Lauren Frayer in Beirut and Delphine Matthieussent in Haifa contributed to this report.
AP-ES-08-06-06 18:32 EDT
By ARON HELLER, AP
KFAR GILADI, Israel (Aug. 6) - A defiant Hezbollah fired its deadliest rocket barrage of the war Sunday after taking no heed of a U.S.-French truce proposal, killing 15 Israelis, among them 12 soldiers heading for battle in Lebanon, and pounding Israel's third largest city, Haifa.
Three Israeli civilians were killed and dozens wounded in the attack on Haifa. Flames shot from damaged homes as firefighters tried to rescue panicked residents.
Israel also struck hard across Lebanon, killing 14 Lebanese, including five members of one family crushed in their home by an air strike. Warplanes attacked near Beirut and in southern Lebanon, where some villages were bombed continually for a half-hour, security officials said.
Both sides appeared to take advantage of the days before a cease-fire resolution, formulated by the U.S. and France, is put to a vote in the U.N. Security Council. The plan envisions a second resolution in a week or two that would authorize an international military force and creation of a buffer zone in south Lebanon.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the measure "the first step, not the only step," at a news conference in Washington. Israel has not commented, except to say the draft is important.
While Hezbollah has not issued an outright rejection of the plan, its two main allies said it was without merit because it did not call for an immediate Israelis withdrawal, among other demands.
The U.S.-French proposal uses language that says two Israeli soldiers held by Hezbollah should be released unconditionally.The soldiers' capture July 12 triggered the war, including massive Israeli retaliation.
Hezbollah has said it will not cease fire until all Israeli soldiers have left Lebanon; some 10,000 Israeli soldiers are fighting several hundred Hezbollah gunmen in that area, trying to track and destroy rocket launchers. Israel says it won't leave until a multinational force has been deployed.
Israel has refused to comment on the draft, but Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told Associated Press Television, "We have to make sure that what will be negotiated at the United Nations ensures that Hezbollah will not be allowed to be resupplied by Iran or Syria."
Hezbollah has fired more than 3,000 rockets at Israel, including dozens on Sunday, Israeli officials said. Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes have struck hundreds of targets across Lebanon.
In the deadliest attack on Israelis in this war, a rocket landed Sunday among the reservists near the entrance to the communal farm of Kfar Giladi on the Lebanese border. The rocket killed 12 soldiers and wounded five, one seriously, hospital officials said.
The attack was "a direct hit on a vehicle where there was a crowd. They were all wounded and scattered in every direction, some of them were in very bad condition," said Eli Peretz, a medic. "It was a very, very difficult scene. I have never seen anything like it."
Bloodied army boots were placed on a stone wall. The rocket scorch two parked cars.
Upon hearing of the slain reservists, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the weekly Cabinet meeting, according to a participant: "Lucky that we are dealing with Hezbollah today, and not in another two or three years."
Later Sunday, a rocket barrage hit the northern port city of Haifa, killing three civilians, injuring more than 40 and bringing down two buildings. A crowded residential district took five or six hits.
Three hours later, Israeli warplanes attacked the Lebanese town of Qana and near the port of Tyre and destroyed the launchers that fired rockets on Haifa, the army said. An Israeli attack on Qana last week had killed 29 civilians. At the time, Israel said the attack was a mistake but accused Hezbollah of shielding launching sites behind civilians.
Also, Israeli ground forces destroyed seven long-range rocket launchers in the area or Tyre, the military said. They encountered Hezbollah guerrillas and killed three. There were no Israeli casualties.
Sunday's deaths brought to 93 the number of Israelis killed, including 45 soldiers, the 12 reservists and 36 civilians. Israel's attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 591 people, including 509 civilians, 29 Lebanese soldiers and 53 Hezbollah guerrillas.
Israeli air strikes killed 14 Lebanese on Sunday, including 12 civilians, a Lebanese soldier and a Palestinian militant. In the southern town of Naqoura and several villages near Tyre, residents called rescue officials to report more people trapped under the rubble of crushed buildings, but crews could not retrieve the dead because of continued bombardment.
"We don't know how many and we can't get there," a civil defense official said.
Explosions rang across Beirut as warplanes fired more than six missiles into Hezbollah strongholds in districts just south of the capital.
Hezbollah announced the deaths of three of its fighters, but didn't say when. That would bring Hezbollah's total of fighters killed to 53, but Israeli officials said they confirmed 165 dead guerrillas - and even had their names - and estimated that another 200 had been killed. Israel said some 300 Hezbollah fighters remained in the area Israel was occupying in south Lebanon.
One air strike hit south Beirut just minutes after Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa touched down at a nearby airport. Missiles also struck in that area as Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem stood next to his Lebanese counterpart and declared Israel would never defeat the hardened guerrilla force.
Arab League foreign ministers were to meet in Beirut on Monday for a hastily convened session.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, speaking in Cairo, said the gathering "is a clear message to the world to show the Arab solidarity with the Lebanese people and in support of their demands."
Moallem, the Syrian foreign minister, said the cease-fire draft "adopted Israel's point of view only."
"As Syria's foreign minister I hope to be a soldier in the resistance," said Moallem, the first top Syrian official to visit Lebanon since Damascus ended a 29-year military presence in Lebanon last year.
Lebanon's parliament speaker and Hezbollah's negotiator, Nabih Berri, said the plan was unacceptable since it would leave Israeli troops in Lebanon and does not deal with Beirut's key demands - a release of prisoners held by Israel and moves to resolve a dispute over a piece of border territory.
"If Israel has not won the war but still gets all this, what would have happened had they won?" Berri said. "Lebanon, all of Lebanon, rejects any talks and any draft resolution" that do not address the Lebanese demands, he said.
The Lebanese government on Sunday asked the U.N. to revise the draft, demanding that Israel pull its forces out immediately with the end of hostilities.
Iran on Sunday gave its ally Hezbollah a green light to keep fighting in Lebanon, saying that the United States can't be a mediator in the crisis because of its support for Israel.
Many in the U.S., Europe, the Arab world and Israel accuse Iran of fueling the warfare in Lebanon through Hezbollah, in a bid to show its regional strength. Iran denies it is arming the guerrillas.
AP correspondents Lauren Frayer in Beirut and Delphine Matthieussent in Haifa contributed to this report.
AP-ES-08-06-06 18:32 EDT
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Israel in fresh raids on Lebanon
Monday, 7 August 2006, 03:54 GMT 04:54 UK
Israel carried out fresh military operations in Lebanon on Monday as diplomats and politicians continued to struggle to find a workable ceasefire.
Loud explosions were heard in southern Beirut and other strikes hit the eastern Bekaa valley. Ground fighting was reported around Houla in the south.
UN diplomats meet again in New York on Monday to try to overcome Lebanese opposition to the text of a ceasefire.
Arab ministers also meet in Beirut to discuss a strategy on the truce.
Village deaths
Several explosions were heard early on Monday in Beirut's southern suburbs - a Hezbollah stronghold that Israel has regularly targeted.
Witnesses also reported air strikes in and around Baalbek in the Bekaa valley.
There have also been more clashes on the ground, with Israeli troops battling Hezbollah fighters in the southern Lebanese village of Houla, Lebanese sources said.
Hezbollah said it inflicted Israeli casualties but Israel has not yet commented on the fighting.
Lebanese witnesses and police said at least six civilians were killed in an attack on a house in the village of Ghazzaniyeh, south of Sidon.
The Israeli operations come a day after at least 15 people were killed in a barrage of Hezbollah rocket strikes on northern Israel.
Twelve reservist soldiers died in an attack on the town of Kfar Giladi and three people were killed in the port of Haifa.
Israel said it had destroyed Hezbollah rocket launchers around Qana and Tyre that were used to attack Haifa.
More than 900 Lebanese and more than 80 Israelis have died in the conflict, sparked by the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah on 12 July.
'Obstructing'
As the military operations continued, Arab foreign ministers and the head of the 22-nation Arab League, Amr Moussa, were preparing to meet in Beirut to discuss a ceasefire.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem condemned the wording of the planned UN ceasefire resolution as a "recipe for the continuation of the war". He also warned that Damascus was ready for a regional conflict.
The UN draft does not call the immediate pullout of Israeli forces from Lebanon.
Lebanon has submitted an amendment demanding this be included.
Mr Moussa said the "great powers were obstructing the ceasefire".
Mr Moussa was also quoted in Lebanon's As-Safir newspaper as saying there was agreement in principle among Arab countries for an emergency summit on Lebanon in Saudi Arabia this week.
In New York, Security Council members are expected to renew talks on the resolution on Monday.
A 90-minute meeting of the five permanent council members on Sunday failed to reach agreement on Lebanon's amendment, diplomats said.
"I think that means a vote on Tuesday is the more likely scenario," one diplomat from a permanent member country told Reuters.
The text calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and lays the groundwork for a second that would install an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.
Senior Israeli officials have said they are broadly happy with the text of the resolution.
An Israeli spokesman told the BBC his government could be prepared to pull all its forces out of Lebanon once the resolution was passed and when Israel had cleared what he called "the last remaining Hezbollah strongholds".
He said Israel would then monitor the south of Lebanon from behind its own border and reserve the right to use air strikes and occasional ground incursions.
The spokesman said that once a UN force had arrived Israel would in effect hand over the policing of southern Lebanon to the UN and Lebanese government.
Israel carried out fresh military operations in Lebanon on Monday as diplomats and politicians continued to struggle to find a workable ceasefire.
Loud explosions were heard in southern Beirut and other strikes hit the eastern Bekaa valley. Ground fighting was reported around Houla in the south.
UN diplomats meet again in New York on Monday to try to overcome Lebanese opposition to the text of a ceasefire.
Arab ministers also meet in Beirut to discuss a strategy on the truce.
Village deaths
Several explosions were heard early on Monday in Beirut's southern suburbs - a Hezbollah stronghold that Israel has regularly targeted.
Witnesses also reported air strikes in and around Baalbek in the Bekaa valley.
There have also been more clashes on the ground, with Israeli troops battling Hezbollah fighters in the southern Lebanese village of Houla, Lebanese sources said.
Hezbollah said it inflicted Israeli casualties but Israel has not yet commented on the fighting.
Lebanese witnesses and police said at least six civilians were killed in an attack on a house in the village of Ghazzaniyeh, south of Sidon.
The Israeli operations come a day after at least 15 people were killed in a barrage of Hezbollah rocket strikes on northern Israel.
