****Israeli military officials said they had found "thousands" of
Katyusha rockets and other missiles hidden in well-camouflaged
underground bunkers but also in mosques, hospitals and schools. They
asserted that Iran was trying to send fresh supplies of ammunition
and rockets to Lebanon through Syria.
Israeli Forces Push Deeper in Lebanon
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By CRAIG S. SMITH
Published: July 23, 2006
YIRON, Israel, July 23 Israeli ground forces pushed deeper into
Lebanon today as Hezbollah answered with more rocket barrages.
Joao Silva for The New York Times
A deserted holiday resort near a burning fuel depot outside an
electrical power plant in the town of Jieh, south of Beirut, after
it was attacked twice by Israeli air strikes since the start of
hostilities.
Two people were killed when at least 13 rockets fell on Haifa,
Israel's third-largest city, bringing Israel's civilian death toll
in the 12-day-old conflict to 17.
Lebanon's civilian death toll also continued to climb, with at least
four people killed in the country today. Three died when Israeli
warplanes struck a minibus carrying 16 people who were fleeing the
fighting in southern Lebanon.
A Lebanese photographer, Layal Nejim, 23, became the first
journalist to die in the fighting when an Israeli missile hit near
the taxi in which she was riding in southern Lebanon, The Associated
Press reported. Ms. Nejim worked for the Lebanese magazine Al-Jaras.
Her taxi driver survived.
Meanwhile, The German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and
the French foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, were both in
Israel today for talks in hopes of finding a way to end the
fighting.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to arrive in Israel
on Monday for a private dinner with the Israeli foreign minister,
Tzipora Livni. Ms. Rice is scheduled to meet Mr. Olmert on Tuesday
before traveling to Ramallah in the West Bank, where she will meet
the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
Ms. Rice then plans to go to Rome for an international conference on
the Middle Eastern conflict.
The Israeli defense minister, Amir Peretz, said today that Israel
would accept a NATO-led international force to keep the peace along
its northern border.
He reiterated that the current offensive was not the start of a full-
scale invasion of Lebanon and that Israel's attacks would remain
confined to well-defined raids.
"The army's ground operation in Lebanon is focused on limited
entrances, and we are not talking about an invasion of Lebanon," Mr.
Peretz told the Israeli cabinet.
He said the military operations would complement "broad
international activity to complete the process" of subduing
Hezbollah and restoring security along Israel's northern border.
Brig. Gen. Shuki Shachar, chief of staff of the Israeli Army's
Northern Command, said that some ground forces had reached "the
depths" of Lebanon while at least three Lebanese villages Maroun
al-Ras in the east and Marwahin and Aita al-Shaab in the West were
now under Israeli control along the border with Israel.
Israel has not said how many ground troops it now has in Lebanon,
but the Israeli news media reported today that the number was now in
the thousands.
"We try to hit the enemy in every place we can identify him,"
General Shachar said, adding that Hezbollah remained strong in
Lebanon's north, its south and its eastern Bekka valley.
Tens of thousands of those people have fled north to the southern
Lebanese port of Sidon, which was attacked for the first time in the
current conflict by Israeli warplanes today. Four people were
wounded in the attack, which targeted a Hezbollah-related religious
center.
Israeli warplanes and helicopters attacked Hezbollah positions in
and around the eastern Bekaa Valley town of Baalbek and bombed a
textile factory in the border town of al-Manara. One person was
killed and two wounded in that attack, The Associated Press reported.
General Shacher defended the Lebanese civilian death toll, saying it
was light considering that Israel fighter aircraft and attack
helicopters have made 1,500 flights over Lebanon and that Israel has
fired more than 20,000 artillery rounds into the country in the last
12 days.
"This is a war and in war sometimes there are mistakes," General
Shacher said, noting that it is particularly difficult to avoid
civilian casualties when fighting a guerilla force mixed in an
indigenous population.
Israel has been warning the civilian population to living south of
the Litani River in Lebanon to move north in order to avoid getting
caught in the ground assault. "The reason for the evacuation of the
population is to leave us open space and an open area to hit
military and terrorist targets and not to deal with the problem of
civilians," Gen. Shachar said.
Israeli military officials said they had found "thousands" of
Katyusha rockets and other missiles hidden in well-camouflaged
underground bunkers but also in mosques, hospitals and schools. They
asserted that Iran was trying to send fresh supplies of ammunition
and rockets to Lebanon through Syria.
Israeli troops in Maroun al-Ras are now fighting Hezbollah forces in
the larger town of Bint Jabel, a few miles deeper into the country.
An Italian soldier, Capt. Roberto Punzo, working with the United
Nations observer team in southern Lebanon, was wounded by Hezbollah
gunfire. He was evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in Haifa.
Meanwhile, the missiles continued to fall close to the border. The
northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona was engulfed in dense white
smoke by brush fires started by rockets, most of which fall in
forests and fields of this sparsely populated area. Yellow crop-
dusters circled overhead dropping red fire suppressant.
The Israeli military said Hezbollah had fired nearly 90 rockets on
northern Israel by this afternoon and was showing no slackening of
the pace in recent days.
Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, fired a dozen
smaller Qassam rockets into southern Israel today without causing
serious damage. The attacks suggested that the Palestinian Authority
had failed in its reported attempt to broker a unilateral cease-fire
among the militants.
The United Nations' top humanitarian official, Jan Egeland, toured
the destruction in Beirut, Lebanon, and said that it would take
billions of dollars to repair damage.
