Israel ready for massive invasion
Pastor Dale Morgan
Israel ready for massive invasion*
· Special forces target Hizbullah official as troops plan push in south
· Deadlock at UN and EU
Rory McCarthy in Metula, Ewen MacAskill and Clancy Chassay in Beirut
Wednesday August 2, 2006
The Guardian
Israeli special forces were last night engaged deep within Lebanon as
the army geared up for an expected major ground invasion. Troops were
involved in fierce clashes and artillery pounded targets across southern
Lebanon. The military also called in air strikes despite a previous
commitment to a "partial" halt in air bombardments.
Israeli commanders said that six brigades - several thousand soldiers -
were now deployed inside Lebanon. At least 15,000 reserve troops, called
up late last week, would be ready for combat from today, army sources said.
Last night Israeli commandos were reported to be in action against
Hizbullah fighters 40 miles across the Lebanese border in the Beka'a
valley, after landing by helicopter. Witnesses reported gunfire around a
hospital to the west of the town of Baalbek, a Hizbullah stronghold.
According to the Lebanese army, the target of the raid was Sheikh
Mohammed Yazbek, a member of the Hizbullah High Council, and
representative in Lebanon of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, who was reported to have been at the hospital earlier in the day.
The operation began with at least five rapid air strikes three hours
before the end of Israel's self-imposed two-day pause in air attacks.
Witnesses in Baalbek reported seeing dozens of Israeli helicopters
hovering over the town and said the hospital was bombed. Hizbullah's
chief spokesman, Hussein Rahal, later said some Israeli commandos had
become trapped in the hospital and that fighting - which had already
lasted four hours - was continuing. Some of the soldiers injured in the
raid were flown back to Haifa last night.
Mr Rahal dismissed as untrue reports that commandos had snatched
patients from the hospital and flown them out of the town, but the
operation is reminiscent of Israel's 1994 raid on Lebanon to kidnap a
guerrilla leader, Mustafa Dirani.
The military escalation came as diplomats in Brussels and at the UN
security council again failed to make progress. EU ministers became
bogged down in arguments over the meaning of "ceasefire" and settled for
a watered-down compromise calling for a cessation of hostilities.
Germany and four other countries joined Britain in opposing tougher
language urged by France, calling for an immediate ceasefire and
condemning Israel's bombardment as "a severe breach of international
humanitarian law".
In a speech in Los Angeles, Tony Blair called for a fundamental
reappraisal of British and US foreign policy, admitting excessive
emphasis on military power and a failure to address the Palestinian
issue had left the west losing the battle for hearts and minds in the
Middle East.
The prime minister also sent a warning to Syria and Iran: "We need to
make clear to Syria and Iran that there is a choice: come into the
international community and play by the same rules as the rest of us; or
be confronted."
The Syrian government told its armed forces to raise their state of
readiness, after Israel said it would target all vehicles believed to be
carrying weapons from Syria to Lebanon.
There was intense fighting yesterday in the Lebanese village of Aitar
al-Shaab, where Israeli paratroopers have been for two days; Hizbullah
claimed it had killed or injured more than 30 Israeli soldiers there.
Israel said three soldiers had been killed after Hizbullah fighters
opened fire with anti-tank weapons on houses they were searching.
Yesterday afternoon, a few miles to the east, artillery rounds were seen
fired into the village of Taibe, on the saddle of a hill range near
where the strategic Litani river runs closest to the Israeli border.
Thick brown smoke hung low over the village as buildings were pounded.
Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, under pressure to come out of the
conflict with a convincing victory, claimed his troops were winning. He
added that a process towards a ceasefire was under way, but an immediate
cessation was not in Israel's interests. "We are at the beginning of a
political process that, in the end, will bring a ceasefire under
entirely different conditions than before," he said. But there would be
no end until "we know for certain that conditions in the field have
changed from those that would cause a war to break out". Haim Ramon, the
Israeli justice minister, said Hizbullah was at "breaking point".
Military officials said the objective was to clear a strip of all
Hizbullah positions up to 7km (4 miles) deep inside Lebanon. Military
analysts said the army was likely to push further to the Litani itself,
which at times runs as far as 20 or 30km inside Lebanon. Several Israeli
ministers said there was up to 14 days of fighting to come.
Late last night at one position, 30 or 40 infantry gathered before
heading north to fight. In full camouflage, faces painted green and
black, and with night-vision goggles, their commander briefed them.
"Keep your eyes open. Keep concentrating. Watch out for friendly fire.
If you get into trouble, we have a medic in the unit." They said a brief
prayer, boarded coaches with loud music playing, and headed out.