Israel decides not to expand offensive

Israeli Cabinet ministers today decided not to expand the country’s Lebanon offensive, but ordered the call up of tens of thousands of reserve soldiers to boost the campaign, officials said.

During a meeting of the security Cabinet, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the goals of Israel's 16-day offensive are being met, participants of the meeting said.

The ministers said the call up of three additional reserve divisions – at least 30,000 soldiers – was meant to refresh troops in Lebanon.

But the huge size of the mobilisation raised questions about the military’s overall strategy.

“The draft is to prepare the force for possible developments as they have been presented to the Cabinet and also to freshen the forces as needed. Using the force will require another approval by the Cabinet,” said a statement from prime minister’s office after the Cabinet meeting.

Senior military commanders had been pushing for a wider campaign in Lebanon, but Defence Minister Amir Peretz favours limited action, military and government officials said.

Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon called the results of a high-level Mideast conference in Rome yesterday a green light for Israel to press ahead with its offensive in Lebanon.

The conference ended in disagreement, with Europe pushing for a fast cease-fire but Washington signalling Israel can have more time to defeat Hezbollah.

Three senior European officials today insisted Israel should not interpret the Rome results as a go-ahead, and that the violence should stop now.

“The killing must stop, that was also the message in Rome,” said EU External Relations

Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who visited Israel today.

Her comments were echoed by Erkki Tuomioja, Finland’s foreign minister.

In Berlin, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called Israel’s interpretation of the Rome conference a “gross misunderstanding”, saying it wants “to see an end to the fighting as swiftly as possible”.

A senior Cabinet minister said Israel’s security establishment expects the Lebanon operation to last another two or three weeks.

The minister said the thousands of reserve troops will be trained and prepared to operate at any given moment, but will not necessarily go into action immediately.

Yesterday, Israel suffered its heaviest casualty toll in the offensive, with nine soldiers killed and 25 wounded in house-to-house fighting in Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon.

Israeli army commanders have said troops would seize additional towns and villages in the area to force out Hezbollah gunmen.

Today Hezbollah continued its rocket barrage on northern Israel, with one slamming into a laundry detergent warehouse in the town of Kiryat Shemona, security officials said.

Huge flames and smoke billowed from the building as at least six fire trucks rushed to the scene. No casualties were reported.

Other rockets hit the northern village of Majdel Krum, wounding four people, rescue officials said. Hezbollah has fired more than 1,400 rockets into Israel, including 48 that fell today.

Justice Minister Ramon, who is close to Olmert, told Israel Radio that “everyone understands that a victory for Hezbollah is a victory for world terror”.

“We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world …. To continue the operation, this war, until Hezbollah won’t be located in Lebanon and until it is disarmed,” he said.

Ramon also said that the Israeli air force must bomb villages before ground forces enter, suggesting that this would help prevent Israeli casualties in the future.

Asked whether entire villages should be flattened, he said: “These places are not villages. They are military bases in which Hezbollah people are hiding and from which they are operating.”

Ramon said Israel has given civilians in south Lebanon sufficient warning to leave the area, and that those left behind should be considered Hezbollah sympathisers. “All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah,” he said.

However, it is believed civilians remain in these communities. A Red Cross doctor who visited the town of Bint Jbail, scene of the heaviest fighting, before the Israelis advanced on it, said that while the majority of residents have fled, a considerable number were taking cover in schools and other areas.

Yesterday, the United States blocked the UN Security Council from issuing a statement that would have condemned Israel’s bombing of a UN post on the Lebanon border on Tuesday, during which four military observers were killed.

The bombing, which occurred after the post repeatedly warned Israeli forces that its attacks were coming too close, killed three unarmed observers and a fourth was feared dead.