Israel steps up attacks after cease-fire deal

updated 5:59 a.m. ET Aug. 12, 2006

UNITED NATIONS - Israel stepped up its airstrikes on Lebanon early Saturday, killing at least 15 civilians, not long after the U.N. Security Council voted on a resolution to halt the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.

On Friday, the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution that calls for an end to the war between Israel and Hezbollah, and authorizes 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers to help Lebanese troops take control of south Lebanon as Israel withdraws.

The resolution offers the best chance yet for peace after more than four weeks of fighting that has killed more than 800 people, destroyed Lebanon’s infrastructure, displaced hundreds of thousands of people and inflamed tensions across the Middle East. Drafted by France and the U.S., it was adopted unanimously.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert endorsed the resolution late Friday, after a day of brinksmanship including a threat to expand the ground war. Lebanon’s Cabinet was to consider the draft on Saturday, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Lebanese government assured her that it supported the text.

The next point of contention will be when to implement the cessation of hostilities. Israel said its campaign would continue until Sunday, when its Cabinet will meet to endorse the resolution. Long columns of Israeli tanks, troops and armored personnel carriers streamed over the border early Saturday.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he planned to meet Lebanese and Israeli officials as soon as possible to determine the exact date of a cease-fire.

Fighting continues
The attack Saturday that killed 15 struck several homes in the village of Rachaf, about 10 miles from the Israeli border, said Lebanese officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Warplanes also fired near Lebanon’s northern border with Syria, severing access to the Arida crossing — the last escape route for besieged Lebanese and for humanitarian aid entering the country from Syria. The United Nations has a depot for relief supplies at the site.

Israeli jets targeted the highway linking Arida with the northern city of Tripoli, the officials said. The highway was heavily damaged in Qleiaat, blocking the passage to and from Arida. The crossing remained open, and vehicles were driving off-road to reach the crossing point.

A bridge near another northern border crossing, Abboudiyeh, was struck Friday, killing at least 12 people, hospital and security officials said. Lebanon’s largest checkpoint to Syria — Masnaa, in the eastern Bekaa Valley — has been closed since July 29, after repeated airstrikes there.

Israel has said its attacks on Lebanon’s roads and bridges sought to halt the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah. But the strikes on Lebanon’s infrastructure have also slowed the flow of humanitarian aid, fuel and food to civilians throughout the country.

There are still believed to be many illegal paths used to cross between Lebanon and Syria.

Speaking after the cease-fire vote, Rice said the “hard work of diplomacy” was only beginning with the passage of the resolution and that it would be unrealistic to expect an immediate end to all violence. She said the United States would increase its assistance to Lebanon to $50 million, and demanded other nations stop interfering in its affairs.

“Today we call upon every state, especially Iran and Syria, to respect the sovereignty of the Lebanese government and the will of the international community,” Rice told the council. Iran and Syria back Hezbollah and supply it rockets and other weapons.

“We will now end to work very hard,” Rice told reporters afterward. “This is a first step but it is a good first step.”

Questions linger
With tough language in remarks before the vote, Annan said hundreds of millions of people around the world shared his frustration that the council had taken so long to act. That inaction has “badly shaken the world’s faith in its authority and integrity,” he said.

“I would be remiss if I did not tell you how profoundly disappointed I am that the council did not reach this point much, much earlier,” he said.

The Security Council resolution leaves out several key demands from both Israel and Lebanon in efforts to come up with a workable arrangement.

Despite Lebanese objections, Israel will be allowed to continue defensive operations — a term that Arab diplomats fear the Israeli military will interpret widely. A dispute over the Chebaa Farms area along the Syria-Lebanon-Israel border will be left for later; and Israel won’t get its wish for an entirely new multinational force separate from the U.N. peacekeepers that have been stationed in south Lebanon since 1978.

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