Twelve reservist soldiers died in an attack on the town of Kfar Giladi and three people were killed in the port of Haifa.
Israel said it had destroyed Hezbollah rocket launchers around Qana and Tyre that were used to attack Haifa.
More than 900 Lebanese and more than 80 Israelis have died in the conflict, sparked by the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah on 12 July.
'Obstructing'
As the military operations continued, Arab foreign ministers and the head of the 22-nation Arab League, Amr Moussa, were preparing to meet in Beirut to discuss a ceasefire.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem condemned the wording of the planned UN ceasefire resolution as a "recipe for the continuation of the war". He also warned that Damascus was ready for a regional conflict.
The UN draft does not call the immediate pullout of Israeli forces from Lebanon.
Lebanon has submitted an amendment demanding this be included.
Mr Moussa said the "great powers were obstructing the ceasefire".
Mr Moussa was also quoted in Lebanon's As-Safir newspaper as saying there was agreement in principle among Arab countries for an emergency summit on Lebanon in Saudi Arabia this week.
In New York, Security Council members are expected to renew talks on the resolution on Monday.
A 90-minute meeting of the five permanent council members on Sunday failed to reach agreement on Lebanon's amendment, diplomats said.
"I think that means a vote on Tuesday is the more likely scenario," one diplomat from a permanent member country told Reuters.
The text calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and lays the groundwork for a second that would install an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.
Senior Israeli officials have said they are broadly happy with the text of the resolution.
An Israeli spokesman told the BBC his government could be prepared to pull all its forces out of Lebanon once the resolution was passed and when Israel had cleared what he called "the last remaining Hezbollah strongholds".
He said Israel would then monitor the south of Lebanon from behind its own border and reserve the right to use air strikes and occasional ground incursions.
The spokesman said that once a UN force had arrived Israel would in effect hand over the policing of southern Lebanon to the UN and Lebanese government.
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Israeli strike 'kills 40 people'
Monday, 7 August 2006, 12:42 GMT 13:42 UK
An Israeli air strike has killed more than 40 people in the southern Lebanese border village of Houla, Lebanon's prime minister has said.
Fouad Siniora told an Arab foreign ministers meeting in Beirut that there had been "a horrific massacre".
His statement followed a morning of deadly Israeli raids across Lebanon as troops fought Hezbollah in the south.
The action comes after at least 15 people were killed in Israel in its deadliest day so far of the conflict.
Diplomats are battling to find a workable truce amid the escalating violence, and Arab ministers are discussing a strategy on a ceasefire in Beirut.
"An hour ago, there was a horrific massacre in the village of Houla in which more than 40 martyrs were victims of deliberate bombing," Mr Siniora told the meeting.
More than 900 Lebanese, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict, the Lebanese government says. More than 90 Israelis, most of them soldiers, have also been killed.
Humanitarian groups say Israeli military action is hampering efforts to help many of the hundreds of thousands who have fled the fighting - sparked by the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah on 12 July.
Tyre isolated
Details on the Houla strike are still sketchy, but it came as Israeli jets also hit southern Beirut and parts of the east and south, cutting off the city of Tyre.
A series of loud bangs woke Beirut residents at dawn as jets pounded the southern suburbs - a Hezbollah stronghold that Israel has regularly targeted.
Witnesses also reported air strikes in and around Baalbek in the Bekaa valley, while warplanes bombarded southern Lebanon throughout the morning.
The air attacks came amid further clashes on the ground, while Hezbollah fired more rockets at Israel.
The Israeli army said one of its soldiers and five Hezbollah militants died in combat in the village of Bint Jbeil.
The Shia militia said it killed four Israeli soldiers near Houla, but Israel said a number of its troops were slightly wounded.
The clashes follow exchanges on Sunday, when Hezbollah rocket-fire killed 12 Israeli reservist soldiers in the town of Kfar Giladi and three people in the port of Haifa.
Israel said it had destroyed Hezbollah rocket launchers around Qana and Tyre that were used to attack Haifa.
The BBC's John Simpson in Tyre says the city, which now has only about 3,000 people left, many of them poor and elderly, has been cut off by Israeli bombing.
He says a crater blocks the farm track used to transport food and medicine to the city, and an Israeli spy drone flies overhead.
An Israeli air strike has killed more than 40 people in the southern Lebanese border village of Houla, Lebanon's prime minister has said.
Fouad Siniora told an Arab foreign ministers meeting in Beirut that there had been "a horrific massacre".
His statement followed a morning of deadly Israeli raids across Lebanon as troops fought Hezbollah in the south.
The action comes after at least 15 people were killed in Israel in its deadliest day so far of the conflict.
Diplomats are battling to find a workable truce amid the escalating violence, and Arab ministers are discussing a strategy on a ceasefire in Beirut.
"An hour ago, there was a horrific massacre in the village of Houla in which more than 40 martyrs were victims of deliberate bombing," Mr Siniora told the meeting.
More than 900 Lebanese, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict, the Lebanese government says. More than 90 Israelis, most of them soldiers, have also been killed.
Humanitarian groups say Israeli military action is hampering efforts to help many of the hundreds of thousands who have fled the fighting - sparked by the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah on 12 July.
Tyre isolated
Details on the Houla strike are still sketchy, but it came as Israeli jets also hit southern Beirut and parts of the east and south, cutting off the city of Tyre.
A series of loud bangs woke Beirut residents at dawn as jets pounded the southern suburbs - a Hezbollah stronghold that Israel has regularly targeted.
Witnesses also reported air strikes in and around Baalbek in the Bekaa valley, while warplanes bombarded southern Lebanon throughout the morning.
The air attacks came amid further clashes on the ground, while Hezbollah fired more rockets at Israel.
The Israeli army said one of its soldiers and five Hezbollah militants died in combat in the village of Bint Jbeil.
The Shia militia said it killed four Israeli soldiers near Houla, but Israel said a number of its troops were slightly wounded.
The clashes follow exchanges on Sunday, when Hezbollah rocket-fire killed 12 Israeli reservist soldiers in the town of Kfar Giladi and three people in the port of Haifa.
Israel said it had destroyed Hezbollah rocket launchers around Qana and Tyre that were used to attack Haifa.
The BBC's John Simpson in Tyre says the city, which now has only about 3,000 people left, many of them poor and elderly, has been cut off by Israeli bombing.
He says a crater blocks the farm track used to transport food and medicine to the city, and an Israeli spy drone flies overhead.
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Israel Hits Lebanese Village, Killing 40
By SAM F. GHATTAS, AP
BEIRUT, Lebanon (Aug. 7) - An Israeli attack on a Lebanese border village killed more than 40 people Monday, Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said. Saniora disclosed the attack in the village of Houla, where heavy ground fighting between Hezbollah guerrillas and Israeli has been raging in recent days in a speech to Arab foreign ministers meeting in Beirut.
"An hour ago, there was a horrific massacre in the village of Houla in which more than 40 martyrs were victims of deliberate bombing," he said.
Local TV stations had reported that about 40 people were buried under the rubble of houses that collapsed after being targeted by Israeli airstrikes.
Meanwhile, fierce fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah guerrillas in south Lebanon killed one soldier, the army said.
The new strikes and ground battles came hours before Arab League foreign ministers were to meet in Beirut for a hastily convened session to show solidarity with Lebanon.
Both sides appeared to take advantage of the days before a cease-fire resolution, formulated by the U.S. and France, is put to a vote in the U.N. Security Council. Hezbollah rocket launched its deadliest rocket barrage on Israel on Sunday, killing 12 Israeli soldiers and three civilians.
Israeli warplanes began carrying out a series of air raids on southern Lebanon early Monday.
Seven people were killed when a missile hit a house in Qassmieh on the coast north of the port city of Tyre, civil defense official Youssef Khairallah said. A woman and her daughter were killed in an attack near a Lebanese army checkpoint between the villages of Harouf and Dweir, security officials said. Four other people were killed in a raid on that destroyed a house in Kfar Tebnit.
Air raids on the town of Ghaziyeh also destroyed several buildings, killing at least one person and wounding 14, hospital officials said.
A building collapsed on its residents in the village of Ghassaniyeh, and at least one body was retrieved from under the rubble. Witnesses and civil defense workers at the scene said six more people were buried under the rubble but that could not be confirmed.
Five air raids struck the market town of Nabatiyeh, targeting two office buildings, a house and one of the offices of Shiite Muslim Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. No casualties were reported there or in raids on the villages of Jibsheet and Toul.
Attacks also were carried out in Naqoura on the border and Ras al-Biyada, about half way between Naqoura and Tyre.
Meanwhile, one Israeli soldier was killed and four were lightly wounded in fighting in Bint Jbail, the army said. It said five Hezbollah gunmen were killed in the battle.
Hezbollah also claimed to have killed four Israeli soldiers in heavy ground fighting in Houla in southern Lebanon. But the Israeli army said only three were moderately wounded there.
The air raids, which were particularly intense in the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of the capital, came hours before Arab foreign ministers were to fly into Beirut to show their support for the Lebanese people as cease-fire negotiations continue.
The U.N. plan would call for an immediate halt in the fighting, followed by a second resolution in a week or two that would authorize an international military force and creation of a buffer zone in south Lebanon. It also says the two Israeli soldiers held by Hezbollah should be released unconditionally. The soldiers' capture July 12 triggered the war.
Washington and Paris were expected to circulate a new draft of the first resolution at the United Nations on Monday, taking into account some of the amendments proposed by Qatar, the only Arab nation on the Security Council, and other members, diplomats said.
Israel's Justice Minister Haim Ramon the U.S.-French draft was good for Israel -- but the country still had military goals and would continue its attacks on Hezbollah. While Hezbollah has not issued an outright rejection of the plan, its two main allies -- Syria and Iran -- said it was without merit because it did not call for an immediate Israeli withdrawal, among other demands.
Lebanon's parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, also said the plan was unacceptable because it does not deal with Beirut's other key demands -- a release of prisoners held by Israel and moves to resolve a dispute over a piece of border territory.
In other violence Monday, Israeli warplanes hit roads in the Bekaa Valley, a northeastern region of Lebanon that is a symbol of Hezbollah power. At least four explosions were heard around the city of Baalbek, about 60 miles north of Israel's border, witnesses said. The Israeli military confirmed that it had hit several targets in the area. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Warplanes also struck a large factory for construction materials just south of Baalbek, and several trucks belonging to the plant were destroyed.
