Israel maintains Hizbullah air and ground attacks
Tuesday, 01 Aug 2006 17:47
Israel widens ground offensive
The Israeli army has continued to attack Hizbullah militants and strongholds in southern Lebanon in some of the heaviest clashes since the conflict began three weeks ago.
Hizbullah claims to have killed three Israeli soldiers, although the army has yet to confirm this, while the Jewish state says about 20 guerrillas have lost their lives.
Earlier today the Israeli cabinet agreed to extend the country's ground offensive in the south of the troubled country, with a government minister indicating that he expected such attacks to last "between ten days and two weeks".
Infrastructure minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer also confirmed on army radio that Israel ultimately wanted to create a security zone free of militants in Lebanon, with local media sources speculating that this could be as far as 18 miles past the current border.
While artillery strikes and aerial bombings have continued against suspected Hizbullah strongholds, the Israeli army has ventured its furthest into Lebanese territory as ground attacks are extended.
Fighting has been concentrated on the fortified villages of Ait al-Shaab and Bint Jbeil.
Local radio reports claim that as many as 15,000 additional reservists will be called up in order to support the expansion of Israel's ground offensive in the region.
Israel had agreed to halt its strikes so that an investigation could be carried out into a bombing raid that killed more than 50 civilians, more than half of them children, in the Lebanese village of Qana on Sunday.
But following several strikes yesterday, Lebanese security officials said that Israeli planes targeted the road connecting north east Lebanon and Syria early this morning.
The village of Hermel, considered to be a Hizbullah stronghold, about nine miles from the border, was hit several times, police said.
Despite the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, expressing hope that a ceasefire between Israel and Hizbullah could be reached later this week, the Israeli prime minister has stressed that his country will continue its offensive until the threat against it posed by militant attacks is removed.
Ehud Olmert also reiterated calls for Hizbullah to release the two Israeli soldiers kidnapped by guerrillas in a cross-border raid on July 12th, a move which sparked the beginning of the current conflict in southern Lebanon.
Addressing a meeting of mayors in Tel Aviv yesterday, Mr Olmert said: "The fighting continues. There is no ceasefire and there will not be any ceasefire in the coming days."
Meanwhile, the Syrian president has vowed not to abandon support for Lebanese resistance against Israel, instructing his army to increase its state of readiness.
In a written message released on the anniversary of the foundation of the Syria Arab Army, Bashar al-Assad said: "We are facing international circumstances and regional challenges that require caution, alertness, readiness and preparedness."
At least 650 Lebanese people have been killed since Israel began its strikes, the majority of whom are civilians, but local hospital sources suggests that the number of dead is significantly higher due to a number of bodies remaining trapped under the rubble.
Fifty-one Israeli have lost their lives due to rockets fired by Hizbullah hitting Israeli towns on the Lebanese border.