Americans Line Up To Leave Lebanon

(CBS/AP)  American citizens who want to be evacuated from the war zone that Lebanon now is - with the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Islamic militant group Hezbollah - lined up near the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and were bused to a cruise ship waiting in the harbor.

Women carrying backpacks and clutching their children, and others pushing strollers walked from buses to The Orient Queen ship where the crew welcomed them.

The group of about 200, which represents only some of the Americans who are still in Lebanon, will first be evacuated to Cyprus before being flown to Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

As Americans waited to be bused to the ship for the first large scale evacuation – about 1,000 are expected to leave on Wednesday - a small number of Israeli troops crossed over into southern Lebanon, searching for tunnels and landmines, and a loud explosion was heard in southern Beirut - apparently an Israeli airstrike.

Also early Wednesday - heavy fighting is reported in the Lebanese border town of Avivim, and witnesses in Israel said they believe they saw an Israeli soldier forced into a vehicle in a possible kidnapping - a report that has yet to be confirmed or denied by authorities.

The U.S. says there are no plans to put U.S. Marines ashore in Beirut for security unless conditions change.

As many as nine other U.S. and coalition ships are enroute to the region, including vessels from the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy. Some of the U.S. ships will take passengers to Cyprus while others will provide escorts and protection for the larger commercial vessels ferrying the Americans out of Lebanon.

Israel said Tuesday it is prepared to fight Hezbollah guerrillas for several more weeks, a statement which raises doubt about the chances of growing international efforts to broker an immediate ceasefire.

Diplomatic efforts to end the fighting continued Tuesday. A U.N. mediation team met with Israeli leaders, a day after speaking with Lebanese officials in Beirut.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who met with the delegation, said a ceasefire is impossible unless the soldiers captured last week by Hezbollah are released and Lebanese troops are deployed along the border with a guarantee that Hezbollah will be disarmed.

Livni's comments suggest that Israel will not insist that Hezbollah, a Shiite militia that controls southern Lebanon and routinely launches rockets into Israel, be disarmed before any ceasefire deal can take effect.

Fighting between Israel and Lebanese guerrillas has stretched into an eighth day. The fighting has killed more than 200 people in Lebanon and 25 in Israel.

More than 750 rockets have hit Israel since the violence began, forcing hundreds of thousands of Israelis to take cover in underground shelters.

"We have no choice," Kineret Sason told CBS News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, as she huddled in a shelter in Nahariya where Israelis trying to avoid the rockets have been living for about a week without running water or air conditioning. Twice while Alfonsi was there, some from the group tried to leave the shelter, and both times within minutes another rocket would hit, driving them back and heightening the panic.


In other recent developments:

CBS News Chief Foreign correspondent Lara Logan report Hezbollah guerrillas fired a new barrage of rockets into northern Israel Tuesday afternoon, killing a man as he ran toward a bomb shelter in the town of Nahariya and setting fire to the top of a two-story apartment building. An earlier rocket hit the Haifa train station - the same place where a rocket hit two days ago and killed eight people.

Israeli military action continues in Gaza, where Israeli tanks early Wednesday began moving into the Mughazi refugee camp, under cover of machine gun fire from troops.

Israeli warplanes Tuesday struck an army base outside Beirut and other areas in south Lebanon, killing 17 people, and Hezbollah rockets battered Israeli towns, killing one Israeli.

In the Lebanese border village of Aitaroun, witnesses say at least five people were killed when a bomb hit a house. Also Tuesday, Israeli warplanes struck the Hezbollah stronghold of southern Beirut, hitting four trucks Israel says were bringing weapons into Lebanon. "That is intolerable terrorist activity," said Capt. Jacob Dallal, an Israeli army spokesman. "They are using civilian infrastructure to bring in weapons, which they are using against us and killing Israelis, and we will exercise our right of self defense to stop the flow of weapons into Lebanon."

An Israeli airstrike hit a Lebanese military base at Kfar Chima, killing at least 11 soldiers and wounding 35 others. Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr denounced the strike as a "massacre," saying the regiment's main job was to help rebuilt damaged infrastructure.

Israelis strongly support the military operation against Hezbollah. A poll published in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot shows 86 percent believe the operation is justified, 81 percent want it to continue and 58 percent say it should last until Hezbollah is destroyed. The poll of 513 Israelis had a margin of error of 4.2 percent.

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