Jet fighters attacked the Rashaya region farther south on the corridor linking southern regions with the Bekaa Valley in the country's east, the witnesses said. A road near the Beirut border post at Masnaa on the Beirut-Damascus highway, a frequent target of attack, was hit again early Monday.
In Israel, the Haaretz daily, quoting an unnamed general, reported Monday that Israel might step up attacks on Lebanese infrastructure and target symbols of the government in response to Hezbollah's escalating rocket attacks. Israeli warplanes have repeatedly blasted Palestinian government buildings during a month-long offensive in Gaza that began shortly before the clashes with Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has fired more than 3,000 rockets at Israel since the fighting began, Israeli officials said. Dozens of rockets hit Israel on Sunday, including some that reached Haifa -- Israel's third-largest city -- killing three civilians and wounding dozens.
The renewed airstrikes came as Hezbollah battled Israeli forces attempting to advance deeper into southern Lebanon. Hezbollah engaged Israeli infantrymen attempting to advance on the border villages of Aita al-Shaab, Rub Thalatheen and Dibel, the guerrillas' TV station said.
Some 10,000 Israeli soldiers are fighting several hundred Hezbollah gunmen in south Lebanon, trying to track and destroy rocket launchers and push the guerrilla group out of the area.
In the deadliest attack on Israelis in this war, a rocket landed Sunday among reservists near the entrance to the communal farm of Kfar Giladi on the Lebanese border. It killed 12 soldiers heading for battle in Lebanon and wounded five, hospital officials said.
The attack on Kfar Giladi was "a direct hit on a vehicle where there was a crowd. They were all wounded and scattered in every direction, some of them were in very bad condition," said Eli Peretz, a medic. "It was a very, very difficult scene. I have never seen anything like it."
Bloodied army boots were placed on a stone wall. The rocket scorched two parked cars.
The latest deaths brought to 94 the number of Israelis killed, including 46 soldiers, the 12 reservists and 36 civilians. Israel's attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 606 people, including 524 civilians, 29 Lebanese soldiers and at least 53 Hezbollah guerrillas.
Associated Press writers Aron Heller in Kfar Giladi, Israel; Delphine Matthieussent in Haifa, Israel; Lauren Frayer in Beirut; and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
8/7/2006 08:11:33
BEIRUT, Lebanon (Aug. 7) - An Israeli attack on a Lebanese border village killed more than 40 people Monday, Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said. Saniora disclosed the attack in the village of Houla, where heavy ground fighting between Hezbollah guerrillas and Israeli has been raging in recent days in a speech to Arab foreign ministers meeting in Beirut.
"An hour ago, there was a horrific massacre in the village of Houla in which more than 40 martyrs were victims of deliberate bombing," he said.
Local TV stations had reported that about 40 people were buried under the rubble of houses that collapsed after being targeted by Israeli airstrikes.
Meanwhile, fierce fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah guerrillas in south Lebanon killed one soldier, the army said.
The new strikes and ground battles came hours before Arab League foreign ministers were to meet in Beirut for a hastily convened session to show solidarity with Lebanon.
Both sides appeared to take advantage of the days before a cease-fire resolution, formulated by the U.S. and France, is put to a vote in the U.N. Security Council. Hezbollah rocket launched its deadliest rocket barrage on Israel on Sunday, killing 12 Israeli soldiers and three civilians.
Israeli warplanes began carrying out a series of air raids on southern Lebanon early Monday.
Seven people were killed when a missile hit a house in Qassmieh on the coast north of the port city of Tyre, civil defense official Youssef Khairallah said. A woman and her daughter were killed in an attack near a Lebanese army checkpoint between the villages of Harouf and Dweir, security officials said. Four other people were killed in a raid on that destroyed a house in Kfar Tebnit.
Air raids on the town of Ghaziyeh also destroyed several buildings, killing at least one person and wounding 14, hospital officials said.
A building collapsed on its residents in the village of Ghassaniyeh, and at least one body was retrieved from under the rubble. Witnesses and civil defense workers at the scene said six more people were buried under the rubble but that could not be confirmed.
Five air raids struck the market town of Nabatiyeh, targeting two office buildings, a house and one of the offices of Shiite Muslim Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. No casualties were reported there or in raids on the villages of Jibsheet and Toul.
Attacks also were carried out in Naqoura on the border and Ras al-Biyada, about half way between Naqoura and Tyre.
Meanwhile, one Israeli soldier was killed and four were lightly wounded in fighting in Bint Jbail, the army said. It said five Hezbollah gunmen were killed in the battle.
Hezbollah also claimed to have killed four Israeli soldiers in heavy ground fighting in Houla in southern Lebanon. But the Israeli army said only three were moderately wounded there.
The air raids, which were particularly intense in the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of the capital, came hours before Arab foreign ministers were to fly into Beirut to show their support for the Lebanese people as cease-fire negotiations continue.
The U.N. plan would call for an immediate halt in the fighting, followed by a second resolution in a week or two that would authorize an international military force and creation of a buffer zone in south Lebanon. It also says the two Israeli soldiers held by Hezbollah should be released unconditionally. The soldiers' capture July 12 triggered the war.
Washington and Paris were expected to circulate a new draft of the first resolution at the United Nations on Monday, taking into account some of the amendments proposed by Qatar, the only Arab nation on the Security Council, and other members, diplomats said.
Israel's Justice Minister Haim Ramon the U.S.-French draft was good for Israel -- but the country still had military goals and would continue its attacks on Hezbollah. While Hezbollah has not issued an outright rejection of the plan, its two main allies -- Syria and Iran -- said it was without merit because it did not call for an immediate Israeli withdrawal, among other demands.
Lebanon's parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, also said the plan was unacceptable because it does not deal with Beirut's other key demands -- a release of prisoners held by Israel and moves to resolve a dispute over a piece of border territory.
In other violence Monday, Israeli warplanes hit roads in the Bekaa Valley, a northeastern region of Lebanon that is a symbol of Hezbollah power. At least four explosions were heard around the city of Baalbek, about 60 miles north of Israel's border, witnesses said. The Israeli military confirmed that it had hit several targets in the area. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Warplanes also struck a large factory for construction materials just south of Baalbek, and several trucks belonging to the plant were destroyed.
Jet fighters attacked the Rashaya region farther south on the corridor linking southern regions with the Bekaa Valley in the country's east, the witnesses said. A road near the Beirut border post at Masnaa on the Beirut-Damascus highway, a frequent target of attack, was hit again early Monday.
In Israel, the Haaretz daily, quoting an unnamed general, reported Monday that Israel might step up attacks on Lebanese infrastructure and target symbols of the government in response to Hezbollah's escalating rocket attacks. Israeli warplanes have repeatedly blasted Palestinian government buildings during a month-long offensive in Gaza that began shortly before the clashes with Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has fired more than 3,000 rockets at Israel since the fighting began, Israeli officials said. Dozens of rockets hit Israel on Sunday, including some that reached Haifa -- Israel's third-largest city -- killing three civilians and wounding dozens.
The renewed airstrikes came as Hezbollah battled Israeli forces attempting to advance deeper into southern Lebanon. Hezbollah engaged Israeli infantrymen attempting to advance on the border villages of Aita al-Shaab, Rub Thalatheen and Dibel, the guerrillas' TV station said.
Some 10,000 Israeli soldiers are fighting several hundred Hezbollah gunmen in south Lebanon, trying to track and destroy rocket launchers and push the guerrilla group out of the area.
In the deadliest attack on Israelis in this war, a rocket landed Sunday among reservists near the entrance to the communal farm of Kfar Giladi on the Lebanese border. It killed 12 soldiers heading for battle in Lebanon and wounded five, hospital officials said.
The attack on Kfar Giladi was "a direct hit on a vehicle where there was a crowd. They were all wounded and scattered in every direction, some of them were in very bad condition," said Eli Peretz, a medic. "It was a very, very difficult scene. I have never seen anything like it."
Bloodied army boots were placed on a stone wall. The rocket scorched two parked cars.
The latest deaths brought to 94 the number of Israelis killed, including 46 soldiers, the 12 reservists and 36 civilians. Israel's attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 606 people, including 524 civilians, 29 Lebanese soldiers and at least 53 Hezbollah guerrillas.
Associated Press writers Aron Heller in Kfar Giladi, Israel; Delphine Matthieussent in Haifa, Israel; Lauren Frayer in Beirut; and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
8/7/2006 08:11:33
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theone666
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Poorest migrants leaving Lebanon
Monday, 7 August 2006, 16:43 GMT 17:43 UK
Efforts are being stepped up to evacuate hundreds of thousands of Asian and Ethiopian migrant workers still stranded in war-torn Lebanon.
About 200,000 Bangladeshi, Ethiopian, Filipino, Nepali and Sri Lankan workers are still thought to be in the country.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says it expects to move at least 750 people a day over the next five days unless the security situation deteriorates further.
The organisation says it has evacuated more than 4,000 foreign nationals from Beirut since 20 July.
However, the evacuations were interrupted on Friday after Israeli air raids struck key routes leading out of Lebanon.
Waiting in vain
A convoy of 22 buses embarked on the three-hour journey to the Syrian border from Beirut, carrying 716 evacuees from the Philippines on Saturday and a further 252 from Sri Lanka on Sunday.
Many of the evacuees are low paid, female domestic workers, some of whom have no travel documents and very little money, according to IOM spokesman in the region, Jean Philippe Chauzy.
Many have waited in vain for help from home.
The Philippines government has been trying to help their nationals but without the resources that richer countries have been able to provide.
However, at their evacuation centre in Beirut, a Philippines government official, Resty Belafuenta, said things are better than they were.
"There is no problem as to funds. We have already evacuated 3,167 and right now we are preparing to evacuate 500 tomorrow. The families are now quite satisfied at the rate we are mobilising the workers," he said.
Returning empty-handed
But at the Raifoun refugee camp outside Beirut, Sri Lankan nun Sister Leela says things are difficult for her own country's nationals.
"They say, 'We want to go,' but we have to try hard to explain to them the evacuation is a very slow process. It's about eight or nine hours to get to Damascus and the roads are really terrible. It's very difficult for them to get out of Lebanon."
Meanwhile, several hundred women are camped out in the compound of the Sri Lankan embassy in Beirut waiting for the next convoy, said Mr Chauzy.
