Diplomatic efforts to stop the weeklong conflict between Israel and Lebanon
gained momentum, but Israel said it was preparing to fight Hezbollah guerrillas
for several move weeks and might send in ground forces.
A vehicle is seen
among damaged buildings in southern Beirut July 18, 2006. Israeli
warplanes struck Lebanon on Wednesday with thousands awaiting evacuation
as the death toll mounted in a conflict that has entered its second week
with no early end in sight.[Reuters] |
At daybreak Wednesday, an undisclosed number of Israeli troops were operating
just across the border, looking for tunnels and weapons, the military said, in
what appeared to be a small-scale, routine operation.
Early Wednesday, explosions were heard in southern Beirut, and Beirut TV
stations reported strikes in two towns and a bridge in southern Lebanon. No
casualties were reported in the latest strikes.
On Tuesday Israeli warplanes struck an army base outside Beirut and other
areas in south Lebanon, killing 17 people, and Hezbollah rockets battered towns
across northern Israel, killing one person.
Hundreds of Europeans and Americans fled Lebanon aboard ships, and hundred of
other foreigners prepared to evacuate in the coming days. However, evacuation of
U.S. citizens 25,000 on a cruise ship was delayed a day. The ship docked early
Wednesday, and boarding was to begin at dawn, as U.S. officer said.
Families in southern Lebanon, the site of most Israeli airstrikes, drove
north on side roads, winding among the orange and banana groves and waving
improvised white flags from their car windows.
In diplomatic efforts to end the fighting, which has killed at least 227
people in Lebanon and 25 in Israel, a U.N. mediation team met Tuesday with
Israeli leaders a day after speaking with Lebanese officials in Beirut.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who met with the delegation, said a cease-fire
would be impossible unless the soldiers captured by Hezbollah in a cross-border
raid last week were released and Lebanese troops were deployed along the border
with a guarantee that Hezbollah would be disarmed.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told diplomats that he does not oppose
negotiations, but the solution must be based on freedom for the two soldiers and
implementation of a Security Council resolution that calls for disarming
Hezbollah and posting the Lebanese army on the border, according to a statement
from his office.
Later Tuesday, meeting mayors from Israel's battered border communities,
Olmert said Israel would not allow the previous situation of Hezbollah, armed
with thousands of rockets controlling south Lebanon, to be restored.