Israeli troops, Hezbollah clash in Lebanon
Guerilla rockets kill two in Nazareth; Israeli planes strike targets in Beirut
Ali Hashisho / Reuters
Lebanese women walk by a building which was damaged by an Israeli aristrike near Sidon, in south Lebanon, on Wednesday.
JERUSALEM - Israeli troops clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas on the Lebanese side of the border Wednesday, while warplanes flattened buildings and killed at least 20 people overnight as fighting entered its second week with the U.S. signaling it will not push Israel toward a fast cease-fire.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah showered northern Israel with rockets on Wednesday, killing two people in the mainly Arab town of Nazareth, Israeli authorities said.
The two were killed by a direct hit from a Katyusha rocket, the army said. Nazareth, in northern Israel, is revered as the hometown of Jesus and is filled with churches. It is about 19 miles from the Lebanese border.
Previous attacks during the eight days of rocket barrage have hit the nearby Jewish town of Upper Nazareth, but the latest wave was the first to hit a holy city.
More Hezbollah rockets fell on the Israeli city of Haifa and one hit an empty seafront restaurant. A few people were hurt.
'Measured' incursion into Lebanon
With diplomatic efforts stalled, Israel said Wednesday that its airstrikes had destroyed "about 50 percent" of the arsenal of Hezbollah, whose guerrillas have bombarded northern Israeli towns with rockets that have killed 13 civilians in the past eight days.
"It will take us time to destroy what is left," Brig. Gen. Alon Friedman, a senior army commander, told Israeli Army Radio.
Military officials said Israeli troops crossed the border in search of tunnels and weapons. Hezbollah claimed to have "repelled" Israeli forces near the coastal border town of Naqoura. Casualties were reported on both sides.
The Israeli army confirmed there were clashes with Hezbollah in the border area and some Israelis had suffered casualties. The army would not elaborate. Hezbollah's Al-Manar television channel reported that two Israeli soldiers had been killed and three wounded, but that could not be confirmed.
Israel, which has mainly limited itself to attacks from the air and sea, had been reluctant to send in ground troops because Hezbollah is far more familiar with the terrain and because of memories of Israel's ill-fated 18-year-occupation of south Lebanon that ended in 2000.
Israeli military officials said that, for several days, small numbers of their soldiers have going in and out of south Lebanon looking for Hezbollah bases and weapons. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not give the exact number of troops involved or their location.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, stressed the incursion was not large scale and would not last long.
"This is an operation which is very measured, very local," Gillerman told CNN. "This is no way an invasion of Lebanon. This is no way the beginning of any kind of occupation of Lebanon."
Rice: 'Lasting value' cease-fire
The Bush administration also has refused to yield to international calls to press Israel for a prompt end to it campaign against the Hezbollah militia.
Instead, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is trying to drum up support for what she called a cease-fire of “lasting value.” That is, one that would have the Lebanese army take over the south of the country where Hezbollah guerrillas have conducted a cross-border war against Israel for years.
Rice is likely to make a trip to the area this weekend, but no announcement has been made. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack would only say Wednesday that her trip would come “in the near future” and told CNN the timing would depend upon “when she thinks it’s most useful and most effective.”
Israel also said Wednesday it did not plan to target Hezbollah's main sponsors, Iran and Syria, during the current fighting.
"We will leave Iran to the world community, and Syria as well," Vice Premier Shimon Peres told Army Radio. "It's very important to understand that we are not instilling world order."
The Israeli airstrikes late Tuesday and early Wednesday killed at least 20 people, bringing to 246 the number of people killed in Lebanon since the fighting began on July 12, when Hezbollah guerrillas raided an Israeli border outpost and kidnapped two soldiers. The overall figures were provided by the police control center, but they did not give a breakdown of the attacks.
Twenty-five Israelis have been killed in Israel in the past eight days.
Five people were killed when a missile struck a neighborhood in the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh, police and hospital officials said. The target was a commercial office of a firm belonging to Hezbollah, but those killed were residents.
The bodies of three members of the Hamed family and a Sri Lankan maid were retrieved from the destroyed building. A fifth body remained under the debris.
In the village of Srifa, near Tyre in southern Lebanon, the airstrikes flattened 15 houses. The village's headman, Hussein Kamaledine, said 25 to 30 people lived in the houses, but it was not known if they were at home at the time. Many people have fled southern Lebanon.
In the southern village of Ghaziyeh, one person was killed and two were wounded when a missile struck a nearby building that housed a Hezbollah-affiliated social institution.
In the eastern Bekaa Valley, four people were killed and three were wounded in an air raid on the village of Loussi, police said.
Targets around Beirut hit
Israeli planes continued their strikes on Beirut on Wednesday, hitting a Christian suburb on the eastern side of the city for the first time.
The target was a truck-mounted machine used to drill for water but which could have been mistaken for a missile launcher. The vehicle, parked in an empty lot in Ashrafieh, was destroyed but no one was hurt.
The planes also hit the southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, causing one explosion that reverberated across the city much louder than any previous impact in the eight days of fighting.
More Israeli missiles landed in two towns outside Beirut — Chuweifat and Hadath. One person was killed at the Galerie Semaan junction, near Hadath, police said.
