Lebanese fled north in overflowing trucks and cars Monday, taking advantage
of a lull in Israeli bombardment. Israel's prime minister took a tough line,
apologizing for the deaths of dozens of Lebanese civilians in a single strike
but declaring there will be no cease-fire.
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A photograph of Du Zhaoyu is
displayed at a memorial service in Jerusalem for the four UN observers
killed in Lebanon. [Xinhua]
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Diplomatic
efforts to end the crisis faltered, despite increased world pressure for a
cease-fire after the devastating strike in Qana.
Israeli warplanes hit Hezbollah fighters battling with soldiers near the
border as the guerrillas fired mortars into Israel. The clashes signaled that
the violence was not over, even though an Israeli suspension of most airstrikes
in Lebanon — and a pause by the guerrillas on rocket attacks in northern Israel
— brought both countries their quietest day since the conflict began three weeks
ago.
Some 200 people — mostly elderly — escaped the Lebanese border town of Bint
Jbail, where Israeli troops and Hezbollah guerrillas fought their bloodiest
clashes. Two residents dropped dead on the road out, one of malnutrition, the
other of heart failure.
Some survivors described living on a piece of candy a day and dirty water as
the fighting raged.
"All the time I thought of death," said Rimah Bazzi, an American visiting
from Dearborn, Mich., who spent weeks hiding with her three children and mother
in the house of a local doctor.
The lull was felt across northern Israel, too: In the town of Nahariya,
residents who had been hiding in shelters for the better part of three weeks
began emerging. Supermarkets were fuller than before and more people were in the
streets, walking along the beach and shopping.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert apologized for the civilian deaths in
Saturday's strike, in which 56 people, mostly women and children, were killed.
"I am sorry from the bottom of my heart for all deaths of children or women
in Qana," he said. "We did not search them out. ... They were not our enemies
and we did not look for them."
But he insisted Israel had no choice but to fight.
"There is no cease-fire, there will be no cease-fire," he said. "We are
determined to succeed in this struggle. We will not give up on our goal to live
a life free of terror."
Near the fighting, grass fires set by shelling blazed into the night sky from
the hills outside the Lebanese border town of Marjayoun. U.N. peacekeepers
struggled to get trucks full of aid supplies across the Litani River as
artillery pounded only a few hills away.
President Bush resisted calls for an immediate halt to fighting, underlining
that any peace deal must ensure that Hezbollah is crippled. He said Iran and
Syria must stop backing the Shiite militant group with money and weapons.
"As we work with friends and allies, it's important to remember this crisis
began with Hezbollah's unprovoked attacks against Israel. Israel is exercising
its right to defend itself," Bush said.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier in the day said she expected a
U.N. resolution for a cease-fire within a week. But as she headed to Washington
after a visit to Jerusalem derailed by the Qana strike, she struck a more
pessimistic tone.
"There's a lot of work to do," she told reporters. "You have to get all the
work done, you have to get it done urgently."
The central focus for a peace deal has been the deployment of a U.N.-mandated
international force in southern Lebanon to ensure guerrillas do not attack
Israel. But details of the force still must be worked out. With talks
continuing, the U.N. postponed a Monday gathering meant to sound out
contributions to a force.
Hezbollah's allies Syria and Iran quietly entered the diplomacy. Egypt was
pressing Syria not to try to stop an international force in the south, diplomats
in Cairo said. Iran's foreign minister pulled into Beirut for talks with his
French and Lebanese counterparts.
Syrian President Bashar Assad called on his army Monday to increase readiness
to cope with "regional challenges." Travelers from Syria have reported that some
reservists have been called up for military duty — a sign that Syria is
concerned the fighting in Lebanon could spill over.
Israel's Security Cabinet met Monday night to discuss the army's request for
a wider ground offensive in southern Lebanon. The Israeli onslaught was sparked
when Hezbollah snatched two soldiers and killed three others in a cross-border
raid July 12.
Israel called a 48-hour suspension of airstrikes after the Qana strike to
give time for an investigation — though it said its warplanes would still hit
urgent Hezbollah targets, and at least three strikes took place Monday.
Thousands of Lebanese took advantage of the lull to make a dash for safety
farther north after weeks trapped in homes in the war zone, afraid to move
because of intense missile strikes on roads.
Across the south, cars and trucks packed with women and children, mattresses
strapped to the roofs and white flags streaming from the windows, made their way
to the coast, then turned north. They passed flattened houses, shattered trees
and burned-out cars strewn on the roadside.
At one point north of Tyre, vehicles gingerly made their way around a
gigantic crater half filled with water into which a car had toppled when a
missile struck.
In Qana, grocer Hassan Faraj — who had sworn a day earlier never to leave —
jumped at the chance to escape. He shuttered his shop and loaded his wife and
child into a van to go north into the mountains.
"My mother is very unwell, I must go and see her," he said, explaining his
change of mind and insisting he was just dropping off his family to return.
Aid groups were caught off guard by the sudden break and struggled to rush
aid to the south.
Outside Marjayoun, a U.N. peacekeepers' convoy carrying food found the
bridges across the Litani destroyed. So the trucks drove across the knee-deep
waters. Indian peacekeepers assembled a ramp out of stones to get them up the
steep opposite bank.
Nearby, the battle raged between guerrillas and soldiers. Warplanes struck
around the village of Taibeh to give ground cover after Hezbollah fighters hit a
tank with an anti-tank missile. The guerrillas also fired mortars into the
nearby Israeli town of Kiryat Shemona, causing no casualties.
Hezbollah announced that five of its fighters were killed in the clashes,
bringing the group's acknowledged death toll to 43. Israel says dozens more
fighters have died.
Israel carried out two other airstrikes. One killed a Lebanese soldier in his
car outside Tyre, prompting Israel to express its regrets, saying it had
believed the vehicle was carrying a senior Hezbollah official. The other strike
hit the main Lebanon-Syria border crossing for the third day in a row.
Hezbollah also claimed to have hit an Israeli warship off the coast of Tyre
with a rocket, the second hit it would have scored on a ship. But Israel denied
any of its warships were hit Monday.
The guerrilla group did not shoot a single rocket into Israel as of early
evening, a remarkable turnaround for an area that had been hit by dozens of
missiles each day during the offensive.
At least 524 people have been killed in Lebanon since the fighting began,
according to the Health Ministry. Fifty-one Israelis have died, including 33
soldiers and 18 civilians who died in rocket attacks.
After Rice's intense diplomatic mission in the Mideast, efforts to put
together a peace package now turned to the United Nations.
She said the U.S. will work to achieve a U.N. resolution on three fronts: the
precise language of the U.N. resolution, working with Lebanon and Israel on the
details of tough political questions and an agreement that leaves no ambiguity
in the international force's role and operations.
