BEIRUT — Israel pounded Lebanon from the air on
Friday, July 21, in its bloody 10-day-old assault against the country
as the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbullah insisted it would only
free two Israeli soldiers it is holding as part of a prisoner swap.
Israeli jets bombed Hizbullah strongholds in
Beirut's southern suburbs, the eastern Bekaa Valley and southern
Lebanon, around sunrise on Friday. There was no immediate word on
casualties, Reuters reported.
In other raids, Israeli aircraft hit parked goods
vans in the Bekaa, and a private power generator and garbage trucks in
Beirut's Christian suburb of Baabda, near the presidential
palace. There were no reports of casualties in the
strikes.
Four Israeli troops were killed in fierce battles
with Hizbullah fighters inside Lebanon on Thursday, July 20, the
Israeli army said.
Israel said two of its helicopters collided near
the Lebanese border, killing a pilot and injuring three crewmen.
Hizbullah said it lost two of its fighters in the
clashes, which occurred just inside Lebanon near where Hizbullah
killed two Israeli soldiers on Wednesday.
Israel, which is also waging a three-week-old
military campaign in Gaza, began its assault after Hizbullah took
prisoner two soldiers and killed eight in a cross-border raid on July
12.
Its deadly campaign has killed at least 312 people
in Lebanon, the vast majority civilians, and displaced half a million.
Thirty-four Israeli troops and civilians have been killed.
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"If the entire universe came (to pressure Hizbullah) it will not bring back the Israeli soldiers unless through indirect negotiations and a prisoner swap," Nasrallah said.
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Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said
Thursday no amount of international pressure would deflect the
resistance group from its demand that Tel Aviv agree to a prisoner
swap.
"If the entire universe came (to pressure
Hizbullah) it will not bring back the Israeli soldiers unless through
indirect negotiations and a prisoner swap," Nasrallah told Al-Jazeera
television in an interview.
Nasrallah said Israeli military assertions that
half of Hizbullah's capabilities had been destroyed so far as
"wrong and nonsense".
Israeli Maariv newspaper quoted senior military
sources as saying Friday that Hizbullah's forces in southern Lebanon
had not been harmed significantly.
Nasrallah warned Israel against land invasion of
Lebanon, noting that Hizbullah's rockets could still reach Israel even
if its fighters were pushed back from the border.
"A land invasion will be a disaster for the
Israeli army, a disaster for their tanks, officers and soldiers,"
he said.
Israeli media reported that thousands of soldiers
were already operating inside southern Lebanon.
"It's possible that in the coming days our
ground operations will increase," Brigadier-General Alon
Friedman, a senior commander, told the Maariv newspaper.
"We have many forces, we will carry out a
massive recruitment of reserves and it's possible that many more
forces ... will reach the border in the next few days."
Gantz said the army did not plan a long-term
incursion.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Friday war
against Hizbullah would continue until it was not "worth the
price."
Israelis still overwhelmingly back the war, with 90
percent wanting it to go on until Hizbullah is driven from southern
Lebanon and 95 percent saying the army's response was justified, a
poll in Maariv newspaper showed on Friday.
Continuing Evacuation
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A French boy holds a Lebanese flag after he arrives from Lebanon on a ferry at Larnaca port in Cyprus. (Reuters)
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Thousands of weary, shell-shocked evacuees streamed
into Cyprus on Friday thinking only of home after fleeing heavy
Israeli bombardment.
Among the boats ferrying people to safety across
the narrow stretch of water in the east Mediterranean were USS
Nashville, two British warships and vessels from Greece, Italy and
India.
"I'm glad to be here in Cyprus and heading
home," said Marc Charbel, 16, one of 1,000 Americans disembarking
from USS Nashville after being rescued on Thursday by US Marines.
Charbel, from Orlando, Florida, had found himself
stranded alone in Lebanon as Israeli rockets rained down on the
country.
US officials said they had arranged six charter
flights to carry Americans to Baltimore free of charge, though they
would have to pay their own way once there. The United States expects
to have evacuated 6,000 Americans from Lebanon by Friday.
Not only Americans were keen to forget their
ordeal.
"I am thinking of not going back to Lebanon
... they want to destroy the country," said Kayal Kayal, a Greek
Lebanese antique dealer heading for Athens.
A Cypriot ship chartered by the United Nations
dropped off around 900 people in Larnaca, including non-essential UN
staff and their families. Many appeared shaken by their experience.
"There was shelling throughout Beirut during
the time we were moored there. It was obviously distressing to those
coming out," said UN security officer Simon Butt.
And the evacuees were angry with Israel.
"(Israel's bombing) is way too much, it's not
right. They're blowing up a beautiful country and hurting wonderful
people," Texan Billy Broeckelmann said.
Many evacuees, some holding back tears, said they
were concerned about the families they were forced to leave behind.
"I know I am safe now," said Australian
student Sherean Irani, 19, who had been visiting relatives in Lebanon
and had hoped to study there.
"But my heart is with Lebanon."
