With Lebanese fearing an escalation in the battle, international officials
worked to end the conflict.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was set to arrive in the Middle
East on Monday, though she ruled out a quick cease-fire as a "false promise."
US President Bush said his administration's diplomatic efforts would focus
on finding a strategy for confronting Hezbollah and its Syrian and Iranian
backers.
"Secretary Rice will make it clear that resolving the crisis demands
confronting the terrorist group that launched the attacks and the nations that
support it," Bush said in his weekly radio address.
Italy, which has been trying to mediate an end to the fighting, said it would
hold a conference Wednesday to work out the basis for a truce agreement. UN
Secretary-General
Kofi Annan has proposed a beefed-up UN force along
the Lebanese border, but Israel has called for the Lebanese army to take control
of the area.
Annan said the conflict had displaced at least 700,000 Lebanese so far, and
Israel's destruction of bridges and roads has made access to them difficult.
"I'm afraid of a major humanitarian disaster," he told CNN.
UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said it would take more than $100 million
to help the displaced. He said he would make an appeal "urging, begging" the
international community for contributions.
As part of an effort to avert such a crisis, Israel eased its blockade of
Lebanon's ports to allow the first shiploads of aid to arrive. It remained
unclear how that aid would get to the isolated towns and villages where the
fighting has been centered.
Israel has attacked mostly with airstrikes, but small units have crossed the
border in recent days and fought with Hezbollah fighters.
A far larger force of about 2,000 troops entered the area Saturday trying to
root out Hezbollah bunkers and destroy hidden rocket launchers.
The troops, backed by tanks and armored vehicles, raced past a U.N. outpost
and headed into Maroun al-Ras. Gunfire could be heard coming from the village,
and artillery batteries in Israel also fired into the area.
"The forces have completed, more or less, their control of the area of the
village, Maroun al-Ras, and made lots of hits against terrorists," said Maj.
Gen. Benny Gantz, chief of Israel's ground forces. "It was a difficult fight
that continued for not a short time."
Dozens of Hezbollah fighters were injured or killed in the battle, Gantz
said. Hezbollah said two of its fighters were killed Saturday, bringing the
total number of acknowledged Hezbollah fighters killed to eight. Israel accuses
the group of vastly underreporting its casualties.
The village was strategically important because it overlooked an area where
Hezbollah had command posts, Gantz said. The forces seized a cache of weapons
and rockets in a village mosque, he added. The village is believed to be a
launching point for the rocket attacks on northern Israel.
At one point, a half-ton bomb was dropped on a Hezbollah outpost, about 500
yards from the border and near the village. Other positions were bombarded by
Israeli gunboats off the coast.
About 32 residents took refuge at the UN observers post. Nearly the entire remaining population of the
village - which numbered about 2,300 before the crisis broke out -were believed to have
fled, Lebanese security officials said.
