Israel warns of 'painful' expansion of war

Israeli forces took control of the strategic southern hub of Marjayoun today and warned that its fight against Hezbollah could grow wider and more severe if diplomacy fails.

Israel’s defence minister, Amir Peretz, said the military would use “all of the tools” to cripple the Islamic guerrillas if attempts for a cease-fire pact collapse at the United Nations.

Israel’s leaders have authorised a major new ground offensive going deeper into Lebanon, but held off to give international negotiators more time.

There were clear signals, however, that Israel was already setting its sights on Lebanon’s capital and beyond.

In Beirut, Israeli warplanes blanketed the downtown area with leaflets that threatened a “painful and strong” response to Hezbollah attacks and warned residents to evacuate three southern suburbs.

Other warnings dropped from planes said any trucks on a key northern highway to Syria would be considered targets for attack.

Earlier, missiles from Israeli helicopter gunships blasted the top of a historical lighthouse in central Beirut in an apparent attempt to knock out a broadcast antenna for Lebanese state television.

The seizure of the southern town Marjayoun and nearby areas overnight appeared to be an attempt to consolidate bases in southern Lebanon before any possible push northward. It gives Israel an important foothold for any deeper drives into the country.

Marjayoun – a mostly Christian city about five miles from the Israeli border - was used as the command centre for the Israeli army and its allied Lebanese militia during an 18-year southern Lebanon occupation that ended in 2000.

The high ground around Marjayoun, including the village of Blatt, overlook the Litani River valley, one of the staging sites for the relentless Hezbollah rocket assault on northern Israel.

Israel suffered its worst one-day military losses on Wednesday, with 15 soldiers killed, most of them in other areas of the south away from the Marjayoun area.

Taking command of Marjayoun was not considered a key battlefield victory since the city gives little support to Hezbollah. But reaching the site passed through Hezbollah country and was the scene of fierce fighting.

Hezbollah claimed it destroyed 13 Israeli tanks. Israel did not immediately give a tally of its losses.

Israeli gunners used their new vantage points as payback: pounding Hezbollah-led areas such as the plain around the nearby town of Khiam, which has been used as a rocket site for the militants.

Still, Hezbollah was defiant. It fired 110 rockets into northern Israel by mid-afternoon, including one that hit Haifa, Israeli police said. An Arab-Israeli mother and her young daughter were killed in the village of Deir al-Assad. Lebanese officials reported at least four civilian deaths Thursday.

Yesterday, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah made a television address warning Israeli Arabs in Haifa to flee for their own safety, threatening more strikes on the key port city, already hit multiple times by Hezbollah rockets.

More than 800 people in Lebanon and Israel have died since fighting erupted.

In Ibl el-Saqi, a village about two miles east of Marjayoun, the mayor said nearly all the residents had fled to the north.

“They all left this morning. There was very intense shelling last night,” said Riad Abou Samra.

But it seemed fewer and fewer areas of Lebanon were safe from the threat of Israeli attacks, including the relatively untouched heart of Beirut.

The single-page notices that fluttered down over Beirut said “the Israeli Defence Forces intend to expand their operations in Beirut".

It said the decision came after statements from “the leader of the gang” - an apparent reference to Nasrallah’s television address

Israel also extended its warnings to areas north of Beirut – far from the battlefield in the south. Leaflets said trucks “of any kind” could face attack after 6pm along the northern coast road to Syria. The notice said vehicles would be suspected of carrying rockets and supplies for Hezbollah.

A round-the-clock road curfew has been in force across southern Lebanon since early Tuesday.

Israeli warplanes today pounded a strip of the coastal highway junction for roads connecting three major southern cities – Sidon, Tyre and Nabatiyeh. The junction had already been nearly cut off in strike on July 12 – the first day of fighting – which spared only a single lane. It was not clear if the road was completely severed in today’s hits.

The strike at the non-working lighthouse, built early last century during French colonial rule, was the first in central Beirut since a warning August 3 by Nasrallah that such a move would bring retaliation against Tel Aviv.

The capture of Marjayoun came just hours before a senior Israeli official, Rafi Eitan, announced that a planned expansion of the ground offensive would be delayed to give diplomats at the United Nations time for cease-fire deal. Lebanon and its Arab allies demand that Israel withdraw its forces as part of any cease-fire.

The planned offensive would thrust toward the Litani River valley, 18 miles north of the border – aimed at crippling Hezbollah before a possible cease-fire.

The offensive is expected to last a month and eliminate 70 to 80 percent of Hezbollah’s short-range rocket launchers, but not its long-range launchers, senior military officials said.

However, Trade Minister Eli Yishai, who abstained in Wednesday’s vote, said the assessment is too optimistic. “I think it will take a lot longer,” he said.

But Israel is now waiting to see whether Arab and Western diplomats can find a solution to end the month-long conflict.

“There are diplomatic considerations. There is still a chance that an international force will arrive in the area. We have no interest in being in south Lebanon. We have an interest in peace on our borders,” Eitan told Israel Radio.

The US ambassador to Lebanon, Jeffrey Feltman, met three times today with Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, whose aides reported no progress on negotiations to find a cease-fire.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, is expected to begin a Middle East visit tomorrow. He plans to first visit Beirut before travelling to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Richard Huguenin, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said Israel has repeatedly denied request to reach “a whole list of places,” including a plan to rescue a family believe trapped in an abandoned orphanage in Maarub, about 12 miles from Tyre.

The Red Cross estimates roughly 33,000 people are still living in villages in south Lebanon, another 27,000 are still in Tyre and 40,000 Palestinians in four camps in the south.

In Geneva, the top UN humanitarian official, Jan Egeland, said it was a “disgrace” that both Israel and Hezbollah have hindered relief efforts.

The World Food Programme’s co-ordinator in Lebanon, Zlatan Milisic, said Israeli bombing of bridges and roads is creating huge obstacles for aid convoys to reach tens of thousands of displaced Lebanese.