WORLD / Middle East

Israel preparing Lebanon ground offensive
(AP)
Updated: 2006-07-21 11:21

Pitched battles raged between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters on the border Thursday, and Israel warned hundreds of thousands of people to flee southern Lebanon "immediately," preparing for a likely ground offensive to set up a buffer zone.

Israeli soldiers take up positions as they advance towards Israel-Lebanon border July 20, 2006. Israel's Defence Minister Amir Peretz raised the possibility on Thursday of a ground offensive into Lebanon in its war against Hizbollah guerrillas firing rockets over the border.
Israeli soldiers take up positions as they advance towards Israel-Lebanon border July 20, 2006. Israel's Defence Minister Amir Peretz raised the possibility on Thursday of a ground offensive into Lebanon in its war against Hizbollah guerrillas firing rockets over the border. [Reuters]

 

UN chief Kofi Annan warned of a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon and called for an immediate cease-fire, even as he admitted "serious obstacles" stand in the way of even easing the violence. Annan denounced Israel for "excessive use of force" and Hezbollah for holding "an entire nation hostage" with its rocket attacks and snatching of two Israeli soldiers last week.

As the death toll rose to 330 in Lebanon, as well as at least 32 Israelis, Lebanese streamed north into the capital and other regions, crowding into schools, relatives' homes or hotels. Taxi drivers in the south were charging up to US$400 per person for rides to Beirut, more than 40 times the usual price. In remote villages of the south, cut off by strikes, residents made their way out over the mountains by foot.

The price of food, medical supplies and gasoline rose by as much as 500 percent in parts of Lebanon on Thursday as Israel's relentless bombardment destroyed roads, bridges and other supply routes. The World Food Program said estimates of basic food supplies ranged from one to three months.

On a day that saw US Marines return to Lebanon for the first time in 22 years, the war looked ready to expand dramatically. Neither side showed any sign of backing down. Hezbollah refused to release its two Israeli soldiers without a prisoner exchange, Israel was aiming to create a new buffer zone in a region that saw 18 years of Israeli presence ending in 2000.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah shrugged off concerns of a stepped-up Israeli onslaught, vowing never to release two Israeli soldiers captured by his guerrillas even "if the whole universe comes (against us)." He said they would be freed only as part of a prisoner exchange brokered through indirect negotiations.

He spoke in an interview with the Al-Jazeera news network taped Thursday to show he had survived a heavy airstrike in south Beirut that Israel said targeted a Hezbollah underground leadership bunker. The guerrillas said the strike only hit a mosque under construction and no one was hurt.

The United States, which has resisted calls to press its ally Israel to halt the fighting, was sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region, arriving in Israel on Tuesday or Wednesday after stopping over in Arab nations, Israeli officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the schedule was not yet confirmed.

The mission would be the first US diplomatic effort on the ground since the Israeli onslaught against Lebanon began nine days ago.

Israel has decided air power alone will not be enough to drive Hezbollah back from the Israeli-Lebanon border and that a ground force will be needed to establish a zone that is at least 20 miles deep, senior military officials said Thursday. That would force Hezbollah behind the Litani River.

Israel wants to send a strong message to all its enemies, especially Iran, that the consequences of attacking the Jewish state will be unbearable.

But mounting civilian casualties and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese could limit the amount of time Israel has to achieve its goals, as international tolerance for the bloodshed and destruction runs out.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora put the death toll at more than 330, at least 11 of them killed Thursday, with 1,100 wounded. At least 32 Israelis have been killed, including 17 service members, three of them killed in military operations Thursday and early Friday.

Saniora said more than 55 bridges across the country had been destroyed, and that Israeli forces had targeted ambulances and medical convoys.

"This attack is no longer against Hezbollah, it is an attack against the Lebanese and Lebanon," Saniora told CNN.

The UN estimated that about a half-million people have been displaced in Lebanon, with 130,000 fleeing to Syria and about 45,000 believed to be in need of assistance.

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