'Extreme' Israeli Operation Underway
Lebanese army and security officials said a major Israel operation was underway against suspected Hezbollah positions near Baalbeek in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, with one officer saying the Israeli presence in the air above the ancient city was "unprecedented."
The operation began with at least five rapid air strikes three hours before the end of Israel's self-imposed two-day pause in air attacks.
"The extreme, unprecedented number of aircraft indicates the possibility that the Israeli's are planning to land troops, but we cannot yet confirm that," said one security official on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Earlier, Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Israel will step up its air strikes in Lebanon once the 48-hour cooling-off period ends at 7 p.m. EDT.
It may be hard for some Lebanese to tell: Israeli jets pounded Shiite villages in Lebanon on Tuesday, and also struck Hezbollah strongholds deep inside the country and other civilian areas along the Mediterranean coast.
Heavy fighting on the ground raged Tuesday in the Lebanese border village of Aita al-Shaab, and Hezbollah television said 35 Israeli soldiers had been killed or wounded in the fighting, three on Tuesday.
There was no confirmation from Israel, but defense minister Amir Peretz said the war has gotten to a "very important stage," reports CBS News correspondent Dan Raviv. Without giving details, Peretz said Israel is paying a very high price.
But Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that Israel was "winning the battle" against Hezbollah. He was responding to criticism that the army had failed to stop Hezbollah from firing rockets into Israel. "Nobody promised that at the end of this war there would be no missiles left that could reach us," he said.
Officials say Israel's expanded ground offensive in Lebanon could last 10 days to two weeks, reports CBS News correspondent Robert Berger. The plan is to move up to the Litani River, at least 12 miles from the Israeli border, and drive Hezbollah fighters out. Israel would hold the territory until an international force takes over.
Some wonder why the offensive has taken so long, reports CBS News correspondent Sharon Alfonsi. In 1982, Israeli ground troops seized all of southern Lebanon in 48 hours. This time, it's taken three weeks and Hezbollah is still holding ground and fighting hard.
"The United States is disappointed by the performance of the Israeli military," military analyst Amir Oren told Alfonsi. "It has been less than expected. Nevertheless, U.S. wants Israel to push on."
In other developments:
Arab satellite channels carried live pictures as Israeli forces poured in a relentless bombardment of artillery shells on Aita al-Shaab, the town from which Hezbollah guerrillas crossed the border on July 12 and captured two Israeli soldiers and killed three others, igniting the conflict.
Al-Manar TV, the Hezbollah-run channel, reported that guerrilla fighters had Israeli forces pinned down and unable to evacuate their wounded. That apparently prompted the heavy renewed fighting. Huge clouds of smoke rose above the village and artillery concussions echoed across the valleys.
The Hezbollah television said fighters had ambushed Israeli soldiers near the town's main school building.
Israel believes it has killed around 300 of the 2,000 Hezbollah fighting men in Lebanon, reports Raviv. The army had wanted four to six weeks for this operation to weaken Hezbollah; Wednesday will mark three weeks.
Israeli forces are about where they want to be, Ramon said on Israel's private Channel 10. Hezbollah is weakened.
Not so, said a Christian Lebanese who used to run the pro-Israeli militia in Marjayoun, South Lebanon in the 1980s.
"Hezbollah has won, because they might get thrown north — away from the border — but they'll always claim a victory because they killed a lot of Israelis and frightened Israeli civilian towns," he said.
"Israel isn't necessarily in a big hurry to see a peace deal and we have to hope that they can be talked into a quicker decision to accept an international force before Hezbollah, in turn, changes its position and then goes ahead and decides it no longer will tolerate this international force," Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution said on CBS News' The Early Show. "The whole thing could fall apart."
The key for U.S. relations with the Arab world, says O'Hanlon, is getting the international peacekeeping force in place as soon as possible.
"At first, the Arab world seemed to tolerate some kind of Israeli response against Hezbollah, which people saw as the cause of the problem," he told co-anchor Julie Chen. "But that's gone and at this point, the Arab world really feels Israel has gone too far and the U.S. has gone way too far in essentially giving blanket endorsement of what Israel has wanted to do."
President Bush is pressing for a United Nations resolution linking a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon with a broader plan for peace in the Middle East, despite rising international pressure for a simple no-strings-attached halt to the fighting.
"We want there to be a long-lasting peace, one that is sustainable," Mr. Bush said in a speech in Miami Monday.
However, the Bush administration's resistance to a simple and immediate cease-fire was losing support around the world.