Israel attacks in last hours before truce

Martin Chulov / The Australian | August 13 2006

ISRAELI troops were last night trying to eliminate as many Hezbollah guerillas as possible before a UN-brokered ceasefire took effect at 8am (3pm AEST) today in southern Lebanon.

As Hezbollah rockets crashed into the northern city of Haifa and the Israeli cabinet approved UN Security Council resolution 1701, warplanes pounded southern Beirut with at least 20 missiles in two minutes, and up to 30,000 troops pushed about 20km into southern Lebanon.

The armoured advance and the biggest paratroop assault since the 1973 Yom Kippur War came despite the Israeli army suffering its deadliest day since the offensive began on July 12, losing 24 soldiers on Saturday.

Israel and Hezbollah are expected to abide by the UN-brokered truce to end the five weeks of savage fighting. But Hezbollah's politburo was last night opposing leader Hassan Nasrallah's acceptance of the ceasefire terms, insisting it would never agree to the resolution's demand that the 2000-strong Shia militia disarm south of the Litani River.

The Lebanese Government, which includes two Hezbollah ministers, unanimously approved the resolution, which also calls for an international stabilisation force to be sent to Lebanon within two weeks and for Israeli forces to withdraw at the same time. Israeli officials said the withdrawal could take up to 10 days.

Ahead of last night's cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he would order a stand-down at 8am Jerusalem time.

Hours after lambasting the Security Council for taking a month to negotiate a ceasefire, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he had expected fighting to stop immediately.

"Preferably, the fighting should stop now to respect the spirit and intent of the council decision, the object of which was to save civilian lives, to spare the pain and suffering that the civilians on both sides are living through," he said.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Israel's decision not to lower its weapons immediately gave its military a blank cheque to continue pounding Lebanon and targeting civilians.

Israeli sources last night indicated they would agree to release up to 20 Hezbollah prisoners captured during the war in return for sergeants Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, whose kidnapping by the Shia militia on July 12 triggered the Israeli offensive.

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