Israel appears to have decided that a large-scale incursion across the border
was the only way to push Hezbollah back after 10 days of the heaviest
bombardment of Lebanon in 24 years failed to do so. But mounting civilian
casualties and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese could limit
the amount of time Israel has to achieve its goals, as international tolerance
for the bloodshed and destruction runs out.
Top Israeli officials met Thursday night to decide how big a force to send
in, according to senior military officials. They said Israel won't stop its
offensive until Hezbollah is forced behind the Litani River, 20 miles north of
the border - creating a new buffer zone in a region that saw 18 years of
Israeli presence since 1982.
Israel has stepped up its small forays over the border in recent days,
seeking Hezbollah positions, rocket stores and bunkers. Each time it has faced
tough resistance from the guerrillas.
Airstrikes left three passenger buses in flames in the Bekaa Valley near the
Syrian border, on the road linking Beirut and Damascus, but police said nobody
was hurt. The buses had just dropped off foreign passengers in Syria.
Israeli warplanes also fired four missiles that caused the collapse of part
of a 1.6 mile-long bridge linking two steep mountain peaks, part of the
Beirut-Damascus highway in central Lebanon. The bridge has been hit several
times since the fighting began.
Also Friday, heavy black smoke billowed as Israeli warplanes renewed attacks
on the ancient city of Baalbek - a major Hezbollah stronghold. Warplanes
also attacked Hezbollah strongholds in south Beirut and elsewhere overnight.
The Arab satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera said one person had been killed in
south Beirut and another wounded, but the report could not be immediately
confirmed by security officials.
The U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the situation, said an artillery shell fired by the Israeli
Defense Force "impacted a direct hit on the U.N. position overlooking Zarit."
An Israeli Defense Force spokesman said the position was hit by rockets fired
by Hezbollah guerrillas at northern Israel. The differing accounts could not
immediately be reconciled.
In 1996, during an Israeli air and artillery offensive against Lebanon,
artillery blasted a U.N. base at Qana in southern Lebanon, killing more than 100
Lebanese civilians who had taken refuge with the peacekeepers.
The U.N. mission, which has nearly 2,000 military personnel and more than 300
civilians, is to patrol the border line, known as the Blue Line, drawn by the
United Nations after Israel withdrew its troops from south Lebanon in 2000,
ending an 18-year occupation.