"For many who have been in Lebanon for years and may not have been paid, the prospect of returning home with nothing is very sad," he said.
Efforts are being stepped up to evacuate hundreds of thousands of Asian and Ethiopian migrant workers still stranded in war-torn Lebanon.
About 200,000 Bangladeshi, Ethiopian, Filipino, Nepali and Sri Lankan workers are still thought to be in the country.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says it expects to move at least 750 people a day over the next five days unless the security situation deteriorates further.
The organisation says it has evacuated more than 4,000 foreign nationals from Beirut since 20 July.
However, the evacuations were interrupted on Friday after Israeli air raids struck key routes leading out of Lebanon.
Waiting in vain
A convoy of 22 buses embarked on the three-hour journey to the Syrian border from Beirut, carrying 716 evacuees from the Philippines on Saturday and a further 252 from Sri Lanka on Sunday.
Many of the evacuees are low paid, female domestic workers, some of whom have no travel documents and very little money, according to IOM spokesman in the region, Jean Philippe Chauzy.
Many have waited in vain for help from home.
The Philippines government has been trying to help their nationals but without the resources that richer countries have been able to provide.
However, at their evacuation centre in Beirut, a Philippines government official, Resty Belafuenta, said things are better than they were.
"There is no problem as to funds. We have already evacuated 3,167 and right now we are preparing to evacuate 500 tomorrow. The families are now quite satisfied at the rate we are mobilising the workers," he said.
Returning empty-handed
But at the Raifoun refugee camp outside Beirut, Sri Lankan nun Sister Leela says things are difficult for her own country's nationals.
"They say, 'We want to go,' but we have to try hard to explain to them the evacuation is a very slow process. It's about eight or nine hours to get to Damascus and the roads are really terrible. It's very difficult for them to get out of Lebanon."
Meanwhile, several hundred women are camped out in the compound of the Sri Lankan embassy in Beirut waiting for the next convoy, said Mr Chauzy.
"For many who have been in Lebanon for years and may not have been paid, the prospect of returning home with nothing is very sad," he said.
-
theone666
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Lebanese Leader Wins Arab Backing
By SAM F. GHATTAS, AP
BEIRUT, Lebanon (Aug. 7) - Israeli warplanes intensified airstrikes and launched a new commando raid in south Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 23 people in one of the heaviest tolls in days. Lebanon's prime minister won strong support from Arab states to plead his case at the United Nations for a full Israeli withdrawal.
President Bush said he anticipates that Hezbollah and Israel won't agree with all aspects of a Mideast cease-fire resolution but said "we all recognize that the violence must stop."
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora choked back tears as he told a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Beirut that 40 people were killed by an Israeli airstrike on the southern border village of Houla, but he later said only one person was killed.
Saniora got strong backing from the foreign ministers, who warned the U.N. Security Council against adopting resolutions that don't serve Lebanon's interests. They decided to send a high-level delegation to New York to press Lebanon's case.
Israeli warplanes repeatedly bombed Beirut's southern suburbs and pounded other areas of Lebanon, killing 15 people, Lebanese officials said. In northern Israel, scores of Hezbollah rockets wounded five people, rescue workers said.
Seven people were killed when a missile hit a house in Qassmieh on the coast north of Lebanon's port city of Tyre, civil defense official Youssef Khairallah said.
Saniora backtracked on the death toll in the Houla airstrike, saying that a search of the flattened building turned up only one death.
The Israeli army said one soldier was killed and four others were slightly wounded in fighting in the town of Bint Jbail. The soldiers killed five Hezbollah gunmen in the battle, the army said. Al-Jazeera television said two Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting. Another three soldiers were wounded in Houla, the army said.
A new barrage of 83 rockets hit northern Israel, slightly wounding five Israelis, according to rescue services.
Ministers called for a meeting of Israel's Security Cabinet later Monday to discuss whether to broaden the nearly four-week-old offensive.
One minister, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did not want to be seen as criticizing the military, said the army needed to send all available ground forces into Lebanon immediately to push Hezbollah and its rocket launchers out of the area south of the Litani River, about 18 miles from the border.
Hezbollah fired its deadliest rocket barrage Sunday on Israel, killing 12 Israeli reservists and three civilians. That brought the Israeli death toll to 94, including 46 soldiers, the 12 reservists and 36 civilians.
Israel's attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 607 people, including 524 civilians, 29 Lebanese soldiers and at least 53 Hezbollah guerrillas.
Israeli warplanes hit an apartment complex in Tyre, and ambulance driver Shadi Jradi said he got a report of five people killed, although he did not see the bodies himself.
A woman and her daughter were killed near a Lebanese army checkpoint between the villages of Harouf and Dweir, security officials said. Four other people were killed in a raid on that destroyed a house in Kfar Tebnit.
Air raids on the town of Ghaziyeh also destroyed several buildings, killing at least one person and wounding 14, hospital officials said.
A building collapsed in the village of Ghassaniyeh, and at least one body was pulled from the rubble. Witnesses and civil defense workers said six more people were buried, but that could not be confirmed.
Five air raids struck the market town of Nabatiyeh, targeting two office buildings, a house and one of the offices of Shiite Muslim Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. No casualties were reported there or in raids on the villages of Jibsheet and Toul.
Attacks also were carried out in Naqoura on the border and Ras al-Biyada, about halfway between Naqoura and Tyre. About 30 Israeli commandos landed by helicopter on a hill overlooking Ras al-Biyada, where they battled Hezbollah militants, Lebanese security officials said. Israeli officials would not confirm the operation.
In other violence, Israeli warplanes hit roads in the Bekaa Valley, a northeastern region of Lebanon that is a symbol of Hezbollah power. At least four explosions were heard around the city of Baalbek, about 60 miles north of Israel's border, witnesses said. The Israeli military confirmed it had hit several targets in the area.
Warplanes also struck a large factory for construction materials just south of Baalbek.
Jet fighters attacked the Rashaya region farther south on the corridor linking southern regions with the Bekaa Valley, witnesses said. A road near the Beirut border post at Masnaa on the Beirut-Damascus highway, a frequent target of attack, was hit again Monday.
The U.N. plan would call for an immediate halt in the fighting, followed by a second resolution in a week or two to authorize an international military force and creation of a buffer zone in south Lebanon. It also says the two Israeli soldiers whose capture July 12 by Hezbollah guerrillas triggered the war should be released unconditionally.
Saniora and the Arab foreign ministers pressed for changes in the plan. He has proposed a speeded-up deployment of Lebanese troops with the support of U.N. forces in order to ensure that thousands of Israeli soldiers leave the south with any cease-fire, a Saniora aide said.
The Arab foreign ministers warned of "the consequences of adopting resolutions that are not applicable and complicate the situation on the ground and do not take Lebanon's interest and stability into account." Lebanon and the Arabs see the U.S.-French draft resolution as heavily tilted toward Israel.
Washington and Paris were expected to circulate a new draft of the first resolution at the United Nations on Monday, taking into account some of the amendments proposed by Qatar, the only Arab nation on the Security Council, and other members, diplomats said.
Bush said the goal was to find consensus quickly on a U.N. resolution calling for a cessation of violence.
"I understand that both parties aren't going to agree with all aspects of the resolution," Bush said. "But the intent of the resolutions is to strengthen the Lebanese government so Israel has got a partner in peace."
Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon the U.S.-French draft was good for Israel -- but the country still had military goals and would continue its attacks on Hezbollah. While Hezbollah has not rejected the plan outright, its two main allies -- Syria and Iran -- said it was without merit because it did not call for an immediate Israeli withdrawal, among other demands.
Lebanon's parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, also said the plan was unacceptable because it does not deal with Beirut's other key demands -- a release of prisoners held by Israel and moves to resolve a dispute over a piece of border territory.
Israel's Haaretz daily, quoting an unidentified general, reported that attacks might be stepped up on Lebanese infrastructure and symbols of the government in response to Hezbollah's escalating rocket attacks. Israeli warplanes have repeatedly blasted Palestinian government buildings during a monthlong offensive in Gaza that began shortly before the fighting with Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has fired more than 3,000 rockets at Israel since the fighting began, Israeli officials said.
Hezbollah militants battled Israeli forces trying to push deeper into southern Lebanon, engaging Israeli infantrymen attempting to advance on the border villages of Aita al-Shaab, Rub Thalatheen and Dibel, the guerrillas' TV station said.
Some 10,000 Israeli soldiers are fighting several hundred Hezbollah gunmen in south Lebanon, trying to track and destroy rocket launchers and push the guerrilla group out of the area.
Associated Press writers Aron Heller in Kfar Giladi, Israel; Delphine Matthieussent in Haifa, Israel; Lauren Frayer in Beirut; and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
8/7/2006 11:22:29
BEIRUT, Lebanon (Aug. 7) - Israeli warplanes intensified airstrikes and launched a new commando raid in south Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 23 people in one of the heaviest tolls in days. Lebanon's prime minister won strong support from Arab states to plead his case at the United Nations for a full Israeli withdrawal.
President Bush said he anticipates that Hezbollah and Israel won't agree with all aspects of a Mideast cease-fire resolution but said "we all recognize that the violence must stop."
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora choked back tears as he told a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Beirut that 40 people were killed by an Israeli airstrike on the southern border village of Houla, but he later said only one person was killed.
Saniora got strong backing from the foreign ministers, who warned the U.N. Security Council against adopting resolutions that don't serve Lebanon's interests. They decided to send a high-level delegation to New York to press Lebanon's case.
Israeli warplanes repeatedly bombed Beirut's southern suburbs and pounded other areas of Lebanon, killing 15 people, Lebanese officials said. In northern Israel, scores of Hezbollah rockets wounded five people, rescue workers said.
Seven people were killed when a missile hit a house in Qassmieh on the coast north of Lebanon's port city of Tyre, civil defense official Youssef Khairallah said.
Saniora backtracked on the death toll in the Houla airstrike, saying that a search of the flattened building turned up only one death.
The Israeli army said one soldier was killed and four others were slightly wounded in fighting in the town of Bint Jbail. The soldiers killed five Hezbollah gunmen in the battle, the army said. Al-Jazeera television said two Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting. Another three soldiers were wounded in Houla, the army said.
A new barrage of 83 rockets hit northern Israel, slightly wounding five Israelis, according to rescue services.
Ministers called for a meeting of Israel's Security Cabinet later Monday to discuss whether to broaden the nearly four-week-old offensive.
