Israel Rejects Pressure to End War in Lebanon
By Andrew Marshall
Reuters
BEIRUT — Israel on Monday rejected mounting international pressure to end its 20-day-old war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, but Washington said a ceasefire could be achieved this week.
Civilians fled battered villages in southern Lebanon after Israel agreed to partially halt air strikes for 48 hours, and aid convoys headed into the area to deliver supplies.
Rescue workers found 25 bodies buried for days in destroyed buildings in three south Lebanon villages, the Red Cross said.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a ceasefire could be forged this week. But Israel said the war was not over despite an international outcry following the deaths of at least 54 civilians, most of them children, in an Israeli air strike on the Lebanese village of Qana on Sunday.
“If an immediate ceasefire is declared, the extremists will rear their heads anew,” Defense Minister Amir Peretz told a heated parliamentary debate in which four Israeli Arab lawmakers were escorted out for heckling. One called Peretz a murderer.
Despite its 48-hour truce, which started early on Monday, Israel said it may still use aerial strikes to target Hezbollah leaders and rocket launchers and to back up ground operations.
Israeli jets fired two bombs to support ground troops battling Hezbollah inside Lebanon and artillery shells hit two southern frontier villages. A Lebanese soldier died and three were wounded when another Israeli air strike destroyed their vehicle. Hezbollah fired two shells into the northern Israeli border town of Kiryat Shmona on Monday, but nobody was wounded.
It was the first Hezbollah bombardment of Israel since Sunday evening — a distinct lull compared to the scores of rockets the guerrillas had previously fired daily.
President Bush reiterated that he wants a sustainable end to the violence rather than a quick ceasefire.
“I assured the people here that we will work toward a plan in the United Nations Security Council that addresses the root causes of the problem,” he told reporters.
Israel launched its onslaught on Lebanon after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
At least 574 people have been killed in Lebanon, although the health minister puts the toll at 750 including bodies still buried under rubble. Fifty-one Israelis have been killed.
After the Qana raid Lebanon called off planned talks with Rice, telling her to secure an unconditional ceasefire first.
“This morning, as I head back to Washington, I take with me an emerging consensus on what is necessary for both an urgent ceasefire and lasting settlement. I am convinced we can achieve both this week,” Rice told reporters in Jerusalem.
Senior Israeli officials said the government wants to pursue its military offensive until an international force arrives because Hezbollah could exploit any pause to regroup.
If approved by the U.N. Security Council later this week, the first contingent of a stabilization force could be dispatched to south Lebanon within days, possibly as soon as next week, Israeli officials and Western diplomats estimated.
Countries that may contribute to an international force were due to meet at the United Nations later on Monday.
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin welcomed Israel’s air strike freeze, but said it was not enough. Paris, which is seen as a potential leader of an international force in south Lebanon, has repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire.
As well as partially suspending air strikes, Israel gave 24-hours for residents to leave and to get aid to the worst-hit villages. Two U.N. aid convoys left Beirut for Tyre and Qana.
Civilians drove toward the southern port city of Tyre, 20 kilometers north of the border, white flags fluttering from their cars, buses and pickup trucks.
The United States has refused to call for an immediate halt to the conflict in Lebanon, which, like Israel, it blames on Hezbollah and its allies, Syria and Iran.
Russia criticized the delay in calling for a truce and France signaled that Iran should be brought into efforts to bring peace to Lebanon.
In clashes near the border three Israeli soldiers were wounded when a missile hit their tank as they tried to rescue an armored troop carrier struck earlier by a Hezbollah anti-tank missile, the army said.
Hezbollah said it had destroyed two Israeli tanks and damaged a third. It also said it had lost two fighters.
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