MIDEAST: WRAP: The battle between Israel and Hizbollah continues in spite of diplomatic efforts worldwide
Record ID:
783715
MIDEAST: WRAP: The battle between Israel and Hizbollah continues in spite of diplomatic efforts worldwide
- Title: MIDEAST: WRAP: The battle between Israel and Hizbollah continues in spite of diplomatic efforts worldwide
- Date: 2nd August 2006
- Summary: VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS BOARDING BUS
- Embargoed: 17th August 2006 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Defence / Military
- Reuters ID: LVAA4BI7MP5JVVXINKEZX6OXFAWE
- Story Text: Israeli forces thrust into Lebanon on Tuesday (August 1) in an escalation of the war and landed troops by helicopter in the Hizbollah heartland near Baalbek, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said a ceasefire may be on the horizon.
The Israeli army said three Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in the south. Hizbollah said it launched multiple rockets at Matzuva in northern Israel, and the Israeli army said five of its soldiers were wounded in cross-border fire.
On Tuesday Olmert also boarded an Israeli vessel to help rally some of the military.
Olmert said that the action Israel takes now, has long-lasting implications.
"We could have said that there are dramatic achievements and maybe in the future, when we'll have historic perspective, we will say that they changed the conduct of the Middle East," Olmert said.
On land Israeli forces thrust into Lebanon on Tuesday in an expansion of their offensive, pounding villages and meeting fierce resistance from Hizbollah.
Three weeks after the war erupted when Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid, Israel's security cabinet agreed to step up its offensive, entailing a ground sweep 6-7 km (4 miles) into Lebanon, a political source said.
Israel also said it would resume full air strikes in Lebanon early on Wednesday at the end of a partial, 48-hour suspension.
Earlier on Tuesday Israeli artillery shells crashed down on the border area around the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab, where Hizbollah said it had destroyed a tank in battles with Israeli troops.
The three Israeli soldiers killed in Aita al-Shaab were the first army deaths since Israel lost nine soldiers on July 26. Hizbollah said it had inflicted 35 casualties in house-to-house battles in the village, and its television station aired footage of captured equipment including blood-stained body armour.
Israel's justice minister said about 300 of an estimated 2,000 Hizbollah fighters had been killed so far, and the tourism minister later said 400 had been killed.
Hizbollah, which says it does not hide its dead and that it has many thousands more fighters, has announced 43 deaths in that period and said the Israeli statements were false.
At least 624 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Lebanon. The health minister put the toll at 750 including bodies buried under rubble. Fifty-four Israelis have been killed, 36 of them soldiers.
Israeli artillery shells crashed down on the border area around the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab, where Hizbollah said it had destroyed a tank in battles with Israeli troops.
The three Israeli soldiers killed in Aita al-Shaab were the first army deaths since Israel lost nine soldiers on July 26. Hizbollah said it had inflicted 35 casualties in house-to-house battles in the village, and its television station aired footage of captured equipment including blood-stained body armour.
Israel's justice minister said about 300 of an estimated 2,000 Hizbollah fighters had been killed so far, and the tourism minister later said 400 had been killed.
Hizbollah, which says it does not hide its dead and that it has many thousands more fighters, has announced 43 deaths in that period and said the Israeli statements were false.
Israel wants to push Hizbollah back and stop it firing rockets over the border. But an Israeli minister said there was no way Israel's forces could destroy all the missiles, a remark apparently aimed at lowering his people's expectations.
Israel has rejected calls for a truce as world powers differ over the urgency of halting the war.
Most Arab and European governments have insisted on an immediate end to fighting but Israel's closest ally, the United States, has said any ceasefire must be part of a broader deal that ends the threat to the Jewish state from Hizbollah. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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