One minister, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did not want to be seen as criticizing the military, said the army needed to send all available ground forces into Lebanon immediately to push Hezbollah and its rocket launchers out of the area south of the Litani River, about 18 miles from the border.
Hezbollah fired its deadliest rocket barrage Sunday on Israel, killing 12 Israeli reservists and three civilians. That brought the Israeli death toll to 94, including 46 soldiers, the 12 reservists and 36 civilians.
Israel's attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 607 people, including 524 civilians, 29 Lebanese soldiers and at least 53 Hezbollah guerrillas.
Israeli warplanes hit an apartment complex in Tyre, and ambulance driver Shadi Jradi said he got a report of five people killed, although he did not see the bodies himself.
A woman and her daughter were killed near a Lebanese army checkpoint between the villages of Harouf and Dweir, security officials said. Four other people were killed in a raid on that destroyed a house in Kfar Tebnit.
Air raids on the town of Ghaziyeh also destroyed several buildings, killing at least one person and wounding 14, hospital officials said.
A building collapsed in the village of Ghassaniyeh, and at least one body was pulled from the rubble. Witnesses and civil defense workers said six more people were buried, but that could not be confirmed.
Five air raids struck the market town of Nabatiyeh, targeting two office buildings, a house and one of the offices of Shiite Muslim Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. No casualties were reported there or in raids on the villages of Jibsheet and Toul.
Attacks also were carried out in Naqoura on the border and Ras al-Biyada, about halfway between Naqoura and Tyre. About 30 Israeli commandos landed by helicopter on a hill overlooking Ras al-Biyada, where they battled Hezbollah militants, Lebanese security officials said. Israeli officials would not confirm the operation.
In other violence, Israeli warplanes hit roads in the Bekaa Valley, a northeastern region of Lebanon that is a symbol of Hezbollah power. At least four explosions were heard around the city of Baalbek, about 60 miles north of Israel's border, witnesses said. The Israeli military confirmed it had hit several targets in the area.
Warplanes also struck a large factory for construction materials just south of Baalbek.
Jet fighters attacked the Rashaya region farther south on the corridor linking southern regions with the Bekaa Valley, witnesses said. A road near the Beirut border post at Masnaa on the Beirut-Damascus highway, a frequent target of attack, was hit again Monday.
The U.N. plan would call for an immediate halt in the fighting, followed by a second resolution in a week or two to authorize an international military force and creation of a buffer zone in south Lebanon. It also says the two Israeli soldiers whose capture July 12 by Hezbollah guerrillas triggered the war should be released unconditionally.
Saniora and the Arab foreign ministers pressed for changes in the plan. He has proposed a speeded-up deployment of Lebanese troops with the support of U.N. forces in order to ensure that thousands of Israeli soldiers leave the south with any cease-fire, a Saniora aide said.
The Arab foreign ministers warned of "the consequences of adopting resolutions that are not applicable and complicate the situation on the ground and do not take Lebanon's interest and stability into account." Lebanon and the Arabs see the U.S.-French draft resolution as heavily tilted toward Israel.
Washington and Paris were expected to circulate a new draft of the first resolution at the United Nations on Monday, taking into account some of the amendments proposed by Qatar, the only Arab nation on the Security Council, and other members, diplomats said.
Bush said the goal was to find consensus quickly on a U.N. resolution calling for a cessation of violence.
"I understand that both parties aren't going to agree with all aspects of the resolution," Bush said. "But the intent of the resolutions is to strengthen the Lebanese government so Israel has got a partner in peace."
Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon the U.S.-French draft was good for Israel -- but the country still had military goals and would continue its attacks on Hezbollah. While Hezbollah has not rejected the plan outright, its two main allies -- Syria and Iran -- said it was without merit because it did not call for an immediate Israeli withdrawal, among other demands.
Lebanon's parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, also said the plan was unacceptable because it does not deal with Beirut's other key demands -- a release of prisoners held by Israel and moves to resolve a dispute over a piece of border territory.
Israel's Haaretz daily, quoting an unidentified general, reported that attacks might be stepped up on Lebanese infrastructure and symbols of the government in response to Hezbollah's escalating rocket attacks. Israeli warplanes have repeatedly blasted Palestinian government buildings during a monthlong offensive in Gaza that began shortly before the fighting with Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has fired more than 3,000 rockets at Israel since the fighting began, Israeli officials said.
Hezbollah militants battled Israeli forces trying to push deeper into southern Lebanon, engaging Israeli infantrymen attempting to advance on the border villages of Aita al-Shaab, Rub Thalatheen and Dibel, the guerrillas' TV station said.
Some 10,000 Israeli soldiers are fighting several hundred Hezbollah gunmen in south Lebanon, trying to track and destroy rocket launchers and push the guerrilla group out of the area.
Associated Press writers Aron Heller in Kfar Giladi, Israel; Delphine Matthieussent in Haifa, Israel; Lauren Frayer in Beirut; and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
8/7/2006 11:22:29
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theone666
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- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:00 am
Reuters man doctored news images
Tuesday, 8 August 2006, 00:57 GMT 01:57 UK
The news agency Reuters has withdrawn from sale 920 pictures taken by a photographer after finding he had doctored two images taken in Lebanon.
Bloggers first spotted that smoke on Adnan Hajj's image of the aftermath of an Israeli air strike in Beirut appeared to have been made darker.
A Reuters investigation confirmed this and also found two flares had been added to an image of an Israeli jet.
Mr Hajj told the BBC he denied doctoring the content of the images.
He said had tried to clean dust off the first image, a shot of buildings in a suburb of Beirut, on which Reuters found smoke plumes had been darkened and expanded using computer software.
"It was so badly done - an amateur could have done better," Bob Bodman, picture editor at the Daily Telegraph newspaper, told the BBC.
Mr Hajj, a freelance photographer working for Reuters, denied altering the second photograph, an image of an Israeli F-16 fighter over Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon.
"There's no problem with it, not at all," he said in a BBC interview.
'Lapse'
Paul Holmes, editor of political and general news at Reuters, told the BBC that senior photographers at the agency "weren't convinced" that cleaning dust off the first image would result in the manipulation the image showed.
He said there had been a "lapse in our editing process", but stressed that Reuters had moved swiftly to address the issue and tighten editing procedures.
Global Picture Editor Tom Szlukovenyi said all of Adnan Hajj's images had been removed from the company's database.
He described it as a precautionary measure, but said the manipulation undermined trust in Mr Hajj's entire body of work.
"There is no graver breach of Reuters standards for our photographers than the deliberate manipulation of an image," Mr Szlukovenyi said in a statement.
Questions were raised about the accuracy of the image on Sunday in several weblogs - personal online diaries by writers known as "bloggers" - including ones which scrutinise media coverage of the Middle East for bias.
Mr Holmes said Reuters welcomed the growth of weblogs, which had made the media "much more accountable and more transparent".
The news agency Reuters has withdrawn from sale 920 pictures taken by a photographer after finding he had doctored two images taken in Lebanon.
Bloggers first spotted that smoke on Adnan Hajj's image of the aftermath of an Israeli air strike in Beirut appeared to have been made darker.
A Reuters investigation confirmed this and also found two flares had been added to an image of an Israeli jet.
Mr Hajj told the BBC he denied doctoring the content of the images.
He said had tried to clean dust off the first image, a shot of buildings in a suburb of Beirut, on which Reuters found smoke plumes had been darkened and expanded using computer software.
"It was so badly done - an amateur could have done better," Bob Bodman, picture editor at the Daily Telegraph newspaper, told the BBC.
Mr Hajj, a freelance photographer working for Reuters, denied altering the second photograph, an image of an Israeli F-16 fighter over Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon.
"There's no problem with it, not at all," he said in a BBC interview.
'Lapse'
Paul Holmes, editor of political and general news at Reuters, told the BBC that senior photographers at the agency "weren't convinced" that cleaning dust off the first image would result in the manipulation the image showed.
He said there had been a "lapse in our editing process", but stressed that Reuters had moved swiftly to address the issue and tighten editing procedures.
Global Picture Editor Tom Szlukovenyi said all of Adnan Hajj's images had been removed from the company's database.
He described it as a precautionary measure, but said the manipulation undermined trust in Mr Hajj's entire body of work.
"There is no graver breach of Reuters standards for our photographers than the deliberate manipulation of an image," Mr Szlukovenyi said in a statement.
Questions were raised about the accuracy of the image on Sunday in several weblogs - personal online diaries by writers known as "bloggers" - including ones which scrutinise media coverage of the Middle East for bias.
Mr Holmes said Reuters welcomed the growth of weblogs, which had made the media "much more accountable and more transparent".
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theone666
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Blair seeks Lebanon breakthrough
Monday, 7 August 2006, 20:38 GMT 21:38 UK
Tony Blair is still trying to secure international support for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Lebanon says a draft UN Security Council resolution is unacceptable because it does not call for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops.
Mr Blair, who has postponed his summer holiday, continued to talk to world leaders following weekend contacts.
The prime minister believes the current proposals identified a "middle ground" that would allow the fighting to stop.
The PM's latest conversations included Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Mr Blair held a series of talks by telephone over the weekend with key figures such as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, US President George Bush, French President Jacques Chirac, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the British ambassador to the UN, Sir Emyr Jones Parry.
He also discussed the situation with Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and International Development Secretary Hilary Benn.
The PM was briefed on the humanitarian situation by Oxfam and Christian Aid.
Mrs Beckett, currently on holiday in France, is on standby to fly to the UN if there is a Security Council vote this week.
A spokeswoman for No 10 said on Monday: "We recognise the concerns on both sides. We are dealing with two countries that have deep-rooted differences. The prime minister is working to bridge those differences.
"He is not going anywhere today. When he does go, he will obviously be kept informed and keeping in touch with people on a daily basis about the situation."
'Balanced resolution'
A delegation from an Arab League meeting in Beirut is flying to New York to put its concerns to the Security Council.
The current plan, tabled by the US and France, envisages a second resolution for an international peacekeeping force to take over from the Israelis in Lebanon.
Mr Bush said he was not to prepared to allow a "vacuum" to be created in southern Lebanon to the advantage of the militant group Hezbollah.
UN Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown said the resolution needed to be "more balanced" and that a vote was not likely before Wednesday.
Relief agencies said it was currently too dangerous for them to deliver aid in the area.
