Posted on 07/31/2006 7:53:06 PM PDT by yatros from flatwater
The security cabinet approved early Tuesday morning expanded ground operations in Lebanon, while the IDF, under the assumption that only a few days were left for the operations against Hizbullah, was already gearing up Monday night for a massive ground incursion into Lebanon on three different fronts, utilizing the Golani, Nahal and the Paratroopers infantry brigades.
The plan, senior IDF sources said, was to utilize the last remaining days of the operation, which they estimated would be over by week's end, to push Hizbullah back as far north as the Litani River in central Lebanon. The plan was pending approval by the cabinet, which was meeting late Monday night.
"An extensive ground operation could destroy the Hizbullah terror infrastructure there," a high-ranking IDF source said. "This is our opportunity to strike at Hizbullah."
Defense Minister Amir Peretz rejected calls for a cease-fire on Monday. "This is a difficult and painful fight but we can overcome it," he said during a speech in the Knesset plenum. "We cannot agree to a cease-fire that will go into effect immediately."
In addition to the attempt to push Hizbullah north to the Litani, the IDF is also working on carving out a two-kilometer security zone along the northern border, under which all of the Hizbullah outposts there would be completely razed and guerrillas would not be allowed to return to the borderline area.
Hizbullah fired two Katyusha rockets at Kiryat Shmona on Monday. No one was wounded, but fires broke out as a result of the explosions.
At the moment, the IDF said that it did not intend to send the thousands of reservists who had been called up under emergency orders into Lebanon. Sources said the reservists would be used the earliest by Wednesday, although the decision was dependent on decisions made at the late-night cabinet meeting.
According to intelligence assessments, the areas that would be invaded in eastern and western Lebanon were loaded with Katyusha rocket launchers, weapons warehouses and Hizbullah headquarters.
Meanwhile Monday, a US-brokered 48-hour suspension of aerial activity went into effect as IDF troops from the Nahal Brigade operated on the ground in southern Lebanon in the villages of Ataybeh and Al-Adisa, just north of Metulla. Nine soldiers were wounded during the fighting. Three of the soldiers were wounded after an APC flipped over near the village of Kila in southern Lebanon.
IAF fighter jets struck the main Lebanese-Syrian border crossing on Monday for the third time in as many days, hitting a vehicle, the IDF and witnesses said. The military said the strike hit a truck importing weapons from Syria at the Masnaa border crossing. It said the strike was in Lebanese territory.
But Lebanese police officials said two missiles struck near a vehicle carrying relief supplies near the Lebanese customs post, wounding five people, including a customs officer.
Also Monday, in accordance with a decision by the political echelon and in light of security assessments, a general closure was imposed on the West Bank. Throughout the duration of the closure, the IDF said there would be an easing of restrictions for the population, and humanitarian cases would be handled and approved by the District Coordination and Liaison offices.
The IDF said it would continue to exercise sensitivity towards the West Bank population, while performing thorough inspections at checkpoints and crossings. The army added that it would continue to operate to ensure the security of the citizens of Israel, while preserving, to the best of its ability, the fabric of life of the Palestinians.
Meanwhile, a heightened state of alert, which was declared in Haifa on Monday afternoon, was lowered after two suspected terrorists were arrested. The security establishment had received intelligence that a terror attack was being planned in the region.
In response, police set up roadblocks and increased its presence.
Excellent !!!!
I hope they push hard, very hard.
I just heard on the news that it is the "rest of the world" calling for an immediate ceasefire and the US is more and more isolated..Would you care to revise your assessment..?
"I say we have a right of return for all the decedants of the Lebannse christians the muslims raped, pillaged, and murdered in Lebannon in the 1980's."
I think you are perhaps getting confused with the actions of the Phalangists in the 1980s.
Why not push them all the way to the 72 virgins.
A slightly disingenuous reply since you seem to have overlooked the event that the Damour massacre was in response too, namely the Karantina massacre.
That said two wrongs do not make a right, both these events and the later Phalangist rampages were despicable.
I'd like to see one big pig farm from the Litani to the Israeli border.
I would name it Pigostan.
"FOX just said a cease fire would go into effect on Friday. Rice said so.
Israel needs to stop before they destroy the enemy."
I believe this time the Bush State Department will not reign in Israel. We are playing good cop bad cop with Bush saying Israel has a right to self defense and is fully exercising it while Condi talks of a cease fire. In the past, we reigned in Israel and it has cost them and us by further emboldening the enemy. I think they finally get it that the only way to win a war is to defeat the enemy. Imagine that, what a new concept!
"On the first day of this they should have air assaulted to the Litani and forced Hezballah to fight on two fronts and fire rockets north to attack the Israeli positions on the Litani. Doing this on day 22 is stupid and shows just how emasculated the west is due to the Peace movement The Izzies have lost the Info Op and will fail to take the Litani by the Cease fire unless the do some amphib ops above Tyre and some helo inserts into the Bekkaa(sp)"
That's what happens when you have a non-military PM (Olmert) assigning a war to an Israeli-Air force general.
Approval by the cabinet?? This is exactly how we "fought" the Viet Nam war.
Let Allah sort it out.
High volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. also
2006israelwar or WOT
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In the newsreports I don't see any IDF envelopment, or use of a blocking force to prevent their escape from these objectives. I am also mystified as to descriptions of "Pitched Battles" in which only 10 or 20 are killed.
For this to work, the IDF is going to have to stack these Hizbullah clymers like cordwood.Sending 20 Thousand of them to the Muslim Happy Hunting Ground might lessen their enthusiasm for martyrdom.
I Ping the questions.
Your observations about a more effective scenario describe what I was expecting. I feel an air of tentativemess about this operation that is disturbing.
Excellent summary. The only way this could reach a stalemate is if Syria entered the contest and U.S. did not.
Who thinks the Syrians were told that if they did enter the game, so would U.S.? They'd have to believe it knowing how much we like them killing our young men in Iraq.
Their cabinet has never had the feeble mindset that ours had (Oh, gosh, we can't bomb Hanoi too much...Chiiiina might get mad) and they do defer to the Generals.
This is the closest thing I could find on an imminent "ceasefire"...
From the Reuters/Washington Compost -- Both UNRELIABLE sources.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/01/AR2006080101182.html
Rice says cease-fire in Lebanon possible in days
Reuters Tuesday, August 1, 2006; 7:47 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday that a cease-fire could be reached in Lebanon within days.
"This week is entirely possible. Certainly we are talking about days not weeks," she said on the PBS Newshour.
MORE at the link..
Semper Fi
There is no ceasefire even close. Nor has there been any credible source saying there is.
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