3assal
Junior Member
Fighting Rages in South as Israel Says There Will be Ceasefire Only When 'Conditions on the Ground' Change
Hizbullah fighters engaged in fierce fighting with Israeli forces in south Lebanon Tuesday as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Jewish state will agree to a ceasefire in its three-week offensive only when "conditions on the ground" change.
Police and U.N. sources said the Israeli army was now engaged in four separate incursions across its border with Lebanon after Israel's cabinet gave the army the green light to widen its three-week-old offensive.
More villagers in the border area were leaving their homes for safer havens, taking advantage of the final hours of a pause in Israeli aerial bombardments and fearing a massive Israeli military onslaught in the coming days.
Intense clashes raged for the third consecutive day in the region of Taibe, Adaisseh and Kfar Kila, 35 kilometers east of the port city of Tyre, Lebanese police said.
The Israeli troops, who entered the area on Sunday, had made a small advance of about one kilometer, they said.
The Israeli army said that it had killed 20 Hizbullah fighters in battles in southern Lebanon over the past 48 hours in the Taibe and Adaisseh sectors but the group announced the death of only four of its fighters.
Israeli Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog, a member of Israel's security cabinet, told AFP that the Israeli army has killed 400 Hizbullah fighters since the beginning of offensive.
The spokesman for U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Milos Strugar, said that in the early afternoon Israeli forces entered southern Lebanon in the area of Aita al-Shaab in the central sector of the border.
"We have reports of heavy ground fighting in the area," he said. A statement from Hizbullah spoke of "house-to-house" fighting in the town of Aita al-Shaab itself.
Al-Arabiya TV station said three Israeli soldiers had been killed in Aita al-Shaab.
Aita Al-Shaab is near the spot where Hizbullah fighters crossed into Israel on July 12 and captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others, sparking the massive offensive by the Jewish state.
Israeli forces also staged a new incursion around the area of Houla in the southeastern sector of the border and were still present in the Maroun al-Ras sector further to the west, Strugar said.
"We will agree on a ceasefire when we know with certainty that the conditions on the ground are different from those that led to the outbreak of the war," Olmert told a graduation ceremony at the National Security College at the Glilot military base just north of Tel Aviv.
He also vowed that Hizbullah would no longer threaten the Jewish state after its Lebanon offensive.
"Hizbullah will not be able to threaten Israel," Olmert said. "The threat of Hizbullah will never be the same."
As part of its attempt to wipe out Hizbullah fighters, the Israeli army called on residents of several villages north of the Litani River, up to 30 kilometers from Israel's border with Lebanon, to leave their homes ahead of a military offensive there, an army spokeswoman told AFP.
"Horrible terrorist attacks are coming from your area ... the Israeli army will act with all its force against the terrorist guerrillas starting from this moment," said a flyer seen by an AFP correspondent.
The threat of even more intense military action and the chance to use the lull in air raids to flee prompted many remaining southerners to escape the area, with a mass exodus of people reported from the southern city of Tyre.
An AFP correspondent said the village of Khiam in the eastern sector of the border was almost completely deserted, curtains fluttering from destroyed houses and cats wandering the streets the only signs of life.
Just 15,000 people remained by Tuesday afternoon in Tyre, whose population had expanded to 100,000 with the influx of refugees from heavily bombed villages, said the head of the town council Abdel Mohsen Husseini.
Despite the promised 48-hour halt in air raids, Israeli warplanes staged a series of air strikes during the night and early Tuesday, Lebanese police said.
Six raids were carried out along the Litani riverbank in the central sector, three more on the Bekaa region to the east and an additional six strikes on villages near Tyre.
A mother and her two daughters were killed in an Israeli air raid on the mountain village of Louayzeh.
The two-day halt entered into effect at 2300 GMT Sunday, meaning that it runs out at 2:00 am Wednesday (2300 GMT Tuesday). Israeli Trade Minister Eli Yishai said from that moment the air force would operate "with all its power and all of its forces."
Israel had ordered the suspension of air strikes after 60 civilians, most of them children, were killed in a raid Sunday on the village of Qana. The attack prompted worldwide outrage and calls for an immediate ceasefire.(AFP-Naharnet)(Outside AFP photo shows an Israeli tank crossing the Israeli-Lebanon border rolling towards the village of Aita el-Shaab and inside AP photo shows fleeing Lebanese villagers carrying their belongings as others leave on a pickup truck, background, after they spent more than a week in a shelter at the southern village of Aitaroun)
source http://www.naharnet.com
Hizbullah fighters engaged in fierce fighting with Israeli forces in south Lebanon Tuesday as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Jewish state will agree to a ceasefire in its three-week offensive only when "conditions on the ground" change.