Amnesty International held a demonstration, addressed by campaigner Bianca Jagger, outside Number 10 and delivered a petition calling for an immediate ceasefire.
A survey by the Ceasefire Today group, backed by aid agencies such as Oxfam, Christian Aid and Cafod, found 212 MPs - 121 of them Labour - backed an immediate ceasefire, with just 22 supporting the government's position on the conflict.
Meanwhile, No 10 has dismissed reports that former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was removed as a result of American pressure, after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was alarmed at how much Muslim support he relied on in his Blackburn constituency.
Tony Blair is still trying to secure international support for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Lebanon says a draft UN Security Council resolution is unacceptable because it does not call for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops.
Mr Blair, who has postponed his summer holiday, continued to talk to world leaders following weekend contacts.
The prime minister believes the current proposals identified a "middle ground" that would allow the fighting to stop.
The PM's latest conversations included Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Mr Blair held a series of talks by telephone over the weekend with key figures such as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, US President George Bush, French President Jacques Chirac, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the British ambassador to the UN, Sir Emyr Jones Parry.
He also discussed the situation with Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and International Development Secretary Hilary Benn.
The PM was briefed on the humanitarian situation by Oxfam and Christian Aid.
Mrs Beckett, currently on holiday in France, is on standby to fly to the UN if there is a Security Council vote this week.
A spokeswoman for No 10 said on Monday: "We recognise the concerns on both sides. We are dealing with two countries that have deep-rooted differences. The prime minister is working to bridge those differences.
"He is not going anywhere today. When he does go, he will obviously be kept informed and keeping in touch with people on a daily basis about the situation."
'Balanced resolution'
A delegation from an Arab League meeting in Beirut is flying to New York to put its concerns to the Security Council.
The current plan, tabled by the US and France, envisages a second resolution for an international peacekeeping force to take over from the Israelis in Lebanon.
Mr Bush said he was not to prepared to allow a "vacuum" to be created in southern Lebanon to the advantage of the militant group Hezbollah.
UN Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown said the resolution needed to be "more balanced" and that a vote was not likely before Wednesday.
Relief agencies said it was currently too dangerous for them to deliver aid in the area.
Amnesty International held a demonstration, addressed by campaigner Bianca Jagger, outside Number 10 and delivered a petition calling for an immediate ceasefire.
A survey by the Ceasefire Today group, backed by aid agencies such as Oxfam, Christian Aid and Cafod, found 212 MPs - 121 of them Labour - backed an immediate ceasefire, with just 22 supporting the government's position on the conflict.
Meanwhile, No 10 has dismissed reports that former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was removed as a result of American pressure, after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was alarmed at how much Muslim support he relied on in his Blackburn constituency.
-
theone666
- Major [O-4]
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Tape shows Hezbollah 'confession'
Monday, 7 August 2006, 23:35 GMT 00:35 UK
The Israeli army has released a video apparently showing a Hezbollah fighter admitting to taking part in a raid on Israel and undergoing training in Iran.
On the tape, the fighter describes his role in the raid in which two Israeli soldiers were seized on 12 July, triggering the current conflict.
The man identifies himself as Hussein Ali Suleiman, 22, and says he flew from Syria to Iran for training in 2003.
The videoed interrogation appears to have been heavily edited.
The Israeli army announced his capture on Sunday, but did not say when he had been seized, according to the Associated Press.
'Special flight'
In the video, released on Monday, he said he was tasked with cutting certain access routes during the cross-border raid in which Hezbollah captured two Israeli troops and another eight died in clashes.
Mr Suleiman said he had undergone several training sessions and courses since joining the militant group as a teenager.
During one of these in 2003, he said, he was driven from Beirut to Damascus in Hezbollah cars and then took a special flight to Iran without passing through passport control.
He then took part in military exercises in Iran along with 40 or 50 other Hezbollah members, he said.
Mr Suleiman also said he had attended an 18-month night school course for soldiers, which included classes in Islamic law and jurisprudence.
After Israel withdrew from south Lebanon in 2000, ending its 18-year occupation of the area, he said he attended a 45-day "fighter" course covering weapons training, sabotage and communications.
In the footage, Mr Suleiman appeared to have light bruises or wounds on his cheeks and lips, and the tape was edited with some of his answers cut off in mid-sentence, AP reported.
On Friday, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) released footage of what it said were Hezbollah fighters blindfolded and captured during an operation in south Lebanon.
The Israeli army has released a video apparently showing a Hezbollah fighter admitting to taking part in a raid on Israel and undergoing training in Iran.
On the tape, the fighter describes his role in the raid in which two Israeli soldiers were seized on 12 July, triggering the current conflict.
The man identifies himself as Hussein Ali Suleiman, 22, and says he flew from Syria to Iran for training in 2003.
The videoed interrogation appears to have been heavily edited.
The Israeli army announced his capture on Sunday, but did not say when he had been seized, according to the Associated Press.
'Special flight'
In the video, released on Monday, he said he was tasked with cutting certain access routes during the cross-border raid in which Hezbollah captured two Israeli troops and another eight died in clashes.
Mr Suleiman said he had undergone several training sessions and courses since joining the militant group as a teenager.
During one of these in 2003, he said, he was driven from Beirut to Damascus in Hezbollah cars and then took a special flight to Iran without passing through passport control.
He then took part in military exercises in Iran along with 40 or 50 other Hezbollah members, he said.
Mr Suleiman also said he had attended an 18-month night school course for soldiers, which included classes in Islamic law and jurisprudence.
After Israel withdrew from south Lebanon in 2000, ending its 18-year occupation of the area, he said he attended a 45-day "fighter" course covering weapons training, sabotage and communications.
In the footage, Mr Suleiman appeared to have light bruises or wounds on his cheeks and lips, and the tape was edited with some of his answers cut off in mid-sentence, AP reported.
On Friday, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) released footage of what it said were Hezbollah fighters blindfolded and captured during an operation in south Lebanon.
-
theone666
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Diplomats wrangle over UN draft
Monday, 7 August 2006, 23:17 GMT 00:17 UK
Talks are being held at the United Nations on possible changes to a draft resolution aimed at ending the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
An Arab League delegation is travelling to New York to push Lebanon's demands for an amended text.
Lebanon wants the proposed resolution to call for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
The Lebanese government has offered to send 15,000 troops to the border when Israel pulls out.
Lebanon is pressing for the US to accept that plan and work it into the draft resolution.
The current text - drafted by the US and France - calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and lays the groundwork for a second that would install an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.
At least 49 people have died in fresh Israeli raids across Lebanon, while Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets at Israel, wounding some civilians.
After nightfall, at least 15 people were killed and several wounded in an Israeli air strike in the south of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, rescue workers said.
The Israeli army has warned southern Lebanese residents to stay indoors from 2200 (1900 GMT).
Three Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes in the southern Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil, the Israeli military said, adding that five Hezbollah militants were also killed.
The Israeli military said it had also downed an Hezbollah drone - the first time an unmanned spotter plane has been destroyed in the conflict.
The Israeli army also released video footage that purported to show a Hezbollah fighter confessing to taking part in the 12 July raid in which two Israeli soldiers were captured, triggering the conflict.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora drastically revised down the death toll of an Israeli air strike in the village of Houla.
"They thought that the whole building smashed on the heads of 40 people," he told reporters in Beirut. "Thank God that they have been saved."
A UN spokesman later said five people had died in the attack.
US to 'listen'
Senior Israeli officials have said they are broadly happy with the text of the UN resolution.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged that there were differences but called the resolution "a reasonable basis that I think both sides can accept" once the details are finalised.
"We're going to listen to the concerns of the parties and see how they might be addressed," she said.
France's ambassador to the UN, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, also defended the resolution but admitted it "could be improved".
US President George W Bush, at his ranch in Texas, called for a resolution to be passed as soon as possible.
But he insisted it must not lead to a situation where Israeli troops withdrew from southern Lebanon too quickly and Hezbollah militants were able to re-arm.
City cut off
More than 900 Lebanese, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict, the Lebanese government said. More than 90 Israelis, most of them soldiers, have also been killed.
Israeli Defence Minster Amir Peretz said Israel would step-up its offensive against Hezbollah rocket-launching sites if the diplomatic process does not reach a successful conclusion.
And Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, according to his office, told reservists on a visit to the Lebanese border: "I give to you all the power and the backing. We are not stopping."
Earlier, Israeli strikes focused on the Lebanese coastal city of Tyre.
The BBC's John Simpson in Tyre says the city is virtually cut off, with a crater now blocking the farm track that had been used to transport food and medicine.
Humanitarian groups say Israeli military action is hampering efforts to help many of the hundreds of thousands who have fled the fighting.
Talks are being held at the United Nations on possible changes to a draft resolution aimed at ending the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
An Arab League delegation is travelling to New York to push Lebanon's demands for an amended text.
Lebanon wants the proposed resolution to call for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
The Lebanese government has offered to send 15,000 troops to the border when Israel pulls out.
Lebanon is pressing for the US to accept that plan and work it into the draft resolution.
The current text - drafted by the US and France - calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and lays the groundwork for a second that would install an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.
At least 49 people have died in fresh Israeli raids across Lebanon, while Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets at Israel, wounding some civilians.
After nightfall, at least 15 people were killed and several wounded in an Israeli air strike in the south of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, rescue workers said.
The Israeli army has warned southern Lebanese residents to stay indoors from 2200 (1900 GMT).
Three Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes in the southern Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil, the Israeli military said, adding that five Hezbollah militants were also killed.
The Israeli military said it had also downed an Hezbollah drone - the first time an unmanned spotter plane has been destroyed in the conflict.
The Israeli army also released video footage that purported to show a Hezbollah fighter confessing to taking part in the 12 July raid in which two Israeli soldiers were captured, triggering the conflict.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora drastically revised down the death toll of an Israeli air strike in the village of Houla.
"They thought that the whole building smashed on the heads of 40 people," he told reporters in Beirut. "Thank God that they have been saved."
A UN spokesman later said five people had died in the attack.
US to 'listen'
Senior Israeli officials have said they are broadly happy with the text of the UN resolution.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged that there were differences but called the resolution "a reasonable basis that I think both sides can accept" once the details are finalised.
"We're going to listen to the concerns of the parties and see how they might be addressed," she said.
France's ambassador to the UN, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, also defended the resolution but admitted it "could be improved".
US President George W Bush, at his ranch in Texas, called for a resolution to be passed as soon as possible.