Mr. Egeland was expected to travel later to Israel to help
coordinate the delivery of humanitarian aid. As many as 600,000
people have been displaced by the fighting, according to the World
Health Organization.
The Israeli military announced that humanitarian aid could enter
Lebanon through Beirut's port and from there would be transferred to
regional aid centers across Lebanon, in coordination with its
forces. It did not specify how aid would reach the south where the
fighting has been the heaviest and the aid is most needed.
The Lebanese foreign minister, Fawzi Salloukh, who maintains strong
ties to Hezbollah, said today that the two Israeli soldiers whose
kidnapping set off the Lebanon conflict are in good health. A
Lebanese government spokesman said the prisoners were still with
Hezbollah.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel today accused much of the
international news media of bias in its reporting of the war,
complaining that the "murderous viciousness" of Hezbollah was not
being portrayed. "A twisted image is presented, where the victim is
presented as an aggressor," he said.
--- In [email protected], "Ambon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> http://news.netster.com/story.asp?id=D8J1TKCG0
>
> Israeli Troops: Hezbollah a Tough Enemy
>
>
> 4:20 PM EST July 23, 2006
> The Associated Press
> ON THE ISRAEL-LEBANON BORDER
> Israeli soldiers returning from the front in Lebanon talk of
battling an intelligent, well-prepared and ruthless guerrilla army
whose fighters don't seem to fear death.
>
> The troops describe Hezbollah guerrillas hiding among
civilians and in underground bunkers two or three stories deep _
evidence, they say, that Hezbollah has been planning this battle for
many years.
>
> "It's hard to beat them," one soldier said. "They're not
afraid of anything."
>
> The soldiers, most of whom declined to give their names
under orders from superiors, described exchanges of gunfire in
between houses on village streets, with Hezbollah guerrillas
sometimes popping out of bushes to fire Kalashnikovs, rocket-
propelled grenades and anti-tank missiles.
>
> The troops' comments underscored the enormous challenges
faced by Israel as it seeks to neutralize Hezbollah, which captured
two Israeli soldiers in a brazen cross-border raid on July 12,
provoking a fierce Israeli response.
>
> Despite Israel's enormous firepower that it says has already
killed about 100 Hezbollah fighters, some military analysts say the
war isn't going particularly well for the Jewish state, which is
encountering tougher than expected resistance. It has been unable to
push the guerrillas back significantly or stop hundreds of their
rockets from slamming into northern Israel.
>
> For the past few days Israel has been fighting for control
of the tiny southern Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras, located on a
hilltop less than 500 yards across the border. The army said it had
a significant presence in the village, but gunfire and the blasts of
artillery shells could still be heard on Sunday as tanks and
helicopters pounded positions inside.
>
> Officers at the scene confirmed there was still fighting to
do.
>
> "They're not fighting like we thought they would," one
soldier said. "They're fighting harder. They're good on their own
ground."
>
> One soldier said the guerrillas wore olive green army
uniforms "to confuse us" because Israelis wear the same. Others said
Hezbollah hid underground in reinforced bunkers until they thought
it safe to come out and attack. The Israelis prefer to stay away
from those bunkers, the soldiers said, instead calling in
coordinates so forces massed behind the border can hit them with
guided missiles.
>
> "It will take the summer to beat them," said Michael
Sidorenko, 21, resting in the shade of a road sign with other combat
troops. On the hills behind him, loud gunfire and the constant thud
of explosions could be heard.
>
> "They're not normal soldiers, you know," Sidorenko
said. "They're guerrillas. They're very smart."
>
> Sidorenko said he saw Hezbollah fighters firing from behind
Lebanese civilians.
>
> "That's why our soldiers are getting killed," he said.
>
> Of the 19 soldiers killed so far since fighting began, five
have died trying to gain control of Maroun al-Ras.
>
> To avoid more deaths, Israel has decided to limit its ground
incursions to pinpoint operations near the border _ a policy that
military analysts say may well be insufficient to achieve Israel's
goal of pushing Hezbollah back and destroying its ability to attack
Israel.
>
> Not every soldier described Hezbollah as fierce. One said
that when Israeli troops show up in vehicles, the guerrillas "run
like chickens."
>
> Others wondered why Hezbollah had not yet attacked the
nearly two-dozen army vehicles and hundreds of troops camped out in
easy striking range below the hill on which Maroun al-Ras sits.
>
> Most believed the guerrillas would rather aim their rockets
at major Israeli population centers such as Haifa.
>
> A core group of a few hundred Israeli soldiers, including
paratroopers, have carried out most of the fighting in Maroun al-
Ras. Sunday's action mainly involved Israelis firing artillery
rounds onto spots on the hill, and armored carriers bringing
supplies to the troops.
>
> One young man said the delivery duty can be harrowing
because you never know where and when the next round of fire will
hit.
>
> "It's crazy over there," said Alon Williams, 20, a bright-
eyed tank driver who immigrated from South Africa.
>
> The soldiers said Hezbollah has refrained from attacking
them as they approached Maroun al-Ras in tanks and armored personnel
carriers, preferring instead to let Israelis reach the village and
then attack them there.
>
> The fighting, they said, showed the guerrillas had used the
six years since Israel withdrew from Lebanon to build bunkers,
stockpile weapons and study tactics.
>
> "They have good knowledge about where we are, what we're
doing, what kinds of weapons we have," Sidorenko said.
>
> But it's better to fight them now than later, when they'd be
even stronger, he said.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
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