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| By Israel Insider staff and partners August 7, 2006 |
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Israeli government leaders signaled Monday that they were at last willing to expand the ground assault in southern Lebanon in the next few days if the diplomatic process fails.
Factions within Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Cabinet, including his defense minister Amir Peretz, have been pressing him to send in more troops for a final effort to push Hezbollah rocket launchers farther from the border and send a message of deterrence to all of Israel's would-be attackers.
Until now Olmert has resisted calls to move north to at least the Litani river, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Israel's northern border, a distance which would diminish the ability of Hezbollah to send short-range missiles into Israel. But yesterday's lethal attack which killed 12 reservists in Kfar Giladi and a massive sunset attack on Haifa may have pushed him over the edge. Today, too, more than 160 rockets had hit Israel by nightfall.
Olmert and Peretz toured the northern front and met army commanders before the Defense Minister briefed parliament's top security committee. He concluded a public statement with the following message:
"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," he said.
In New York, U.N. diplomats worked on revisions to a draft Security Council resolution that would order an immediate cessation of hostilities but would leave Israeli troops in place for the time being. Arab delegations called the draft discriminatory.
Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon told Channel 10 television Israel also had reservations with the U.S.-French proposal, but was ready to accept it.
"There is a draft, more or less, of the Security Council in which there are clauses which we're not happy with, but that is the draft. If that will be the resolution, we'll accept it," he said.
Israel cannot withdraw from Lebanon before the arrival of an international force, he said. "The moment we leave, Hezbollah will return. No multinational force will come. Therefore, this whole thing is very dangerous, not serious."
Peretz said Israel was following a two-track course, maintaining the military campaign while allowing the diplomatic option to follow its course.
The government, he said, has not pulled its punches because of the parallel political effort, and has given the army whatever support it wanted.
"If the political process can stop the firing, Israel can say its operation changed the equation of the situation in the north," he said -- a preliminary claim of victory.
At their meeting with Olmert, northern commanders asked to step up the battle until the Hezbollah rockets are eliminated, according to a statement from his office.
"I am giving you all the strength and all the support. We are not stopping," the statement quoted him as saying.
Both the Israelis and Hezbollah have escalated the conflict as the diplomatic clocked ticked toward a cease-fire. In the last week, Hezbollah doubled the number of rockets it was lobbing into northern Israel, and Israeli commandoes have thrust repeatedly at suspected launching sites. The bombing of Beirut's southern Shiite suburbs also resumed after a brief lull last week.
On Sunday, 15 people in northern Israel -- including 12 reserve soldiers waiting to go into battle -- were killed in the deadliest day of rocket attacks since the violence began on July 12. Three civilians were killed in a lethal barrage on the city of Haifa.
Hezbollah fired another 160 rockets on Monday, injuring five people, police and rescue services said.
The Haaretz daily, quoting an unnamed general, reported Monday that Israel might hit Lebanese infrastructure and symbols of government in response to the rocket attacks.
The unrelenting rocket attacks have killed 48 Israelis since the violence started, and many government ministers were growing frustrated with the army's inability to stop the barrages, despite the nearly four week 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 its available ground forces into Lebanon immediately to push Hezbollah and its rocket launchers out of the area south of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the border.
The army currently controls a zone about seven kilometers (five miles) from the border.
The army said one soldier was killed and four others were lightly 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.
The soldier's death raised Israel's military toll during the violence to 94. About 600 Lebanese have been killed.
The violence began last month when Hezbollah guerrillas crossed the border and attacked an Israeli patrol, killing three people and capturing two others. Since then, Israel has carried out a massive campaign of airstrikes in southern Lebanon and in Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut.
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