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A Lebanese girl has lost an eye in an Israeli raid on Tyre. (Reuters)
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BEIRUT — Israeli warplanes pounded Lebanon on
Tuesday, July 18, killing at least 23 people, as the occupation army
did not rule out a ground invasion of Lebanon.
Nine civilians, all from one family and including
children, were killed and four wounded in an air strike that destroyed
a house in the south village of Aitaroun, Reuters reported.
Four others died in strikes elsewhere in the south.
Another raid at a Lebanese army barracks at Jomhour
area east of Beirut killed 10 Lebanese soldiers and wounded 30.
Israeli aircraft also struck Beirut's southern
suburbs and an army position overlooking the capital as well as two
other towns.
Israel has so far killed 227 Lebanese, all but 14
of them civilians, and inflicted the heaviest destruction in Lebanon
for two decades, with attacks targeting ports, roads, bridges,
factories and petrol stations.
Hizbullah responded by attacking a naval vessel off
Beirut and firing hundreds of rockets at northern Israel, killing 24
people, 12 of them civilians.
On Monday, July 17, Hizbullah fired a rocket that
landed next to a hospital in the northern Israeli town of Safed,
injuring at least six people, medics said.
Ground Invasion
After battering the country from the air, Israel's
army refused to rule out a massive ground invasion of south Lebanon
only six years after it ended its occupation of the area.
"At this stage we do not think we have to
activate massive ground forces into Lebanon but if we have to do this,
we will. We are not ruling it out," Moshe Kaplinsky, Israel's
deputy army chief, told Israel Radio.
He said the offensive would end within a few weeks,
adding that Israel needed more time to complete "very clear
goals".
"The fighting in Lebanon will end within a few
weeks. We will not take months," Kaplinsky said.
Israel has been massing troops, tanks and artillery
pieces near its northern border with Lebanon. It has also called up
thousands of reserve soldiers.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz on Monday
approved a plan to call up three reservist units that will take
positions in Gaza and the West Bank as the units regularly serving
there move to the north.
Three Israeli tanks briefly crossed a few hundred
meters into southern Lebanon on Monday afternoon, a UN source said,
following a similar earlier incursion in which Israel said Hizbullah
positions were destroyed.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday
his country would pursue its offensive until the two soldiers taken
prisoner last week by Hizbullah were returned and the Lebanese army
controlled all of south Lebanon.
Israelis for Assault
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Israeli soldiers carry shells for a fresh round of bombardment. (Reuters)
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A vast majority of Israelis support the ongoing
offensive in Lebanon, a poll showed on Tuesday.
The survey in the mass circulation Yedioth Ahronoth
daily showed 86 percent of Israelis believed the army's attacks on
Lebanon were justified.
It said 58 percent of Israelis believed the
offensive should continue until the army killed Hizbullah chief Hassan
Nasrallah.
A July 6 survey showed that an overwhelming
majority of Israelis wanted leaders of the governing Palestinian
movement Hamas assassinated in order to release the Israeli soldier
taken prisoner in June by Palestinian resistance factions.
The new survey gave Prime Minister Ehud Olmert high
marks for his leadership, saying 78 percent believed his handling of
the crisis was good or very good.
Even Peretz, a former trade union chief with little
government experience who had previously been under heavy criticism
for his performance, was praised.
Some 72 percent said his handling of the campaign
was good or very good.
Only 17 percent of the Israelis polled said Israel
should stop fighting and start negotiations.
Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said
Tuesday Israel may have to consider the possibility of negotiating
over Lebanese prisoners to end the current crisis.
"I think at the end we will bring the soldiers
home and if one of the ways must be through a negotiation about
Lebanese prisoners, I think the day will arrive when we must consider
[this] as well," Dichter, the former head of the Shin Bet
security service, told Army Radio.
UN Forces
Internationally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair
and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the UN Security Council to
deploy a security force in Lebanon but the US frowned on the idea.
The Security Council held closed-door consultations
on Monday on the crisis but failed to decide what the world body
should do to stop the bloodshed.
The 15-member council had convened on the same
agenda Saturday, reaching no agreement on adopting a statement calling
for a ceasefire, with Lebanon accusing the US of blocking the effort,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Whatever measures can be taken, even
humanitarian measures, cannot be taken under fire," Nouhad
Mahmoud, the Lebanese special envoy, said.
"That's the urgent thing ... without the
ceasefire, nothing can be achieved."
US Ambassador John Bolton said he expects no
decision from the council until a three-member UN crisis team
dispatched to the Middle East returns and reports back to the council.
The UN team said Monday it had made a promising
start but that more diplomacy was needed before there could be any
optimism.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was holding
talks on Tuesday with the team trying to negotiate a ceasefire between
Israel and Hizbullah.
A Hizbollah spokesman told Reuters the group had
"not received any suggestions for a ceasefire".
More than 100,000 people have crossed into Syria
from Lebanon over the past five days to escape Israeli attacks, Syrian
authorities said on Monday.
Official data obtained by Reuters showed that at
least 24,000 Lebanese entered Syria through four crossing points since
Thursday, July 13.
At least 27,000 Arabs, mostly Gulf tourists, also
left, together with more than 6,500 foreigners and 19,000 Syrians.
