Mideast war rages with no end in sight
Pastor Dale Morgan
Mideast war rages with no end in sight *
By HAMZA HENDAWI Associated Press Writer
Thursday, August 03, 2006 1:29 a.m. ET
BOURJ AL-MULOUK, Lebanon (AP) -- Hezbollah fired its biggest and deepest
volley of rockets into Israel on Wednesday as Israel pursued the
guerrillas with 8,000 soldiers on the ground and heavy bombing. With
fighting in its fourth week and diplomatic efforts stalled, the region
braced for a bitter and long war.
In eastern Lebanon, villagers wept as heavy machinery carried off the
bodies of those killed in an overnight raid against a Hezbollah
stronghold. Across northern Israel, forests and fields lay scorched from
rocket fire that killed a Massachusetts native fleeing on his bicycle
after a warning siren went off.
Hopes for a cease-fire dimmed despite a plea from Pope Benedict XVI for
a quick solution. U.N. diplomats debated a draft resolution that would
lay down the conditions for an international force to go in; they
claimed they were making progress but acknowledged no immediate deal was
in sight.
The prospect of a longer war has raised tensions across the Mideast,
where anti-Israeli and anti-American hostility is now sharp. Arab
leaders have warned repeatedly in recent days that the fighting has
hampered, or killed outright, any hope for a long-term Israeli peace deal.
But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said his country would stop its
offensive only after a robust international peacekeeping force is in
place in southern Lebanon _ something likely to take weeks at minimum.
He predicted the fighting would create "new momentum" for Israel's plan
to separate from the Palestinians by pulling out of the West Bank.
Early Thursday, Israel renewed air strikes against Hezbollah strongholds
in Beirut's outskirts and in the eastern Bekaa Valley. Witnesses said at
least four explosions reverberated through Beirut as missiles hit
Dahieh, a Shiite Muslim suburb that has been repeatedly shelled by Israel.
Lebanese television said the attacks targeted several buildings in a
Hezbollah compound of Dahieh's al-Ruweis neighborhood. The compound,
which includes a center for religious teaching, has been attacked in
earlier raids and sustained heavy damage.
It was the first air raid against the Lebanese capital's suburb in
almost a week.
Hezbollah said Thursday that its guerrillas had also clashed with
Israeli troops in the Lebanese border village of Taibeh, destroying one
tank and two bulldozers and killing or wounding its crew members, the
group's Al-Manar television reported. The Israeli army said a tank had
been lightly hit in clashes but that there were no casualties or serious
damage.
On Wednesday, the first full day of its massive ground push, Israeli
military officials said Hezbollah was putting up resistance as troops
went from village to village in south Lebanon to clear them of guerrillas.
But the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were
not authorized to talk to the media, said they were confident the
resistance would not change their objective of reaching roughly four
miles into Lebanon by Thursday. They said they could easily dash inland
to the Litani River _ their final objective about 18 miles from the
border _ but instead chose to move methodically so as not to leave
pockets of resistance.
The Israeli forces were believed to be just two miles inside the
Lebanese border in most spots.
The military said early Thursday that an Israeli soldier was killed and
four others wounded in Ayt a-Shab, just across the border. Army Radio
said the battle was still in progress early Thursday.
Israel also acknowledged early Thursday that its bombing of a building
in the south Lebanese village of Qana that killed 56 civilians was a
mistake and said it would not have attacked if it had known civilians
were inside. But a statement on the findings of a military inquiry into
the attack on Sunday also charged that Hezbollah guerrillas used
civilians as human shields for their rocket attacks.
Hezbollah's retaliation was fierce _ both on the ground and by air. It
fired a record daily number of more than 230 rockets into Israel,
pushing its three-week total over the 2,000 mark. The highest previous
daily total was 166, on July 26.
One rocket on Wednesday hit near the town of Beit Shean, about 42 miles
beyond the border, Hezbollah's deepest rocket strike into Israel so far.
Another stray missile hit the West Bank for the first time.
David M. Lelchook, a 52-year-old Israeli-American, was killed as he fled
for home by bicycle near a northern town, and 58 people were wounded
elsewhere across Israel. Lelchook was originally from the Boston area
and had been living in Israel for 20 years, said Yehuda Shavit, a local
government official. He said the man's wife and two daughters had moved
to southern Israel earlier in the fighting.
Another American immigrant was among three Israeli soldiers killed in
fighting in Lebanon this week, the army said Wednesday. Michael Levin,
22, moved to Israel three years ago from Pennsylvania and enlisted in
the paratroopers, Israeli media reported. Levin cut short a visit to his
family four days ago and returned to his unit.
In Lebanon, the civilian death toll reached far higher: 16 killed
overnight during an Israeli commando raid and accompanying airstrikes
around the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek near the Syrian border.
The attack, the deepest strike north by Israel so far, was led by
commandos who flew in by helicopter before dawn, capturing five
Hezbollah guerrillas and killing at least 10, said Israel's army chief,
Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz.
Witnesses said the Israeli forces partially destroyed the Dar al-Hikma
hospital in Baalbek, which residents said is financed by an Iranian
charity close to Hezbollah.
A Hezbollah official in Beirut said the hospital had been evacuated
several days earlier as a precaution after Israeli forces attempted an
earlier, similar operation. No such assault was previously reported.
The Israel air force deputy commander, Col. Yochanan Loker, described
the site as "a Hezbollah headquarters located inside the hospital. ...
Weapons were found within the hospital _ in offices, in drawers."
Israel has not released the identities of those captured. When asked by
The Associated Press whether any were "big fish," Olmert said: "They are
tasty fishes."
Another Hezbollah official, also speaking on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to give official statements to the media,
said Israeli troops captured "four or five" people, but not at the
hospital, and denied they were Hezbollah fighters.
Commandos also took away computers, disks and documents for intelligence
analysis, said army Col. Nitzan Alon, who led the Israeli ground forces
on the mission. As they swept the building, they came under fire by
anti-tank missiles from nearby buildings.
Israeli jets fired missiles at the surrounding guerrilla force as the
fighting at the hospital raged, the military said.
One struck the nearby village of al-Jamaliyeh, hitting the house of the
village's mayor, Hussein Jamaleddin, and killing his son, brother, and
five other relatives.
Weeping as he walked in a funeral procession hours later, Jamaleddin
pulled at the limbs of the dead, carried to a cemetery in the bucket of
a yellow front-loader.
"This is the leg of my son. He was a sportsman, he did tae kwon do,"
Jamaleddin wailed.
At least 548 Lebanese have been killed since the fighting began three
weeks ago, including 477 civilians and 25 Lebanese soldiers and at least
46 Hezbollah guerrillas. The health minister says the toll could be as
high as 750, including those still buried in rubble or missing.
In all, 56 Israelis have died _ 37 soldiers as well as 19 civilians
killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks.
In other developments:
_ The U.N. announced it would again postpone a meeting of nations that
could contribute troops to help stabilize south Lebanon, saying it was
premature to talk about deploying peacekeepers before imposing a plan
for peace between Israel and Hezbollah.
_ In Geneva, the U.N. World Food Program said Israel had agreed to
permit two oil tankers to sail into Lebanon to ease a growing fuel
crisis. Many gas stations have long lines or are shuttered, and aid
officials fear fuel shortages could also hurt food production. Power and
water outages also have become common, especially across the south.
___
Associated Press writers Hussein Dakroub in Beirut and Steven Gutkin in
Jerusalem contributed to this report.