MIDDLE EAST: Fighting rages on in southern Lebanon as Israel agrees to ceasefire

Record ID: 792052

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: Fighting rages on in southern Lebanon as Israel agrees to ceasefire
  • Date: 14th August 2006
  • Summary: ROSH PINA, ISRAEL (AUGUST 13, 2006) (REUTERS) ISRAELI SOLDIERS CARRYING COFFIN OF ISRAELI SOLDIERS KILLED IN SOUTHERN LEBANON FIGHTING CRYING MOURNERS WALKING BEHIND COFFIN COFFIN PUT INTO GROUND ISRAELI SOLDIERS SHOOTING INTO AIR IN FUNERAL
  • Embargoed: 29th August 2006 13:00
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  • Reuters ID: LVA8CBG1QC9VVDSMRFKOLQ7MNYZU
  • Story Text: Fighting across the Israeli-Lebanese border continued on Sunday (August 13) despite an Israeli government approval to a ceasefire offer drafted by the U.N. Security Council.
    Several barrages of rockets hit across northern Israel during the day, killing one man and injuring several more. At the same time Israeli troops continued to operate on the border and inside Lebanon.
    Israeli troops will leave southern Lebanon only when the Lebanese army and an international force are in place, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Sunday.
    "Israel will leave in tandem with the deployment south of the Lebanese army along with the international force -- not a situation where we see that a Lebanese army soldier has arrived and now they tell us to leave," she told a news conference.
    "But we can, we desire -- and this is Israel's decision -- to leave parallel to the move south of the international forces with the Lebanese army."
    She called on Lebanese army troops to be deployed to the south of the country, where around 30,000 Israeli troops are now operating, immediately.
    The U.N. has estimated that an international force of up to 15,000 peacekeepers could be deployed in seven to 10 days, but an Israeli government source said he did not expect that deployment to happen for at least two weeks.
    Livni was speaking shortly after the Israeli cabinet approved a U.N. Security Council resolution issued on Friday that called for a "full cessation of hostilities" between Israel and Hizbollah after more than a month of conflict.
    Secretary General Kofi Annan says he has assurances from Israel and Lebanon that a ceasefire will come into effect from 0500 GMT on Monday.
    But it seems that Israel's citizens are not all happy with the government's approval of the ceasefire plan.
    "I think that Americans and Israelis should be together and make a strong enough coalition, or ... compromise together and finish the Hizbollah, finish it," said one of Haifa residents, a city that have been a frequent target to Hizbollah rockets.
    Another citizen who was just about to express his feelings towards the agreement, had to flee for a shelter when a siren was heard.
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