By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies - 20/07/2006
Israel Air Force warplanes renewed airstrikes on Beirut`s southern suburbs Thursday just after daybreak, Hezbollah TV reported.
Al-Manar TV`s report of the attack on the Bir al-Abed neighborhood followed a relatively quiet night in the capital after the Wednesday evening attack by Israeli warplanes on what the military believed was a bunker used by senior Hezbollah leaders.
IAF warplanes dropped bombs late Wednesday on a bunker in south Beirut where senior Hezbollah leaders were thought to be, the Israel Defense Forces said.
IDF officials said dozens of aircrafts dropped 23 tons of explosives on the bunker. The officials said top Hezbollah figures were thought to be there, possibly including Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The officials said the bunker was in the Bourj al-Barajneh section of southern Beirut.
Hezbollah said in a statement on Thursday that none of its leaders were killed during the strike. "Hezbollah denies that any of its leaders or personnel were killed during the latest bombardment...in the southern suburb," the group said in the statement.
The building targeted in the raid was a mosque under construction and not a bunker housing as Israel claimed, the statement added.
Israel has said that one of the objects of its offensive in Lebanon is to
eliminate Hezbollah leaders.
The IDF warned south Lebanon residents ahead of the strike to leave their homes and evacuate toward the north.
Hundreds of thousands of south Lebanon residents were expected to evacuate the area. The IDF broadcast its warning from an Arabic-language radio station in Israel.
More than half a million people have already been displaced from their homes as a result of the IDF`s ongoing operation in Lebanon, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said earlier Wednesday.
Halutz: Hezbollah wants to drag Israel into war of attrition
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz warned the security cabinet on Wednesday that Hezbollah wants to drag Israel into a war of attrition in Lebanon, whereas Israel wants "a short and forceful war."
His comments came as two Israeli children were killed by a rocket in Nazareth and two IDF soldiers were killed and nine wounded in clashes with Hezbollah gunmen in Lebanon.
"They realize that prolonged attrition causes internal pressure from Israeli citizens and international pressure, and think that those are our weak points," Halutz said, adding that Hezbollah wants the fighting to extend over a long period "so that we will capitulate."
The chief of staff said that IDF operations are centering on south Lebanon. Among other things, the army is trying to cleanse the border zone of Hezbollah outposts and attack the villages from which Hezbollah is firing. When the IDF discovers that Hezbollah is firing rockets at Israel from a particular village, Halutz said, the army warns the residents to leave the village and then bombs it in an effort to damage Hezbollah`s tactical operational capability.
The IDF has succeeded in damaging Hezbollah`s ability to fire rockets on Israel, Halutz said.
"We damage, diminish, weaken and erode," he told the ministers. "Hezbollah`s consciousness has already been seared, and they understood completely that Israel is reacting in a way that they never thought we would react."
Halutz said that plans have already been laid for a ground incursion, but that the army is not implementing them at the moment.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the IDF has "as much time as you want to complete the mission."
Two IDF soldiers killed in Lebanon
Two IDF soldiers were killed Wednesday during heavy exchanges of fire with Hezbollah guerillas inside Lebanese territory, close to the Israel-Lebanon border.
Several hours later, the IDF foiled an attempt by Hezbollah to infiltrate into the northernmost Israeli town of Metula. An Israel Air Force helicopter opened fire on a cell of militants that had been identified as it set out from a Hezbollah position near the border.
The two soldiers killed in the clashes across the border were named Wednesday evening as First Sergeant Yonatan Hadassi, 21, from Kibbutz Merhaviya, and Staff Sergeant Yotam Gilboa, 21, from Maoz Haim.
Nine other soldiers were wounded in the gunbattle, two moderately and the others lightly.
The elite unit force crossed the border late Tuesday night and searched an area near the former IDF outpost of Shaked. The troops found Hezbollah munitions stored on the site.
Hezbollah gunmen opened fire at the troops around noon Wednesday, killing the two soldiers and wounding their comrades. Two Hezbollah militants were killed in the exchange of fire.
Immediately after the incident, the guerrillas pounded the area with mortars, making it difficult for troops to rescue their wounded comrades, Channel 10 television reported.
A fire broke out near Moshav Avivim following a mortar shell attack on the area.
On Wednesday afternoon, a Hezbollah rocket attack on the northern town of Nazareth killed two Israeli Arab siblings on Wednesday afternoon, bringing to 15 the death toll from rocket strikes since the crisis in Lebanon began a week ago.
IAF strike kills Brazilian businessman
A Brazilian businessman was killed on Wednesday in an IAF missile attack on a factory he owned in Lebanon, the seventh Brazilian known to have been killed in an eight-day onslaught, Brazil`s Agencia Estado reported.
