Israel starts pullout as cease-fire seems to hold

ON THE ISRAEL-LEBANON BORDER - Hundreds of Israeli soldiers walked out of Lebanon on Tuesday — some smiling broadly and pumping their fists, others weeping or carrying wounded comrades — as a cease-fire with Hezbollah solidified after a shaky start. The process was expected to accelerate over the coming days.

The international community looked to build a U.N. peacekeeping force for south Lebanon, but it remained unclear how quickly such a force could be deployed. The guerrillas’ patrons, Syria and Iran, proclaimed that Hezbollah won its fight with Israel — claims the Bush administration dismissed as shameful blustering.

Many of the infantry soldiers smiled with joy as they crossed back into Israel. Members of one unit carried a billowing Israeli flag. Some sang a traditional Hebrew song with the lyric: “We brought peace to you.” Others wept as they returned to their country, exhausted by the fighting.

Some of the troops had been so disconnected from the news that they asked if Israel had managed to free two soldiers whose capture by Hezbollah on July 12 sparked the fighting. Israel had not. Several tanks headed back into Israel as well, including one that had been damaged and was being towed by a military bulldozer.

At times as they headed south, the soldiers crossed paths with Israeli civilians traveling in the opposite direction, back to the homes they abandoned weeks ago under Hezbollah rocket fire.

Areas of northern Israel that were turned into closed military zones weeks ago were reopened to civilian traffic, and the tanks, bulldozers and other heavy military vehicles that had lined the roads were gone. At one main junction, teenage girls handed out flowers to returning soldiers, thanking them for protecting their homes.

In the battered Israeli town of Kiryat Shemona, residents emerged from grimy bomb shelters and began cleaning up the wreckage caused by more than a month of Hezbollah rocket attacks.

Eliana Aponte / Reuters Israeli soldiers on their way back home pass near the Lebanese town of Avivi on Tuesday.

The partial Israeli withdrawal came in preparation for a Lebanese troop deployment across the Litani River, some 18 miles north of the Israeli border. Lebanon’s deployment was expected to begin Thursday and eventually put its army in control of war-ravaged south Lebanon with the help of U.N. peacekeepers, military officials on both sides of the conflict said.

The United Nations hopes that 3,500 well-equipped troops can deploy to Lebanon within two weeks as the vanguard of a robust U.N. peacekeeping force to start the process of deploying the Lebanese army and withdrawing Israeli troops, a senior U.N. peacekeeping official said Tuesday.

But Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Hedi Annabi stressed that the Lebanese deployment and Israeli withdrawal can start even sooner using the current 2,000-strong U.N. force “if the political will is there.”

Handovers to begin Wednesday
In Jerusalem, the Israeli army said it planned to begin handing over some captured positions on Wednesday and hoped to complete the withdrawal from Lebanon by next week. The plan for handing over territory showed the complexity of the border zone: Israel would transfer it first to the U.N. force, which would then turn it over to Lebanese envoys.

The United Nations force planned for Lebanon will take a year to reach full strength, said Maj. Gen. Alain Pellegrini, the Frenchman who leads the current U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.

Israel’s military also made a first gesture at possible post-conflict negotiations. It said it could exchange 13 Hezbollah prisoners and the bodies of dozens of guerrillas for two Israeli soldiers whose capture in a cross-border raid July 12 touched off the fighting.

Foreign ministers coming to Beirut
The foreign ministers of Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia and France were due in the Lebanese capital Wednesday, and it was widely believed they would work out details of assembling a 15,000-strong international force. Indonesia and a dozen other countries also have expressed a willingness to help.

That force would work with an equal number of Lebanese soldiers. Together, they are expected to police the cease-fire that took hold Monday and ended 34 days of brutal combat, Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah rocket barrages.

France, which was expected to lead the force, was demanding a clearer U.N. mandate, including details on when the troops can use firepower. France had not yet made any announcement of how many troops it plans to send, holding up announcements of troop commitments from other countries.

Three armies involved — before U.N. forces arrive
In the short term and before international forces arrive, the process involves three armies on the ground and is complicated, given that the Lebanese and Israeli armies do not have direct contact and a third and central player — Hezbollah guerrillas — will not be involved.

The current U.N. observer force, known as UNIFIL, stationed permanently in the 18-mile band of territory between the Litani and the Israeli frontier, was to take up positions temporarily along the border.

The zone along the frontier would then be handed to Lebanese troops and the bolstered UNIFIL force once all Israeli soldiers have withdrawn, military officials on both sides of the conflict said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the operation.

“It will be a gradual withdrawal. ... It will take couple of days, even up to one week,” a UNIFIL officer told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

“We agreed with the Lebanese army that it will start deploying as the Israelis start withdrawing. It could be as early as Thursday, maybe a slight delay,” he said.

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