Israel Pulls Out of Hezbollah Stronghold

07/29/2006

TYRE, Lebanon (AP) - Israeli troops pulled back from a Lebanese border town Saturday after a weeklong battle with Hezbollah, the bloodiest ground fighting of the 18-day Israeli offensive.

Elsewhere, Israeli warplanes blasted bridges and demolished houses, killing seven people, including a woman and her five children.

The battle for Bint Jbail has symbolized Israel’s difficulty in pushing guerrillas back from the border, whether by air bombardment or ground assault. Hezbollah on Friday escalated its cross-border attacks, firing longer-range missiles deeper into Israel than ever before.

Lebanese civilians have born the brunt of the Israeli onslaught. The woman and her children were crushed in their home by a strike outside the market town of Nabatiyeh, which also killed a man in a nearby house, Lebanese security officials said. In another southern town, six bodies were dug from the rubble of a house destroyed by a strike Friday, they said.


With warfare in its 18th day, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returned to the Middle East to give Lebanese and Israeli leaders a refined U.S. package of proposals aimed at ending the violence.

Washington’s proposals appeared to try to take into account some elements from a new peace plan put forward late Thursday by the Lebanese government.

“The most important thing that this does for the process is that it shows a Lebanese government that is functioning as a Lebanese government,” Rice told reporters during a refueling stop in Qatar. “That is in and of itself extremely important.”

Rice plans to meet first with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem for talks on Saturday night, said Mark Regev, spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry. There was no immediate word on a stop in Beirut, but Rice’s visit to Lebanon earlier in the week was announced at the last minute for security reasons.

The U.S. peace plan calls for an international agreement on a U.N.-mandated multinational force to stabilize the region, according to a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions.


It proposes: disarming Hezbollah and integrating the guerrilla force into the Lebanese army; Hezbollah’s return of Israeli prisoners; and a buffer zone in southern Lebanon to put Hezbollah rockets out of range of Israel. It also seeks to address some demands from Lebanon: a commitment to resolve the status of a piece of land held by Israel and claimed by Lebanon; and the creation of an international reconstruction plan for Lebanon.

The United States is under increasing pressure to quickly find a way to end fighting that has killed hundreds, driven some 750,000 Lebanese from their homes and caused a humanitarian crisis. Israel’s offensive - launched after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a July 12 raid - has become an all-out attempt to end the guerrillas’ domination of south Lebanon.

Hezbollah on Thursday for the first time signed on to a Lebanese government peace plan calling for an international force in the south and the eventually disarming of the guerrillas. The plan falls short of Israeli and U.S. demands, however, and there was skepticism Hezbollah would fully agree to an international force.

Israeli Cabinet minister Avi Dichter said Saturday that it was unacceptable for Lebanon’s government “to hide behind the claim that a terror organization is operating on their ground and they cannot stop it.” He told Israeli radio that Israel holds the government fully accountable for what Hezbollah is doing there, and that “Lebanon is paying the full price these days.”

More humanitarian aid arrived Saturday by sea and by air, but was piling up in Beirut. Aid convoys fear Israeli bombardment, so only a trickle has reached the war zone in south Lebanon where tens of thousands of people are stranded with dwindling supplies of medicine, food, water.

Israeli strikes have come within hundreds of yards of the aid convoys making their way south this week, though no trucks have been hit so far - said officials from the international Red Cross, U.N. and other agencies.

Israel has promised safe passage for aid but on a convoy-by-convoy basis; 72-hour notice often is required, slowing the process considerably, the officials said.

Israel on Saturday rejected a U.N. request for a three-day cease-fire to get in supplies and allow civilians to leave the war zone.

Avi Pazner, an Israeli government spokesman, blamed Hezbollah guerrillas for blocking convoys, saying fighters were preventing the transfer of medical aid and of food ... to create a humanitarian crisis, which they want to blame Israel for,” he said.

The top U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, Mona Hammam, said convoys so far had encountered “no problems” from Hezbollah.

Earlier Saturday, bombardment by Israeli forces and rocket fire from guerrillas was intense around the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbail, Lebanese security officials said.

On Friday, the Israeli army said seven of its soldiers were wounded, including one seriously, when Hezbollah attacked a ridge overlooking Bint Jbail and the nearby village of Maroun al-Ras.

Israeli troops launched their assault on Bint Jbail on July 23, entering houses inside the town in heavy fighting. The military suffered its worst losses of the entire campaign Wednesday, with nine soldiers killed in ground fighting in and around the strategic town.

Taking Bint Jbail - the largest town near the border - would be a strong blow to Hezbollah, depriving it of a key stronghold and forcing it to find shelter in more vulnerable villages in the area. The mainly Shiite town is significant for Hezbollah: It is nicknamed “the capital of the resistance” for its vehement support for the Shiite guerrillas during the 1982-2000 Israeli occupation of the south.

At least 445 Lebanese have been killed in the fighting, most of them civilians. Some estimates range as high as 600 dead, with many bodies still buried in rubble.

Thirty-three Israeli soldiers have died in fighting, and Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel have killed 19 civilians, the Israeli army said. Israeli troops have killed about 200 Hezbollah guerrillas, the army said. Hezbollah has reported only 35 losses.

The United States, backed by Britain, has adopted a diplomatic stance not embraced by most allies, insisting that any cease-fire must come with conditions to address long-standing regional disputes.

Many Europeans and Arab countries are increasing the pressure for an immediate cease-fire first. There is general agreement an international force is needed in the south to end Hezbollah’s decade-long free reign there. Details about the force and its mandate are not resolved, but could be at the U.N. on Monday during a meeting called by President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair after a White House meeting Friday.

In the Arab world, the fighting has raised a groundswell of support for Hezbollah, which many Arab governments initially criticized for provoking the conflict.

In remarks published Saturday, Egypt’s Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa - one of the country’s most influential religious leaders - described Hezbollah strikes on Israel as “defense of its country and not terrorism.”

Egyptian cleric Sheik Youssef el-Qaradawi, a prominent Sunni religious scholar, issued an edict describing Hezbollah Shiites as “part of the Islamic nation” and saying support for the guerrillas was “a religious duty of every Muslim.”