Israel to expand Hezbollah attacks

The cessation of Israeli air strikes was called after nearly 60 civilians were killed in an Israeli bombing of the Lebanese village of Qana yesterday, but Israel had said its air force would attack guerrillas that posed an immediate threat to Israeli troops or civilians.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon fired rockets at the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shemona, the first to land after the suspension of air strikes began at 2am local time today, Israel Radio said. No casualties were reported.

Thousands of civilians trapped in south Lebanon’s war zone for three weeks also made an exodus for the north, taking advantage of Israel’s pause in airstrikes.

Israeli artillery, not covered under the air halt, continued to pound southern Lebanon. A Lebanese solider outside the southern port of Tyre was killed, security official said.

With the fear of bombardment eased, Lebanese Red Cross teams escorted by UN observers went to the Lebanese village of Srifa to dig up more than 50 bodies believed to be still buried under rubble since Israeli strikes wiped out an entire neighbourhood on July 19. The bodies have begun decomposing, the Red Cross said.

Before ending her diplomatic mission in the Middle East by leaving Israel today, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged the UN Security Council to arrange for a ceasefire agreement by week’s end that would include the formation of an international force to help Lebanese forces control southern Lebanon.

But Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz made clear in a speech to parliament that Israel would not agree to an immediate ceasefire and had plans to expand its operation in Lebanon.

“It’s forbidden to agree to an immediate ceasefire,” Peretz told parliament, as several Arab politicians heckled him and demanded an immediate cessation of the offensive. “Israel will expand and strengthen its activities against the Hezbollah.”

Israel’s top ministers also were to discuss expanding the army’s ground operation at a meeting later today, while thousands of reserve soldiers trained for the possibility that they will be sent into Lebanon to participate in the 20-day-old battle.

It was unclear whether the senior ministers would approve a broader ground assault at their meeting, defence officials said.

Today, Hezbollah legislator Hassan Fadlallah questioned Israel’s motivation in its promised halt in air strikes, telling Lebanese television it was just “an attempt to absorb international indignation over the Qana massacre.”

Nonetheless, he suggested that the guerrilla group may follow suit and suspend its attacks on Israel.

“Shelling (Israeli) settlements is a Lebanese reaction to shelling Lebanese civilians,” he said. “When Israel stops its aggression on the south, on Lebanon, on civilians… naturally this reaction could stop. But has Israel stopped its aggression?”

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Rice over the weekend that Israel would need 10 to 14 more days to finish its offensive, and Justice Minister Haim Ramon told Army Radio today that he did not think the fighting was yet over.

“I’m convinced that we won’t finish this war until it’s clear that Hezbollah has no more abilities to attack Israel from south Lebanon. This is what we are striving for,” Ramon said.

The stunning bloodshed in Qana increased international pressure on Washington to back an immediate end to the fighting and prompted Rice to cut short her Mideast mission to return home today.

In a nationally televised speech before leaving Israel, Rice said she will seek international consensus for a ceasefire and a “lasting settlement” in the conflict between Lebanon and Israel through a UN Security Council resolution this week.

“I am convinced that only by achieving both will the Lebanese people be able to control their country and their future, and the people of Israel finally be able to live free of attack from terrorist groups in Lebanon,” Rice said.

The army said that the temporary cessation of aerial activity would allow the opening of corridors for Lebanese civilians who want to leave south Lebanon for the north and would maintain land, sea and air corridors for humanitarian assistance. The corridors will not be attacked from the air for the duration of the suspension, the army said.

The largest death toll from a single Israeli strike before yesterday was around a dozen, and the Qana attack, where at least 34 children and 12 women were among the 56 dead, stunned Lebanese.

Heightening the anger were memories of a 1996 Israeli artillery bombardment that hit a UN base in Qana, killing more than 100 Lebanese who had taken refuge from fighting. That attack sparked an international outcry that forced a halt to an Israeli offensive.

Hezbollah vowed retaliation on its Al-Manar television, saying: “The massacre at Qana will not go unanswered.”

It hit northern Israel yesterday with 157 rockets – the highest one-day total during the offensive – with one Israeli moderately wounded and 12 others lightly hurt, medics said.

Israel apologised for the deaths and promised an investigation, but said Hezbollah had fired more than 40 rockets from Qana before the airstrike, including several from near the building that was bombed. Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir accused Hezbollah of “using their own civilian population as human shields”.

More than 750,000 Lebanese have fled their homes in the fighting. But many thousands more are still believed holed up in the south – many of them too afraid to flee on roads heavily hit by Israeli strikes.

The attack on Qana brought Lebanon’s death toll to more than 510 and pushed American peace efforts to a crucial juncture, as fury at the United States flared in Lebanon. The Beirut government said it would no longer negotiate over a US peace package without an unconditional ceasefire.

At the United Nations, the Security Council approved a statement expressing “extreme shock and distress” at the bloodshed and calling for an end to violence, stopping short of a demand for an immediate ceasefire.

In a jab at the United States, UN chief Kofi Annan told the council in unusually frank terms that he was “deeply dismayed” his previous calls for a halt were ignored. “Action is needed now before many more children, women and men become casualties of a conflict over which they have no control,” he said.

Yesterday, Rice telephoned Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and said she would stay in Jerusalem to continue work on a peace package, rather than make a planned visit to Beirut.

Saniora said he told her not to come.