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BEIRUT, July 20: Four Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes with Hezbollah inside Lebanon on Thursday after Israel sent in ground forces across the border in the latest phase of its campaign to crush the Lebanese group.
Israeli troops battled Lebanese guerrillas on Thursday, the ninth day of a conflict that has killed more than 300 people and set alarm bells ringing about the risk of a humanitarian catastrophe.
With no sign the international community is closer to brokering a ceasefire, UN chief Kofi Annan blamed the Hezbollah for the latest outbreak of violence, but also slammed Israel’s ‘excessive use of force’ in response.
Over 70 people were killed in Lebanon on Wednesday — the highest single-day toll since the offensive was launched, sending thousands of Lebanese streaming from their homes to find safe havens.
Thousands of foreigners, mainly westerners, were also being evacuated by sea from Beirut to the neighbouring Mediterranean island of Cyprus, fleeing an offensive that has now killed nearly 330 people in Lebanon and displaced an estimated half a million others.
A US amphibious warship took aboard more than 1,000 people and departed Beirut without incident in the first major military-run evacuation of US citizens from Lebanon.
Under cover of darkness, Israeli warplanes swung into action over south Beirut, dropping 20 tons of bombs on a suspected Hezbollah leadership bunker in the group’s stronghold, although it appeared to ease off from its usual intensive air bombardments across the country.
Hezbollah denied any members had been killed and said the building hit was a mosque.
Defence Minister Amir Peretz warned that Israel would launch a full-scale ground operation if it considered it necessary.
“Let no terror organisation feel we would cower from any operation,” he said. “We have no intention of conquering Lebanon, but... we will do it without thinking twice.”
Israel has made no secret of its desire to liquidate Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and has already launched air raids destroying his offices and residence during its blistering campaign.
Mr Annan pressed for an ‘immediate’ end to the Lebanon fighting and floated a settlement plan that would involve the early release of two captured Israeli soldiers and the deployment of a stabilisation force.
The international community was bracing for a humanitarian disaster in Lebanon, where food and medical supplies are running short because of an Israeli air and sea blockade.
Israel has put the only international airport out of action, bombed houses, roads, bridges, factories, warehouses and even trucks, creating scenes reminiscent of the country’s devastating 1975-1990 civil war.
“The most basic human rights of the population are at risk or are being violated, including their rights to life, health and food,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said, warning that perpetrators in the conflict could be held to account for war crimes.
International diplomatic efforts to end the bloodshed have yet to get off the ground, with Israel’s chief ally the United States refusing to back calls for a ceasefire until Hezbollah halts its rocket attacks.
2 CHILDREN DIE: In the latest Hezbollah attack in Israel, two Arab Israeli children were killed and 37 people wounded when a Katyusha rocket exploded in Nazareth, the town where Jesus Christ grew up.
Twenty-nine Israelis, including 14 soldiers, have been killed since a Hezbollah attack on July 12 in which two soldiers were captured.
Israel, which has sent ground troops back into Lebanon for the first time since it ended its occupation in May 2000, has been emboldened by strong public support at home and the lack of a ceasefire call from its ally Washington.
DOUBTS EMERGING: But even in Israel, doubts were emerging about the effectiveness of an offensive that has failed to stop Hezbollah fire, eliminate its leadership or push fighters back from the border.
Israel also pressed on with its air, sea and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip, where nearly 100 people have been killed in two weeks, and warned civilians that homes storing weaponry were now targets.
Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire and another 17 wounded, seven of them fighters from the armed wing of the governing Hamas movement.
Horrific scenes of bloodied children with severe shrapnel wounds being rushed to casualty in the neighbouring Deir al-Balah refugee camp were witnessed by a photographer after an Israeli shelling on Maghazi.
Although similar leaflets have been dropped on Gaza before, it was the most explicit warning that civilians’ homes could be directly targeted in a campaign that has already killed at least 98 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier.
EXODUS: In Beirut, the exodus of foreigners from Lebanon picked up pace, with Western nations increasing the flow of evacuations and other countries such as India and the Philippines starting to bring out their nationals.
For many ordinary Lebanese there is little chance of such a rescue and police said some 70 per cent of the population of south Lebanon had fled their homes to find safer places.—AFP
