Toronto Star: Before the truce, a final push

Before the truce, a final push

CEASEFIRE | Israeli, Lebanese leaders agree to a `cessation of hostilities' as of early tomorrow

ANDREW MILLS | SPECIAL TO THE STAR | August 13, 2006

BEIRUT—Israeli troops will continue their push into Lebanon amid deadly air raids and constant artillery fire until tomorrow morning after both sides agreed to honour a United Nations truce.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announced last night a ceasefire in the Hezbollah-Israel conflict would take effect tomorrow at 8 a.m. Lebanese time (1 a.m. in Toronto).

In a statement distributed in Beirut, Annan said he had been in touch with prime ministers Fouad Siniora of Lebanon and Ehud Olmert of Israel to discuss the exact timing of the cessation of hostilities called for by a UN Security Council resolution.

"I am happy to announce that the two leaders have agreed that the cessation of hostilities and the end of the fighting will enter into force on Aug. 14," Annan said.

The Security Council ceasefire resolution, drafted by the United States and France, authorizes 15,000 UN peacekeepers to help a similar number of Lebanese troops take control of southern Lebanon as Israeli forces withdraw from an area that is a longtime stronghold of Islamic militants Hezbollah.

Israel will halt offensive operations in Lebanon early tomorrow but continue to engage Hezbollah in areas where the army was operating, senior Israeli government officials said yesterday.

The Israeli website YNET News said the Israeli army will begin pulling out of southern Lebanon within a week or two.

The website quoted a senior official in Olmert's office as saying Israeli troops would start withdrawing from the territory after the first international forces and the Lebanese army arrive in the area.

The pace of fighting in Lebanon picked up significantly yesterday in the wake of Friday night's UN vote calling for a full cessation of hostilities.

By yesterday evening, 30,000 Israeli soldiers had poured across the border and into south Lebanon on foot, in tanks and aboard helicopters, tripling the number of soldiers in the country, the Israeli military said.One column of soldiers fought Hezbollah's guerrillas all the way to the Litani River, some 30 kilometres into Lebanon.

Israel was determined to batter Hezbollah until the end, while the guerrillas seemed to be fighting as fiercely as ever after a month of intense Israeli air, artillery and ground assaults.

All day long, F-16s and helicopters unleashed one of the fiercest air assaults yet of Israel's offensive, bombing and rocketing sites from the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon all the way to the northern border with Syria, where they cut off the last remaining route into and out of the country.

Israel said 19 of its soldiers were killed and more than 70 wounded in the expanded offensive. Israel Radio reported 100 troops wounded, which if confirmed would be the Jewish state's highest one-day injury toll of the fighting.

Israel also confirmed Hezbollah guerrillas shot down a helicopter, but it did not elaborate. In astatement yesterday, the military also said that a five-member crew of a downed helicopter was missing.

Hezbollah also claimed to have destroyed 21 tanks.

Nineteen Lebanese civilians died from Israeli air strikes, while Hezbollah rockets wounded eight people in northern Israel. Israel said it killed more than 40 Hezbollah fighters. Hezbollah issued a statement saying three of its fighters had been killed but gave no date.

The 32-day struggle has claimed nearly 900 lives on both sides.

"(Israeli) forces are operating deeper into Lebanon based on (a) government decision. The fact that the UN resolution was accepted (Friday) doesn't apply immediately on the ceasefire arrangement," Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz, Israel's top general, told the BBC before last night's statement from Annan.

The Israeli cabinet meets today and was expected to endorse the UN resolution.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his fighters would abide by the resolution, co-operating with the UN troops and Lebanese soldiers, but he cautioned they reserved their "natural right" to attack Israeli soldiers that remained on Lebanese territory.

"Once there is an agreement to stop the hostilities or the military operations, the resistance will abide by it," Nasrallah said.

But he added: "As long as there is Israeli military movement, Israeli field aggression and Israeli soldiers occupying our land ... it is our natural right to confront them, fight them and defend our land, our homes, and ourselves."

Lebanon's cabinet, which includes two Hezbollah ministers, approved the resolution yesterday, despite having reservations, Siniora said. "We will deal with the requirements of the resolution with realism in a way that serves the national interest," the Lebanese prime minister said.

Siniora's cabinet harshly condemned Israel's military push yesterday, saying it presented a "flagrant challenge" to the international community after the UN resolution was issued.

In the United States, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she hoped fighting would end in "a day or so" of the ceasefire.

U.S. President George W. Bush welcomed the resolution, saying Hezbollah and its sponsors from Iran and Syria had brought an "unwanted war" to the region.

A UN special envoy to the Middle East, Alvaro de Soto, said "we are not starting from zero," adding that several countries had offered contingents to a peacekeeping ground force in south Lebanon.

France is widely expected to lead the force, which will expand the existing UN Interim Force in Lebanon but have a stronger mandate.

Italy, along with predominantly Muslim Turkey and Malaysia, also signalled willingness yesterday to send troops for a beefed-up force, and New Zealand and Ireland were among smaller nations saying they might contribute.

Siniora prevailed in his insistence that policing of the ceasefire be done by Lebanese soldiers supported by UN forces rather than by an ad hoc assembly of international troops, possibly from NATO.

With files from Associated Press, Reuters

Andrew Mills is a Canadian freelance journalist