Heavy shelling as Abbas seeks Israel accord

Heavy cross-border rocket and artillery exchanges erupted along the Lebanese-Israeli frontier yesterday, and Israeli warplanes struck deep inside Lebanon, blasting Palestinian guerrilla bases near Beirut and Syria’s border.

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian faction leaders agreed yesterday to launch an intensive 10-day schedule of talks aimed at bridging the gaps between the sides and stave off his plan to impose a national referendum on recognising Israel’s right to exist.

Abbas adviser Yasser Abed Rabbo said that starting today, delegations would meet in Ramallah and in Gaza twice daily, morning and evening, starting the clock ticking toward Abbas’ deadline for the Hamas-led government to come up with a formula that will allow it to win back international support and revive Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.

Sunday’s violence was the worst witnessed along the border since November. Many in Lebanon had expected a flare-up after a car bombing on Friday in south Lebanon killed a senior official of the militant Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Lebanon’s south had been relatively calm since Israel’s army withdrew from a buffer zone inside Lebanon in 2000.

The US and UN have pressured Lebanon to implement a 2004 UN Security Council resolution that calls for the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, including Hezbollah and radical Palestinian groups.

The Lebanese government considers Hezbollah, labelled a terrorist organisation by the US and Israel, a legitimate resistance movement fighting Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory.

Yesterday’s fighting, which also wounded two Lebanese civilians and six guerrillas, started overnight when rockets fired from Lebanon landed across the Israeli border. None of the militant groups operating in the south have claimed responsibility for those first attacks.

The violence quickly spread along the 78-kilometre (49-mile) frontier, from the hills overlooking the Mediterranean to the disputed Chebaa Farms and into the foothills of Mount Hermon, and continued throughout the day.

A ceasefire brokered by a UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon went into effect in the evening, Milos Strugar, said a spokesman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

A Lebanese official said the cease-fire was reached after Prime Minister Fuad Saniora held contacts with UN peacekeepers, Hezbollah and the US, French and Russian ambassadors.

Saniora blamed Israel for the latest outbreak of hostilities, saying an Israeli withdrawal from the Chebaa Farms, a sliver of territory occupied by Israel and claimed by Lebanon, was “the only way to stop the cycle of violence”.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni left yesterday for a two-day visit to Turkey, a traditional ally that has tried to position itself as a mediator between Israel and the Palestinians in recent years.

Livni was to meet with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the visit. She was expected to discuss the recent rise to power of the Palestinian militant group Hamas and the Iranian nuclear threat.

Israel regards as crucial its ties with Turkey, one of the only Muslim nations to have good relations with the Jewish state as well as the Arab world.

Livni’s trip was her second official visit to a foreign country since the new Israeli government took office earlier this month. She travelled last week to the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik last week for an international economic conference .

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said that Livni’s trip to Turkey highlighted the importance of the ties between the two countries. Jerusalem and Ankara have been divided on how to deal with the new Hamas-led Palestinian government.