Syria, blamed by the United States for stoking the conflict, warned that if
Israel invaded Lebanon it would have no choice but to respond.
"If Israel makes a land entry into Lebanon, they can get to within 20
kilometres (12 miles) of Damascus," Information Minister Moshen Bilal told the
Spanish newspaper ABC.
"What will we do? Stand by with our arms folded? Absolutely not. Without any
doubt Syria will intervene in the conflict."
Israel, which has called up thousands of reserve soldiers and massed its
troops on the border, seized control of the strategic town of Marun Al-Ras on
Saturday after sending tanks, bulldozers and armoured cars rolling across the
border.
A spokesman for UN peacekeepers said fighting was continuing Sunday in the
area, where five Israeli soldiers and several Hezbollah militiamen have been
killed in recent days.
But Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel did not plan on a widescale
invasion. "The ground operation is focusing on a limited entry of forces," he
told the cabinet. "We are not dealing with an invasion of Lebanon."
As international efforts to end the conflict gathered pace, there was growing
criticism of Israel's offensive, which has left Lebanon virtually cut off from
the world, made hundreds of thousands refugees in their own country and
destroyed billions of dollars of infrastructure.
"The whole thing has to stop. It's no natural disaster but a man-made crisis.
This is a senseless war. It should never have started. It should never have been
carried out like it is now," UN relief coordinator Jan Egeland said.
He was in Beirut to launch an appeal for millions of dollars in aid to help
the half million civilians displaced by what the
United Nations says has
created a "catastrophic" humanitarian situation.
But the White House said Saturday it was sticking to its policy.
"We are keeping to our adopted position. Israel has the right to defend
herself," a spokesman told AFP, as the United States was expediting an arms
shipment of precision bombs to Israel from an arms deal struck last year.
Justice Minister Haim Ramon said the aim of the offensive was to keep
Hezbollah -- which controls southern Lebanon in the absence of the regular
Lebanese army -- at least 20 kilometres (13 miles) from the frontier.
"For Israel, there are no longer civilians in southern Lebanon," Ramon
warned. "We want to uproot Hezbollah but in a prudent manner to prevent losses."
He said the current offensive would not match the magnitude of the 1982
invasion, which left about 20,000 people dead, traumatising Lebanon and plunging
Israel also into a lethal quagmire.
Lebanon's parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri said meanwhile that Hezbollah has
agreed to the Lebanese government dealing through a third party with Israel on a
prisoner swap involving the two Israeli soldiers.