But he insisted it must not lead to a situation where Israeli troops withdrew from southern Lebanon too quickly and Hezbollah militants were able to re-arm.
City cut off
More than 900 Lebanese, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict, the Lebanese government said. More than 90 Israelis, most of them soldiers, have also been killed.
Israeli Defence Minster Amir Peretz said Israel would step-up its offensive against Hezbollah rocket-launching sites if the diplomatic process does not reach a successful conclusion.
And Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, according to his office, told reservists on a visit to the Lebanese border: "I give to you all the power and the backing. We are not stopping."
Earlier, Israeli strikes focused on the Lebanese coastal city of Tyre.
The BBC's John Simpson in Tyre says the city is virtually cut off, with a crater now blocking the farm track that had been used to transport food and medicine.
Humanitarian groups say Israeli military action is hampering efforts to help many of the hundreds of thousands who have fled the fighting.
-
theone666
- Major [O-4]
- Posts: 1434
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:00 am
Tearful Lebanese Leader Pleads for Peace
Updated: 01:06 AM EDT
By ZEINA KARAM, AP
BEIRUT, Lebanon (Aug.
- Lebanon's government rejected a U.N. cease-fire plan backed by President Bush on Monday, demanding Israel immediately withdraw even before a peacekeeping force arrives and promising to send 15,000 troops to take control of the Hezbollah stronghold along the border.
Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's stand, delivered in a tearful speech to Arab foreign ministers, came on a day in which 49 Lebanese were killed - one of the deadliest days for Lebanese in nearly four weeks of fighting. The rejection, ratified by the Cabinet, complicated efforts to find a speedy diplomatic solution to the deadly conflict.
Saniora's Cabinet, which includes two Hezbollah ministers, voted unanimously to send 15,000 troops to stand between Israel and Hezbollah should a cease-fire take hold and Israeli forces withdraw south of the border. The move was an attempt to show that Lebanon has the will and ability to assert control over its south, which is run by Hezbollah, the powerful Shiite Muslim militia backed by Syria and Iran.
In Texas, Bush said any cease-fire must prevent Hezbollah from strengthening its grip in southern Lebanon, asserting "it's time to address root causes of problems." He urged the United Nations to work quickly to approve the U.S.-French draft resolution to stop the hostilities.
Clashes between Israel and Hezbollah have sharply intensified in recent days as cease-fire diplomacy gains traction after nearly a month of unproductive talks. The cease-fire plan now under scrutiny at the United Nations has drawn only lukewarm support in Israel and vilification in the Arab world. Neither Israel nor Hezbollah has found an incentive to stop fighting, and both may be trying to gain advantage on the ground before a cease-fire.
At least 52 people died Monday on both sides. Hezbollah fired 160 rockets, wounding five Israelis, police and rescue services said. Three Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in south Lebanon, the first in an exchange of fire with Hezbollah fighters and the two others by an anti-tank missile, the Israeli army said.
With Arab League foreign ministers assembled around a horseshoe table, the embattled Lebanese leader repeatedly interrupted his opening address to gather his composure and wipe away tears. The foreign ministers cast their eyes downward in apparent embarrassment.
But Saniora's impassioned appeal did not change minds in Israel, where hospitals in the war zone were working around the clock and under rocket fire to protect patients from harm - in some cases moving them into a basement. The defense minister threatened an expanded ground operation if diplomacy does not produce results soon.
"I gave an order that, if within the coming days the diplomatic process does not reach a conclusion, Israeli forces will carry out the operations necessary to take control of rocket launching sites wherever they are," Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said.
Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Israel could not withdraw before the arrival of an international force. "The moment we leave, Hezbollah will return."
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told CNN a Lebanese army deployment in the south "in principle, is something, of course, we embrace and we support."
But he said Israel wants to know "the rules of engagement" and whether this means the Lebanese army is finally going to start disarming Hezbollah.
Lebanon has been unable for nearly two years to implement a previous U.N. resolution calling for disarmament of the Shiite militants.
The new U.N. resolution under consideration calls for "a full cessation of hostilities" based on "the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations."
But it makes no explicit mention of an Israeli withdrawal, and implicitly allows Israeli defensive operations. Instead, it calls in the longer-term for a buffer zone in southern Lebanon - which Hezbollah controls and where Israeli troops are now fighting. Only Lebanese armed forces and U.N.-mandated international troops would be allowed in the zone.
France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, promised Monday to take into account Lebanon's concerns that the resolution does not seek the withdrawal of Israeli troops. But he did not say whether France was prepared to add such language to the text.
The Arab foreign ministers announced in Beirut they would send a delegation to the U.N. to represent Lebanon's interests at a meeting with the Security Council on Tuesday.
They will demand major changes in the draft resolution including a call for Israeli forces to pull out of Lebanon once the fighting stops and hand over their positions to U.N. peacekeepers. Arab states also want the U.N. to take control of the disputed Chebaa Farms area, which Israel seized in 1967.
"We need today pressure on the international community for a Security Council resolution that imposes a comprehensive and permanent cease-fire that provides simultaneously for a complete Israeli withdrawal," Saniora said at the hastily arranged Arab League gathering in Beirut.
Washington and Paris had been expected to circulate a new draft later Monday, in response to amendments proposed by Qatar, the only Arab nation on the Security Council, and other members, diplomats said. But they decided to wait to hear from the Arab delegation on Tuesday afternoon.
The timing of the meeting means the council probably would not adopt a resolution until Wednesday at the earliest but some diplomats were guessing it would be put off until Thursday.
Saniora said Lebanon was "stunned" by the devastation of the Israeli offensive, which had taken "our country back decades. We are still in the middle of the shock."
Israel, reeling from 15 deaths in Hezbollah rocket strikes a day earlier, fought back with particular ferocity Monday.
A sunset airstrike on a south Beirut suburb killed at least 10 people in the predominantly Shiite district of Chiah. At least eight strikes rattled the capital in the one-hour period before dawn.
To the east, Israeli warplanes staged bombing runs on suspected Hezbollah positions in the Bekaa Valley, killing at least eight people and wounding 32, witnesses and civil defense officials said.
In the south, Israeli commandos helicoptered down to a hill overlooking Ras al-Biyada at mid-afternoon, fighting Hezbollah in close combat in a bid to destroy rocket launchers. About 30 commandos battled the guerrillas, but there was no word on casualties, a Lebanese official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Almost all the ground battles have taken place south of the Litani River, some 18 miles north of the Israel-Lebanon border. The Israeli army said it declared an indefinite curfew beginning Monday night on the movement of vehicles south of the Litani. Humanitarian traffic would be allowed, but other vehicles would be at risk if they ignored the order, the army said.
The Israelis want to destroy the guerrillas' rocket launchers, but Hezbollah has other weapons in its arsenal.
The Israeli air force shot down a Hezbollah drone for the first time Monday, sending its wreckage plunging into the sea, the army said. Israeli media reported that the unmanned aircraft had the capacity to carry 90 pounds of explosives, nearly as much as the more powerful rockets Hezbollah has been firing into Israel. Unlike the rockets, the drone has a guidance system to for accurate targeting.
08-08-06 01:55 EDT
By ZEINA KARAM, AP
BEIRUT, Lebanon (Aug.
- Lebanon's government rejected a U.N. cease-fire plan backed by President Bush on Monday, demanding Israel immediately withdraw even before a peacekeeping force arrives and promising to send 15,000 troops to take control of the Hezbollah stronghold along the border.Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's stand, delivered in a tearful speech to Arab foreign ministers, came on a day in which 49 Lebanese were killed - one of the deadliest days for Lebanese in nearly four weeks of fighting. The rejection, ratified by the Cabinet, complicated efforts to find a speedy diplomatic solution to the deadly conflict.
Saniora's Cabinet, which includes two Hezbollah ministers, voted unanimously to send 15,000 troops to stand between Israel and Hezbollah should a cease-fire take hold and Israeli forces withdraw south of the border. The move was an attempt to show that Lebanon has the will and ability to assert control over its south, which is run by Hezbollah, the powerful Shiite Muslim militia backed by Syria and Iran.
In Texas, Bush said any cease-fire must prevent Hezbollah from strengthening its grip in southern Lebanon, asserting "it's time to address root causes of problems." He urged the United Nations to work quickly to approve the U.S.-French draft resolution to stop the hostilities.
Clashes between Israel and Hezbollah have sharply intensified in recent days as cease-fire diplomacy gains traction after nearly a month of unproductive talks. The cease-fire plan now under scrutiny at the United Nations has drawn only lukewarm support in Israel and vilification in the Arab world. Neither Israel nor Hezbollah has found an incentive to stop fighting, and both may be trying to gain advantage on the ground before a cease-fire.
At least 52 people died Monday on both sides. Hezbollah fired 160 rockets, wounding five Israelis, police and rescue services said. Three Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in south Lebanon, the first in an exchange of fire with Hezbollah fighters and the two others by an anti-tank missile, the Israeli army said.
With Arab League foreign ministers assembled around a horseshoe table, the embattled Lebanese leader repeatedly interrupted his opening address to gather his composure and wipe away tears. The foreign ministers cast their eyes downward in apparent embarrassment.
But Saniora's impassioned appeal did not change minds in Israel, where hospitals in the war zone were working around the clock and under rocket fire to protect patients from harm - in some cases moving them into a basement. The defense minister threatened an expanded ground operation if diplomacy does not produce results soon.
"I gave an order that, if within the coming days the diplomatic process does not reach a conclusion, Israeli forces will carry out the operations necessary to take control of rocket launching sites wherever they are," Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said.
Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Israel could not withdraw before the arrival of an international force. "The moment we leave, Hezbollah will return."
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told CNN a Lebanese army deployment in the south "in principle, is something, of course, we embrace and we support."
But he said Israel wants to know "the rules of engagement" and whether this means the Lebanese army is finally going to start disarming Hezbollah.
Lebanon has been unable for nearly two years to implement a previous U.N. resolution calling for disarmament of the Shiite militants.
The new U.N. resolution under consideration calls for "a full cessation of hostilities" based on "the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations."
But it makes no explicit mention of an Israeli withdrawal, and implicitly allows Israeli defensive operations. Instead, it calls in the longer-term for a buffer zone in southern Lebanon - which Hezbollah controls and where Israeli troops are now fighting. Only Lebanese armed forces and U.N.-mandated international troops would be allowed in the zone.