MSNBC-TV’s Chris Matthews, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ali Hashisho / Reuters
Lebanese women walk by a building which was damaged by an Israeli aristrike near Sidon, in south Lebanon, on Wednesday.
JERUSALEM - Israeli troops clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas on the Lebanese side of the border Wednesday, while warplanes flattened buildings and killed at least 20 people overnight as fighting entered its second week with the U.S. signaling it will not push Israel toward a fast cease-fire.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah showered northern Israel with rockets on Wednesday, killing two people in the mainly Arab town of Nazareth, Israeli authorities said.
The two were killed by a direct hit from a Katyusha rocket, the army said. Nazareth, in northern Israel, is revered as the hometown of Jesus and is filled with churches. It is about 19 miles from the Lebanese border.
Previous attacks during the eight days of rocket barrage have hit the nearby Jewish town of Upper Nazareth, but the latest wave was the first to hit a holy city.
More Hezbollah rockets fell on the Israeli city of Haifa and one hit an empty seafront restaurant. A few people were hurt.
'Measured' incursion into Lebanon
With diplomatic efforts stalled, Israel said Wednesday that its airstrikes had destroyed "about 50 percent" of the arsenal of Hezbollah, whose guerrillas have bombarded northern Israeli towns with rockets that have killed 13 civilians in the past eight days.
"It will take us time to destroy what is left," Brig. Gen. Alon Friedman, a senior army commander, told Israeli Army Radio.
Military officials said Israeli troops crossed the border in search of tunnels and weapons. Hezbollah claimed to have "repelled" Israeli forces near the coastal border town of Naqoura. Casualties were reported on both sides.
The Israeli army confirmed there were clashes with Hezbollah in the border area and some Israelis had suffered casualties. The army would not elaborate. Hezbollah's Al-Manar television channel reported that two Israeli soldiers had been killed and three wounded, but that could not be confirmed.
Israel, which has mainly limited itself to attacks from the air and sea, had been reluctant to send in ground troops because Hezbollah is far more familiar with the terrain and because of memories of Israel's ill-fated 18-year-occupation of south Lebanon that ended in 2000.
Israeli military officials said that, for several days, small numbers of their soldiers have going in and out of south Lebanon looking for Hezbollah bases and weapons. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not give the exact number of troops involved or their location.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, stressed the incursion was not large scale and would not last long.
"This is an operation which is very measured, very local," Gillerman told CNN. "This is no way an invasion of Lebanon. This is no way the beginning of any kind of occupation of Lebanon."
Rice: 'Lasting value' cease-fire
The Bush administration also has refused to yield to international calls to press Israel for a prompt end to it campaign against the Hezbollah militia.
Instead, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is trying to drum up support for what she called a cease-fire of “lasting value.” That is, one that would have the Lebanese army take over the south of the country where Hezbollah guerrillas have conducted a cross-border war against Israel for years.
Rice is likely to make a trip to the area this weekend, but no announcement has been made. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack would only say Wednesday that her trip would come “in the near future” and told CNN the timing would depend upon “when she thinks it’s most useful and most effective.”
Israel also said Wednesday it did not plan to target Hezbollah's main sponsors, Iran and Syria, during the current fighting.
"We will leave Iran to the world community, and Syria as well," Vice Premier Shimon Peres told Army Radio. "It's very important to understand that we are not instilling world order."
The Israeli airstrikes late Tuesday and early Wednesday killed at least 20 people, bringing to 246 the number of people killed in Lebanon since the fighting began on July 12, when Hezbollah guerrillas raided an Israeli border outpost and kidnapped two soldiers. The overall figures were provided by the police control center, but they did not give a breakdown of the attacks.
Twenty-five Israelis have been killed in Israel in the past eight days.
Five people were killed when a missile struck a neighborhood in the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh, police and hospital officials said. The target was a commercial office of a firm belonging to Hezbollah, but those killed were residents.
The bodies of three members of the Hamed family and a Sri Lankan maid were retrieved from the destroyed building. A fifth body remained under the debris.
In the village of Srifa, near Tyre in southern Lebanon, the airstrikes flattened 15 houses. The village's headman, Hussein Kamaledine, said 25 to 30 people lived in the houses, but it was not known if they were at home at the time. Many people have fled southern Lebanon.
In the southern village of Ghaziyeh, one person was killed and two were wounded when a missile struck a nearby building that housed a Hezbollah-affiliated social institution.
In the eastern Bekaa Valley, four people were killed and three were wounded in an air raid on the village of Loussi, police said.
Targets around Beirut hit
Israeli planes continued their strikes on Beirut on Wednesday, hitting a Christian suburb on the eastern side of the city for the first time.
The target was a truck-mounted machine used to drill for water but which could have been mistaken for a missile launcher. The vehicle, parked in an empty lot in Ashrafieh, was destroyed but no one was hurt.
The planes also hit the southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, causing one explosion that reverberated across the city much louder than any previous impact in the eight days of fighting.
More Israeli missiles landed in two towns outside Beirut — Chuweifat and Hadath. One person was killed at the Galerie Semaan junction, near Hadath, police said.
MSNBC-TV’s Chris Matthews, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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