Police and U.N. sources said the Israeli army was now engaged in four separate incursions across its border with Lebanon after Israel's cabinet gave the army the green light to widen its three-week-old offensive.
More villagers in the border area were leaving their homes for safer havens, taking advantage of the final hours of a pause in Israeli aerial bombardments and fearing a massive Israeli military onslaught in the coming days.
Intense clashes raged for the third consecutive day in the region of Taibe, Adaisseh and Kfar Kila, 35 kilometers east of the port city of Tyre, Lebanese police said.
The Israeli troops, who entered the area on Sunday, had made a small advance of about one kilometer, they said.
The Israeli army said that it had killed 20 Hizbullah fighters in battles in southern Lebanon over the past 48 hours in the Taibe and Adaisseh sectors but the group announced the death of only four of its fighters.
Israeli Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog, a member of Israel's security cabinet, told AFP that the Israeli army has killed 400 Hizbullah fighters since the beginning of offensive.
The spokesman for U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Milos Strugar, said that in the early afternoon Israeli forces entered southern Lebanon in the area of Aita al-Shaab in the central sector of the border.
"We have reports of heavy ground fighting in the area," he said. A statement from Hizbullah spoke of "house-to-house" fighting in the town of Aita al-Shaab itself.
Al-Arabiya TV station said three Israeli soldiers had been killed in Aita al-Shaab.
Aita Al-Shaab is near the spot where Hizbullah fighters crossed into Israel on July 12 and captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others, sparking the massive offensive by the Jewish state.
Israeli forces also staged a new incursion around the area of Houla in the southeastern sector of the border and were still present in the Maroun al-Ras sector further to the west, Strugar said.
"We will agree on a ceasefire when we know with certainty that the conditions on the ground are different from those that led to the outbreak of the war," Olmert told a graduation ceremony at the National Security College at the Glilot military base just north of Tel Aviv.
He also vowed that Hizbullah would no longer threaten the Jewish state after its Lebanon offensive.
"Hizbullah will not be able to threaten Israel," Olmert said. "The threat of Hizbullah will never be the same."
As part of its attempt to wipe out Hizbullah fighters, the Israeli army called on residents of several villages north of the Litani River, up to 30 kilometers from Israel's border with Lebanon, to leave their homes ahead of a military offensive there, an army spokeswoman told AFP.
"Horrible terrorist attacks are coming from your area ... the Israeli army will act with all its force against the terrorist guerrillas starting from this moment," said a flyer seen by an AFP correspondent.
The threat of even more intense military action and the chance to use the lull in air raids to flee prompted many remaining southerners to escape the area, with a mass exodus of people reported from the southern city of Tyre.
An AFP correspondent said the village of Khiam in the eastern sector of the border was almost completely deserted, curtains fluttering from destroyed houses and cats wandering the streets the only signs of life.
Just 15,000 people remained by Tuesday afternoon in Tyre, whose population had expanded to 100,000 with the influx of refugees from heavily bombed villages, said the head of the town council Abdel Mohsen Husseini.
Despite the promised 48-hour halt in air raids, Israeli warplanes staged a series of air strikes during the night and early Tuesday, Lebanese police said.
Six raids were carried out along the Litani riverbank in the central sector, three more on the Bekaa region to the east and an additional six strikes on villages near Tyre.
A mother and her two daughters were killed in an Israeli air raid on the mountain village of Louayzeh.
The two-day halt entered into effect at 2300 GMT Sunday, meaning that it runs out at 2:00 am Wednesday (2300 GMT Tuesday). Israeli Trade Minister Eli Yishai said from that moment the air force would operate "with all its power and all of its forces."
Israel had ordered the suspension of air strikes after 60 civilians, most of them children, were killed in a raid Sunday on the village of Qana. The attack prompted worldwide outrage and calls for an immediate ceasefire.(AFP-Naharnet)(Outside AFP photo shows an Israeli tank crossing the Israeli-Lebanon border rolling towards the village of Aita el-Shaab and inside AP photo shows fleeing Lebanese villagers carrying their belongings as others leave on a pickup truck, background, after they spent more than a week in a shelter at the southern village of Aitaroun)
source http://www.naharnet.com