"We will continue to prevent the Lebanese army from deploying within two kilometers of the border," Peretz said. (Reuters)

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — A few hours after drawing international concerns over its violation of the UN-brokered end of hostilities with Lebanon, Israel said Sunday, August 20, it was preparing for the next round of its war on Lebanon.

"We will examine the issues that have been pointed out as failures," a senior government official quoted Defense Minister Amir Peretz as telling the weekly cabinet meeting, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We will put everything on the table. Our duty is to prepare for the next round," he said.

Environmental Minister Gideon Ezra told the Israeli public radio earlier Sunday that Israel will not stop raiding targets in Lebanon "to stop the transfers of arms from Syria."

Israeli warplanes and helicopters bombed Saturday, August 19, roads leading to the village of Bodai, west of the ancient city of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley, and a power plant.

Helicopter-borne Israeli commandos in two vehicles were on their way to attack an office of senior Hizbullah official Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek in Bodai when they were spotted and ambushed by resistance fighters.

One commando was killed and two others injured before other forces pulled out under the cover of fierce air strikes.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the Israeli operation was a violation of UN Security Council resolution 1701 which brought to an end the 33-day Israeli war that claimed the lives of close to 1,300 Lebanese, mostly civilians.

Blocking Deployment

Peretz also threatened that Israel will prevent the Lebanese army from deploying along the volatile border in areas currently held by Israeli occupation troops until the arrival of an international force in the area.

"We will continue to prevent the Lebanese army from deploying within two kilometers (about one mile) of the border, before the deployment of the multinational force," he told the cabinet meeting.

A defense ministry spokeswoman told AFP that the measure applied to those border positions still held by Israeli forces.

Lebanese troops took up several positions along the border on Saturday, including at the Fatima Gate border point in the village of Kfar Kila.

UN Resolution 1701 calls for Israeli troops to withdraw from south Lebanon with the deployment of the Lebanese army and a strengthened UN peacekeeping force of up to 15,000 troops.

Assassination

Israel is committed to hunting down and liquidating Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, a senior Israeli army officer told The New York Times.

"There's only one solution for him," said the unnamed officer. "This man must die."

With the victory of his resistance group, Nasrallah is widely viewed now as a pan-Arab Islamic hero.

An outpouring of newspaper columns, cartoons, blogs and public poetry readings have showered praise on him while attacking Arab leaders for their weakness.

Nasrallah has been named the most popular figure in the Middle East in an Egyptian poll, said Saadeddin Ibrahim of the Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development Studies.

Researchers asked about 1,200 people from a range of backgrounds in 15 of Egypt's 26 governorates to rank a list of 30 prominent people in the Middle East including writers, politicians, judges, statesmen and religious scholars.