Israel To Widen Ground War
Israel's Security Cabinet voted Wednesday to broaden the ground offensive in Lebanon, with key ministers arguing that the military must deal more blows to Hezbollah and score quick battlefield victories before a Mideast cease-fire is imposed.
Just hours later, a column of Israeli tanks and armored vehicles was seen crossing into southern Lebanon from the Israeli town of Metulla, invading under covering artillery fire and air strikes.
However, the military will hold off on the new offensive for two or three days to allow the U.N. Security Council to continue its debate for a cease-fire resolution, according to one of the ministers in the meeting.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said earlier Wednesday that no progress had been made to end four weeks of fighting and he does not expect United Nations action in the next two days.
In his first comments since the draft U.N. resolution was unveiled on Sunday, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said Wednesday that the U.S.-French draft cease-fire plan was "unfair and unjust."
"It has given Israel more than it wanted and more than it was looking for," he said in a speech televised on all local and regional television networks.
In other developments:
The Israeli government realizes an increase in the ground offensive could mean many more Israeli casualties above the approximately 70 solders already killed, reports CBS News correspondent Robert Berger. The plan is to push up the Litani River, some 18 miles from the Israeli border. Troops would stay there until the arrival of an international force.
At present, Israeli troops are battling Hezbollah only about 4 miles inside Lebanon.
A cabinet minister said the operation is expected to take 30 days. "I think it is wrong to make this assessment. I think it will take a lot longer," cabinet minister Eli Yishai said.
However, the decision to send troops deeper into Lebanon could lead to criticism that Israeli is sabotaging diplomatic efforts, particularly after Lebanon offered to deploy its own troops in the border area.
And a wider ground offensive might do little to stop Hezbollah rocket fire on Israel. So far, more than 3,333 rockets have fallen in the Holy Land.
During the Israeli cabinet meeting, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the two spoke for half an hour, a Cabinet minister said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal the contents of the call.
When Olmert returned to the meeting, he announced that a new diplomatic process would begin simultaneous to the military operation and that a new U.N. Security Council resolution to end the fighting would be drafted to try to address Lebanon's concerns, the minister said.
The decision gave authorization to Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Olmert to order the wider offensive and to decide its timing. However, it did not obligate them to act.
Stepping up the military campaign appeared to have strong support from the public: CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reports more than 90 percent supports what the military and the government are doing. "They say they should get in there and clean this whole thing up."
The ministers met a day after the commander of Israeli forces in Lebanon was sidelined in an unusual mid-war shake-up — another sign of the growing dissatisfaction with the military, which has been unable to stop Hezbollah's daily rocket barrages.
The army denied it was dissatisfied with Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, but military commentators said the commander was seen as too slow and cautious. The deputy chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky, was appointed to oversee the Lebanon fighting.
"On the eve of the crucial stage of the fighting, (chief of staff Lt. Gen. Dan) Halutz felt he had no choice but to make this change," military analyst Amir Oren told Israel Radio, adding that Adam had been too "slow and cautious."
More than 10,000 Israeli soldiers have been fighting several hundred Hezbollah guerrillas in a four-mile stretch north of the border, but have faced fierce resistance.
Israeli soldiers returning from the front say that Hezbollah fight hard, are well-organized and well dug-in, reports Pizzey. "The Israelis are up against an enemy like they haven't fought for a long time."
In attacks Wednesday, Israel's military struck Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, killing at least two people and wounding five, officials said. In the eastern Bekaa Valley five people were killed and two feared dead in an Israeli raid.
Israeli air strikes leveled a two-story building in Mashghara early Wednesday, trapping seven people from the same family under debris, security officials said. Five bodies were pulled out and the remaining two relatives were feared dead, officials said.
The family's sole survivor was the 80-year-old father, Ahmed Ibrahim Sader, who suffered serious wounds, they said.
Israelis interviewed by CBS News almost all say how badly they feel for Lebanese civilians, reports Pizzey, but they blame Hezbollah for the casualties.
Israeli warplanes Wednesday dropped leaflets over the southern port city of Tyre again, and over Beirut proper for the first time. The identical flyers criticized Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, saying he was "playing with fire" and that the Lebanese people were "paying the price."
Diplomatic efforts were moving slowly. Saniora told reporters there were contacts on several fronts to end the violence but "there is nothing new so far."
Asked if he expects the U.N. Security Council to issue a resolution on Wednesday, he said "I don't expect a resolution will be issued today or tomorrow." He was speaking after meeting with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch.
Israeli Cabinet ministers said there's no guarantee a cease-fire deal would, in fact, neutralize Hezbollah. Israel is particularly skeptical of a Lebanese proposal to dispatch 15,000 soldiers to south Lebanon after a cease-fire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
"We will not agree to a situation in which the diplomatic solution will not promise us stability and quiet for many years," Peretz told visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Diplomatic efforts to end the war have been stop-and-go, and Lebanon's proposal to deploy troops on the border appeared to have taken Israel by surprise.
Israel has long demanded a deployment of Lebanese forces in the border area, but only coupled with a serious effort by the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah. Israel believes Lebanese forces are not strong or determined enough to do the job alone, and would like to see a multinational force in the area, as well.