Israeli troops mass on border
2006-07-22 07:35
Beirut - With small units already operating in south Lebanon, Israeli tanks and troops massed on the border on Saturday after calling up reserves, as the army announced plans for a "limited" ground operation to destroy Hezbollah's tunnels, hideouts and weapons stashes in the south.
Israeli artillery pounded a hilltop just inside Lebanon and Israeli soldiers were seen firing machine guns near a village just across the Lebanese border.
An Israeli jet dropped a bomb on the hill near the ridge, sending up a massive plume of smoke amid the thunderous noise of the detonation.
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice announced plans to visit the Middle East on Sunday, her first trip to the region since the crisis erupted 10 days ago - even as she ruled out a quick ceasefire as a "false promise".
Sweeping Hezbollah out
An official from the UN monitoring force in south Lebanon said that between 300 and 500 troops are believed to be in the western sector of the border, backed by as many as 30 tanks - a likely precursor to a larger ground force that Israel could use to sweep Hezbollah out of the area.
Israel's goal is not to create a buffer zone as it did during its occupation of southern Lebanon from 1982 to 2000, said a senior military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the topic's military sensitivity.
Rather, Israel wants to weaken Hezbollah to make it easier for the Lebanese army to move into areas previously controlled by the guerrillas, possibly with the aid of a beefed up international peacekeeping force, the official said.
On Friday, Israel knocked out a key bridge on the road to Syria and pummelled Hezbollah positions in the south as long lines of tanks and armoured personnel carriers lined up at the border - in some places close enough to see Lebanese homes on the other side.
Mass graves
In south Lebanon, soldiers buried 72 people killed in recent bombings in a mass grave just outside a barracks in the southern city of Tyre.
Volunteers put the bodies, many of them children, in wooden coffins and spray-painted the names of the dead on the lids.
Evacuation
Ships lined up at Beirut's port as a massive evacuation effort to pull out Americans and other foreigners picked up speed. US officials said more than 8 000 of the roughly 25 000 Americans in Lebanon will be evacuated by the weekend.
France, the United Nations and Red Cross painted a dire portrait of life for civilians trapped in the south or forced to flee their homes there. They demanded Israel open humanitarian corridors to allow life's necessities - shelter, food, water and medicine - to reach the swelling numbers of displaced people - an estimated half-million.
Responding to a US request, Israeli defence minister Amir Peretz said French aid would be allowed into Lebanon's port of Sidon.
Rockets fired at Haifa
A barrage of 11 Hezbollah rockets rained down again on Israel's third-largest city, the northern port of Haifa, wounding at least five people, two seriously. The army said rockets also hit Rosh Pina, Safed and communities near the Sea of Galilee.
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets at northern Israeli towns from north of the Lebanese border, killing 16 civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands of Israelis to repeatedly flee into bunkers.
Death toll rises
The Lebanese health ministry reported 362 deaths in Lebanon so far in the onslaught, an increase of 55 since it release figures on Thursday. Thirty-four Israelis also have been killed, including 18 soldiers and an air force officer killed Friday in the collision of two helicopters.
- AP