Posted on 08/09/2006 7:05:36 PM PDT by blam
Israel to triple force on Lebanon front line
By Tim Butcher, Adrian Blomfield in Tyre and Harry Mount in New York
(Filed: 10/08/2006)
Israel vowed yesterday to expand the ground war in Lebanon to try to deliver a knockout blow to Hizbollah, amid warnings that the conflict could last at least another month.
The decision by the security cabinet after a six-hour meeting in Jerusalem increased the pressure on major powers struggling to win agreement on a United Nations resolution to end the four-week-old conflict.
Israel plans to triple the size of its ground forces
"Plans by defence minister Amir Peretz and the chief of staff for expanding the operation have been approved by the cabinet," Eli Yishai, the deputy prime minister told public radio.
"It is believed that it will last another 30 days," Mr Yishai said. "I fear it could last much longer."
The plan involves tripling the size of its ground forces in southern Lebanon to 30,000 with orders to secure a 20-mile wide buffer zone as far as the Litani river.
The news spread fear in the main southern Lebanese city of Tyre. Rumours spread rapidly that the city could be occupied within three days.
The only escape route north - a makeshift bridge over the Litani - was bombed on Monday. Attempts by the Lebanese army to ford the river failed, and yesterday aid workers and civilians formed a quarter-mile human chain to deliver emergency relief into the south where supplies are rapidly running out.
Suspected Hizbollah fighters were also seen bringing supplies into the south and helping five wounded men escape northwards.
An Israeli minister present at the meeting chaired by prime minister Ehud Olmert said the offensive might be held back for two or three days to avoid upsetting tense ceasefire negotiations at the UN in New York. However, senior military officials said it would begin far quicker than that, and soon after the cabinet decision a column of Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles was seen crossing into southern Lebanon and taking up positions.
With unconfirmed reports of 11 Israeli soldiers dying yesterday in clashes with fighters of the Shia militia close to the border, Israel's most senior general moved to quash a growing sense of drift in the ground campaign.
Lt Gen Dan Halutz sidelined his northern commander, Maj Gen Udi Adam and replaced him with a more experienced officer, Maj Gen Moshe Kaplinski. Gen Halutz also issued a warning that the current conflict with Hizbollah was the most crucial since the Jewish state was founded in 1948.
Hizbollah is backed by Iran which is committed to eradicating Israel.
In a broadcast on the group's television station last night, its leader Hassan Nasrallah said Hizbollah would "turn south Lebanon into a graveyard for invading Israeli troops".
He also urged Arab residents of Haifa to flee, suggesting Hizbollah intended to intensify its attacks on the Israeli city.
The fighting has so far claimed the lives of about 1,000 Lebanese, mainly civilians, and 101 Israelis have died, mostly soldiers.
Hizbollah has surprised Israel with the strength of its resistance.
At the Israeli border village of Zaarit, where the current crisis began on July 12 with the kidnapping of two Israeli reservists in a Hizbollah cross-border raid, fierce fighting could be heard a few miles away inside Lebanon.
The principal diplomatic obstacle is the demand by Lebanon and fellow members of the Arab League for an immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon after a ceasefire.
America supports Israel's intention, reiterated yesterday, to keep troops in place until an international force can be deployed.
French and US ambassadors to the UN continued talks on the draft Security Council resolution but again failed to reach accord.
John Bolton, US ambassador to the UN, acknowledged that there are "disagreements" and "areas of uncertainty".
Officials admitted a vote on the resolution was now unlikely before tomorrow .
In Beirut, Fuad Siniora, the Lebanese prime minister, emerged from a meeting with David Welch, the American Middle East envoy, to say there had been no progress on the resolution's final wording.
Zec 12:6 In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
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"The fighting has so far claimed the lives of about 1,000 Lebanese, mainly civilians, and 101 Israelis have died, mostly soldiers."
No bias here.
Wonder how many Hezzies have died? or Israeli citizens?
Exactly.
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