http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/749914.html
Israel Defense Forces troops advancing toward a village in southern
Lebanon on Saturday. (AP)
Last update - 13:08 13/08/2006
One dead, 9 hurt in Hezbollah rocket attacks Sunday
24 IDF soldiers killed Saturday in south Lebanon
By Amos Harel, Yoav Stern and Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz
Correspondents, and Agencies
Hezbollah rocket crews and IAF warplanes carried out wide attacks
Sunday morning, a day after 24 Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed and
another 11 seriously wounded in heavy clashes Saturday with Hezbollah forces in
south Lebanon, the heaviest one-day Israeli casualty toll of the war.
The casualties followed a dramatic expansion of IDF ground
operations over the weekend.
On Sunday morning, Hezbollah fired a number of heavy rocket
barrages into northern Israel, killing one person and wounding at least nine.
The fatality occurred when a rocket crashed directly into a house in a
community near the western Galilee town of Shlomi. The victim was identified as
Mahdi Hiyat, 60.
In Safed, a woman was taken to hospital with moderate injuries and
eight more people suffered light wounds in the rocket attack on the town. Air
raid sirens were sounded throughout the north for further attacks.
Israeli warplanes fired missiles into gasoline stations in the
southern port city of Tyre on Sunday, and killed at least seven people in
other attacks, The Associated Press reported.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Israeli and Lebanese leaders
had agreed to a ceasefire from Monday and the United Nations was preparing to
deploy up to 15,000 troops to help enforce the truce.
IDF casualties in fighting on Saturday included five air crewmen
killed when their an Israel Air Force helicopter was shot down by Hezbollah
fire late Saturday, the IDF said. Hezbollah said the helicopter was struck by
an anti-tank missile.
The names of all but one of the IDF fatalities have been released.
Corporal Ya`ar Ben Giat, 19, of Kibbutz Nahsholim is to be buried
at 6.30 P.M. Sunday at the kibbutz' cemetery; Staff Sergeant Tzachi Krips, 20,
of Kibbutz Hama'apil is to be buried at 6.30 P.M. Sunday at the kibbutz'
cemetery.
Details of the funerals of the other soldiers are expected to be
released later in the day.
Under cover of intense artillery fire, IDF forces reached the
Litani River, which is some 20 to 30 kilometers inside Lebanon, military
officials said Saturday evening.
As part of the expanded operation, IAF helicopters dropped a large
number of Israeli troops deep inside Lebanese territory on Saturday, in the
largest operation of its kind since 1973.
IDF sources said more than 80 Hezbollah fighters had been killed in
the clashes over the weekend, at least 40 of them on Saturday.
Israel has nearly tripled the number of forces in Lebanon as part
of its expanded ground war, and expects to fight for another week, despite a
United Nations cease-fire resolution, IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said
Saturday.
Halutz said IDF troops would stay in Lebanon until an international
force arrives. "We have almost tripled our forces that are operating in
Lebanon," Halutz told reporters.
A top IDF official has said that the army will stop its offensive
as soon as it is ordered to do so by the political leadership and later it will
begin to retrace its steps to uncover any pockets of resistance that may remain
in the area.
UN Middle East envoy Alvaro de Soto told Reuters on Saturday the UN
force could begin deploying in seven to 10 days, suggesting there is still some
time before the "immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military
operations," as called for in the resolution.
An IDF spokeswoman said an IDF officer and two soldiers were killed
Saturday when Hezbollah fighters fired an anti-tank missile at their tank.
She said another soldier died when Hezbollah launched a similar
attack on a structure in the area where he and other troops had taken position.
Two soldiers from the Golani Brigade were killed in an accident
that occured when an IDF tank accidentally ran them over in the village of
Shakif-al-Amal in the East. Two other soldiers were wounded in the accident,
one seriously and the other lightly.
In the eastern section, one soldier was killed when an anti-tank
missile hit his tank close to the village of Kanatra. Another soldier was
killed when troops exchanged fire near the village of Hadata on the eastern
section.
Three other soldiers were seriously wounded in separate attacks on
tanks and an armored vehicle near the villages of Tyre and Dir Sirin.
With the expansion of the ground offensive in Lebanon, four
divisions were operating in south Lebanon and most of the activity was focused
in areas from where Hezbollah has been firing short-range rockets into Israel.
Sources in the IDF General Staff said four to seven days would be needed to
complete the occupation of the area.
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