Dib Barakat, a 60-year-old businessman from Sao Paulo, was inside his furniture factory in Sultan Yacob, in the Bekaa Valley, when three missiles struck just after 8 a.m., Agencia Estado said.
A witness said the Israeli strike appeared to be prompted by the arrival of truck loaded with wood for the factory. Five other people were wounded.
IDF ground troops enter southern Lebanon
A number of IDF ground troops crossed into southern Lebanon earlier Wednesday to carry out "pinpoint" attacks on Hezbollah outposts.
"These are restricted, pinpoint attacks," an IDF spokesman said. "This is nothing out of the ordinary. This has been happening close to the border."
Troops have crossed into southern Lebanon several times in recent days to destroy Hezbollah posts, returning soon afterwards. The army has not ruled out the possibility of a major land offensive at some stage.
Israel`s ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, stressed Wednesday that 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."
Military sources estimate that 10-14 more days are necessary in order to meet the military aims of the operation in Lebanon.
58 die in IAF strikes in Lebanon
At least 58 civilians and a Hezbollah militant were killed when Israel Air Force aircraft bombed targets in Lebanon on Wednesday, witnesses said. Thus the death toll in Israel`s military operation in Lebanon has risen to over 300.
At least 12 people, including several children, were killed and 30 wounded in the strike that destroyed several houses in the southern village of Srifa, residents said.
They said more people were feared buried under the rubble of about 10 houses flattened by the strike on the village.
At least 34 other civilians were killed Wednesday in air strikes on other parts of south and east Lebanon, security sources said. Hezbollah said one of its fighters was killed in the strikes.
Most of the fatalities are civilians killed in IAF bombardments, in Balbek and the southern Lebanon town of Nabatiya.
The IDF said that in Wednesday`s raids dozens of targets across Lebanon were attacked, including a launcher of a long-distance Zilzal missile, as well as Hezbollah-linked financial establishments in Beirut and Nabatiya.
Navy gunships also shelled the Christian Beirut suburb of Asharfiya, which is not held to be a Hezbollah stronghold. The shelling destroyed two trucks carrying construction drills that were probably mistaken for rocket launchers.
Israel Air Force missiles continued hitting towns to the east and south of Lebanon`s capital, as five big explosions reverberated over Beirut early Wednesday. At least 11 other people were killed in overnight air strikes on these areas, security sources said.
IDF estimates hold that some 60,000 Lebanese civilians have fled the south while many others have taken refuge in mosques in villages that Israel has said it would not attack.
The explosions appeared to be from hits in Beirut`s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold badly devastated since Israel launched its military blitz against Lebanon last week.
In separate attacks, missiles also hit Chuweifat - a coastal town where several factories are located, just south of the capital, near the airport - and Hadath, a mainly Christian town just east of Beirut, local television said.
IAF warplanes also struck a bridge in the southern city of Sidon and houses in two other southern villages, local media reported. There was no immediate word on casualties in any of the air strikes.
According to General Staff estimates, it is possible to greatly intensify the scope of the attacks against the Hezbollah rockets, with special emphasis on their longer-range weapons, as well as strikes against senior members of the group`s operational arm.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz told senior IDF officers Tuesday that attacks against Hezbollah would continue "without letup and time limit."
A senior military source said Tuesday that Israel seeks "to significantly weaken Hezbollah but not crush it." He said that "it is impossible to crush a popular, religious movement."
The source added that had the Government of Israel reacted differently to the abduction of three IDF soldiers in an attack on the border in October 2000 and behaved as Israel is doing now, it is likely that the attack last Wednesday, in wich two soldiers were abducted, could have been prevented.
Assessments vary within the IDF regarding the effect that the assault on Hezbollah is having on the organization`s morale, but Chief of Staff Dan Halutz is among those officers who believe that the first signs of cracks in the group are evident.
Head of Operations at the General Staff, Major General Gadi Eisenkot, said Tuesday that Israel views Syrian efforts to replenish Hezbollah armaments as a "grave" development, but does not intend to attack it or the Lebanese army.
He added that that "over the course of the last 24 hours, very successful attacks have continued, especially those of the air force but also other units, by land and by sea, in Lebanon."
"Until now, over 1,000 terrorist targets have been attacked, including 180 Katyusha and long-range rocket launch sites," Eisencott said.
Defense sources said Tuesday that in the coming days action would also be taken to further damage the infrastructure of Hezbollah. The sources refused to offer details.
A day`s fighting in the north is estimated to cost more than NIS 50 million.
Peretz instructed the IDF to enable as many factories as possible along the northern border to reopen so that damage to the economy can be minimized.
The Home Front Command will decide which factories have the necessary reinforcement to protect workers from possible rocket strikes.