France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, promised Monday to take into account Lebanon's concerns that the resolution does not seek the withdrawal of Israeli troops. But he did not say whether France was prepared to add such language to the text.
The Arab foreign ministers announced in Beirut they would send a delegation to the U.N. to represent Lebanon's interests at a meeting with the Security Council on Tuesday.
They will demand major changes in the draft resolution including a call for Israeli forces to pull out of Lebanon once the fighting stops and hand over their positions to U.N. peacekeepers. Arab states also want the U.N. to take control of the disputed Chebaa Farms area, which Israel seized in 1967.
"We need today pressure on the international community for a Security Council resolution that imposes a comprehensive and permanent cease-fire that provides simultaneously for a complete Israeli withdrawal," Saniora said at the hastily arranged Arab League gathering in Beirut.
Washington and Paris had been expected to circulate a new draft later Monday, in response to amendments proposed by Qatar, the only Arab nation on the Security Council, and other members, diplomats said. But they decided to wait to hear from the Arab delegation on Tuesday afternoon.
The timing of the meeting means the council probably would not adopt a resolution until Wednesday at the earliest but some diplomats were guessing it would be put off until Thursday.
Saniora said Lebanon was "stunned" by the devastation of the Israeli offensive, which had taken "our country back decades. We are still in the middle of the shock."
Israel, reeling from 15 deaths in Hezbollah rocket strikes a day earlier, fought back with particular ferocity Monday.
A sunset airstrike on a south Beirut suburb killed at least 10 people in the predominantly Shiite district of Chiah. At least eight strikes rattled the capital in the one-hour period before dawn.
To the east, Israeli warplanes staged bombing runs on suspected Hezbollah positions in the Bekaa Valley, killing at least eight people and wounding 32, witnesses and civil defense officials said.
In the south, Israeli commandos helicoptered down to a hill overlooking Ras al-Biyada at mid-afternoon, fighting Hezbollah in close combat in a bid to destroy rocket launchers. About 30 commandos battled the guerrillas, but there was no word on casualties, a Lebanese official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Almost all the ground battles have taken place south of the Litani River, some 18 miles north of the Israel-Lebanon border. The Israeli army said it declared an indefinite curfew beginning Monday night on the movement of vehicles south of the Litani. Humanitarian traffic would be allowed, but other vehicles would be at risk if they ignored the order, the army said.
The Israelis want to destroy the guerrillas' rocket launchers, but Hezbollah has other weapons in its arsenal.
The Israeli air force shot down a Hezbollah drone for the first time Monday, sending its wreckage plunging into the sea, the army said. Israeli media reported that the unmanned aircraft had the capacity to carry 90 pounds of explosives, nearly as much as the more powerful rockets Hezbollah has been firing into Israel. Unlike the rockets, the drone has a guidance system to for accurate targeting.
08-08-06 01:55 EDT
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theone666
- Major [O-4]
- Posts: 1434
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:00 am
UN wrangle amid Lebanon fighting
Tuesday, 8 August 2006, 07:19 GMT 08:19 UK
Israel launched about 80 air strikes against Lebanon overnight, as diplomats at the UN consider possible changes to a draft resolution to end the fighting.
More than 40 Hezbollah buildings were targeted after the militant group fired more than 140 rockets on Israel.
At least 15 people were reported killed when a predominantly Shia area of Beirut was hit late on Monday.
Meanwhile an Israeli soldier died in clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said.
Lebanon has told army reservists to report for duty after the cabinet decided to send 15,000 soldiers to the southern border area once the Israelis pull out.
Cabinet ministers who are members of Hezbollah or loyal to the group have given their backing to the government plan.
An Arab League delegation is expected to push Lebanon's demands at the UN for an immediate Israeli withdrawal.
The current text - drafted by the US and France - calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and lays the groundwork for a second resolution that would install an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.
Correspondents say the UN Security Council will vote, at the very earliest, on the draft resolution on Tuesday, but the US and France will be reluctant to see the vote delayed very long for fear that the whole plan could collapse.
And UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said the resolution should be secured without delay.
"Let's get the resolution which will call for the cessation of hostilities and ... that will give us the space in which to deal with the long term solution," he told the BBC.
Senior Israeli officials have said they are broadly happy with the resolution's text.
Rocket barrage
Monday was one of the deadliest days in almost a month of fighting, triggered by the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid.
Rescuers in Beirut said at least 15 people had been killed in one of Israel's evening air strikes, in which a building collapsed. Israel has not yet commented on the reports.
But Israeli air strikes on Lebanon were met by the militant group Hezbollah with a barrage of more than 140 rockets, wounding some Israeli civilians.
There were more attacks on Tuesday morning.
In southern Lebanon, one Israeli soldier died and five were wounded as the troops accompanied an engineering corps vehicle which was hit by an anti-tank missile, an Israeli military spokesman said.
Fifteen Hezbollah fighters were also killed, he added.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora drastically revised down the death toll of an Israeli air strike in the village of Houla, where he initially said 40 people had died when a building collapsed on them.
A UN spokesman later said five people had died in the attack.
More than 900 Lebanese, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict, the Lebanese government said. More than 90 Israelis, most of them soldiers, have also been killed.
Israeli Defence Minster Amir Peretz said Israel would step up its offensive against Hezbollah rocket-launching sites if the diplomatic process does not reach a successful conclusion.
Israel launched about 80 air strikes against Lebanon overnight, as diplomats at the UN consider possible changes to a draft resolution to end the fighting.
More than 40 Hezbollah buildings were targeted after the militant group fired more than 140 rockets on Israel.
At least 15 people were reported killed when a predominantly Shia area of Beirut was hit late on Monday.
Meanwhile an Israeli soldier died in clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said.
Lebanon has told army reservists to report for duty after the cabinet decided to send 15,000 soldiers to the southern border area once the Israelis pull out.
Cabinet ministers who are members of Hezbollah or loyal to the group have given their backing to the government plan.
An Arab League delegation is expected to push Lebanon's demands at the UN for an immediate Israeli withdrawal.
The current text - drafted by the US and France - calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and lays the groundwork for a second resolution that would install an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.
Correspondents say the UN Security Council will vote, at the very earliest, on the draft resolution on Tuesday, but the US and France will be reluctant to see the vote delayed very long for fear that the whole plan could collapse.
And UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said the resolution should be secured without delay.
"Let's get the resolution which will call for the cessation of hostilities and ... that will give us the space in which to deal with the long term solution," he told the BBC.
Senior Israeli officials have said they are broadly happy with the resolution's text.
Rocket barrage
Monday was one of the deadliest days in almost a month of fighting, triggered by the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid.
Rescuers in Beirut said at least 15 people had been killed in one of Israel's evening air strikes, in which a building collapsed. Israel has not yet commented on the reports.
But Israeli air strikes on Lebanon were met by the militant group Hezbollah with a barrage of more than 140 rockets, wounding some Israeli civilians.
There were more attacks on Tuesday morning.
In southern Lebanon, one Israeli soldier died and five were wounded as the troops accompanied an engineering corps vehicle which was hit by an anti-tank missile, an Israeli military spokesman said.
Fifteen Hezbollah fighters were also killed, he added.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora drastically revised down the death toll of an Israeli air strike in the village of Houla, where he initially said 40 people had died when a building collapsed on them.
A UN spokesman later said five people had died in the attack.
More than 900 Lebanese, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict, the Lebanese government said. More than 90 Israelis, most of them soldiers, have also been killed.
Israeli Defence Minster Amir Peretz said Israel would step up its offensive against Hezbollah rocket-launching sites if the diplomatic process does not reach a successful conclusion.
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Lebanese hospital crisis warning
Tuesday, 8 August 2006, 11:00 GMT 12:00 UK
Almost two thirds of hospitals in Lebanon could "cease to function" this week because of fuel shortages, the World Health Organization has warned.
Other health facilities could also be affected, unless fuel is allowed through as a priority, the WHO said.
Damage to infrastructure in the ongoing conflict has left them relying on fuel to run generators, the WHO said.
The WHO says power is needed to operate services including theatres, babies' incubators and fridges for vaccines.
Lebanon has 12,000 hospital beds. The WHO estimates that about 80 litres of fuel is needed per bed each week for electric power.
Up until now, fuel deliveries have been severely hampered because of the ongoing military operations.
The WHO says one hospital in Marjayoun, in south Lebanon, has said it is due to run out of fuel by Wednesday.
'Fuel is key'
Dr Ala Alwan, a spokesman for the WHO Director-General for Health Action in Crises, said: "Based on available information, if there is no fuel delivered in the next few days, more than half of the hospitals will not be able to operate by the end of this week and the situation will be much worse next week.
"Fuel is key in any basic infrastructure. The provision of fuel is a matter of life or death in a hospital setting.
"We urge all parties to ensure safe passage of fuel supplies to hospitals."
The WHO says it has fuel shipments are ready to be sent to Lebanon as soon as the security situation allows.
Fuel tanks are also ready to be sent from Beirut to other areas in Lebanon in convoys, provided security is ensured, the WHO has said.
Almost two thirds of hospitals in Lebanon could "cease to function" this week because of fuel shortages, the World Health Organization has warned.
Other health facilities could also be affected, unless fuel is allowed through as a priority, the WHO said.
Damage to infrastructure in the ongoing conflict has left them relying on fuel to run generators, the WHO said.
The WHO says power is needed to operate services including theatres, babies' incubators and fridges for vaccines.
Lebanon has 12,000 hospital beds. The WHO estimates that about 80 litres of fuel is needed per bed each week for electric power.
Up until now, fuel deliveries have been severely hampered because of the ongoing military operations.
The WHO says one hospital in Marjayoun, in south Lebanon, has said it is due to run out of fuel by Wednesday.
'Fuel is key'
Dr Ala Alwan, a spokesman for the WHO Director-General for Health Action in Crises, said: "Based on available information, if there is no fuel delivered in the next few days, more than half of the hospitals will not be able to operate by the end of this week and the situation will be much worse next week.
"Fuel is key in any basic infrastructure. The provision of fuel is a matter of life or death in a hospital setting.
"We urge all parties to ensure safe passage of fuel supplies to hospitals."
The WHO says it has fuel shipments are ready to be sent to Lebanon as soon as the security situation allows.
Fuel tanks are also ready to be sent from Beirut to other areas in Lebanon in convoys, provided security is ensured, the WHO has said.