World

Israel Begins Lebanon Transfer

August 31, 2006 / 11:16 AM EDT / CBS/AP

The Israeli army said Thursday that it has transferred control over a portion of the Israel-Lebanon border to Lebanese and international troops for the first time in two decades.

At the same time, Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres confirmed Thursday that Israeli forces will begin withdrawing from southern Lebanon once the U.N. peacekeeping force there reaches 5,000 troops, Italian Premier Romano Prodi said after a meeting with Peres.

Meanwhile, about 60 governments and aid organizations meeting in Stockholm pledged more than $900 million to help Lebanon rebuild roads, bridges and homes left shattered by the war. Lebanon's prime minister said Israeli bombing wiped out "15 years of postwar development" in 34 days of fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas.

In other developments:

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said Thursday his government was not in contact with the Israeli government about a possible exchange of prisoners. Earlier Thursday he said his government was interested in seeing two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah returned in exchange for the release of Lebanese detainees.

An Israeli military court Thursday set Dec.12 as the date for the trial of two Palestinian Cabinet ministers, the speaker of the Palestinian parliament and 12 lawmakers seized in an Israeli roundup of prominent Hamas officials two months ago, after Hamas-linked militants attacked an army post near Gaza and captured an Israeli soldier. The Hamas officials were charged with membership and activity in an outlawed organization, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Israeli soldiers searching for tunnels and explosives withdrew from the outskirts of Gaza City on Thursday, ending a five-day operation that Palestinians said left 20 people dead and heavily damaged houses, streets and farmlands. The army has released footage and photos of what it described as a tunnel dug by militants.

The United States is donating 770 tons of wheat to Lebanon in a gesture of goodwill, the U.S. ambassador to Jordan said Thursday. The supply "demonstrates the goodwill of the American people to the people of Lebanon," the statement quoted ambassador David Hale as saying.

Lebanese and U.N. troops began taking up positions in southern Lebanon two weeks ago as part of a U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended 34 days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.

Before the war, Hezbollah had been effectively in charge of southern Lebanon, which they used as a base to launch sporadic attacks on Israel. When the fighting ended, Israeli troops occupied a security zone about 9 miles inside Lebanon. The army has been slowly transferring control of that zone to arriving Lebanese and U.N. troops since then.

On Wednesday, the army withdrew from a small area of the border near the Israeli town of Metulla, putting Lebanese and international troops in control of a section of the border for the first time in more than two decades, the army said Thursday.

A Lebanese security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said Israeli troops withdrew from the Kfar Chouba, Bastra and Chebaa village areas. The Lebanese army sent reconnaissance teams to the areas Thursday, and they had just begun deploying troops there.

"Shimon Peres confirmed to me that once the U.N. force in southern Lebanon reaches 5,000 units, the Israeli forces will begin the withdrawal," Italy's Prodi told reporters after his meeting with Peres.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had rebuffed a request Wednesday by visiting U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that Israel fully withdraw its forces once 5,000 of the expected 15,000 international troops were deployed.

The Israeli army did not say how many of its troops remained in Lebanon, but said it has been steadily pulling out and has evacuated more than two-thirds of the area it had occupied.

Foreign forces were heading toward Lebanon on Thursday to quickly join the U.N. mission.

A battalion of 1,000 Italian troops is expected on Saturday, in the largest addition so far to the growing U.N. peacekeeping force. The troops will arrive by ship in the coastal city of Tyre, U.N. spokesman Alexander Ivanko told The Associated Press. A second Italian contingent will arrive Sunday in the capital, Beirut.

A five-ship Italian fleet set off for Lebanon on Tuesday carrying Italian marines and engineering corps specialists, the vanguard of a 2,500-strong contingent Italy is contributing to the U.N. force.

French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said Thursday it will send its first troop battalion, and a shipment of tanks and heavy armor, to the international force next week.

Troops will leave the central French city of Orleans on Sept. 4 for the Mediterranean port of Toulon. They will arrive in southern Lebanon by ship on Sept. 10, and will be operational on Sept. 15, Alliot-Marie told a news conference.

France, which will initially lead the strengthened force, has about 400 troops in the UNIFIL force now and plans to expand that to 2,000.

At the Stockholm conference, Lebanese Economy Minister Sami Haddad said the most urgent need was 10,000 prefabricated houses for families whose homes were destroyed by Israeli bombing.

Swedish Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson said the amount pledged far exceeded the $500 million target for the donors' conference in Stockholm. "The conference has thus met its objective with a wide margin," he said.

U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown urged Israel to immediately lift its sea and air blockade, saying it was hampering relief efforts in Lebanon.

"Aid when there is a blockade is like putting someone on life support when there is a foot on their wind pipe," he said in a speech to delegates at the donors' conference.