Israel Softens Conditions For Cease-Fire
POSTED: 4:32 pm EDT July 17, 2006
UPDATED: 4:32 pm EDT July 17, 2006
JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday that the fighting in Lebanon would end when two Israeli soldiers were freed, rocket attacks stopped and the Lebanese army deployed along the border. But he appeared to scale back from previous demands for Hezbollah to be dismantled.
Delivering an impassioned speech to Israel's parliament after six days of fierce fighting, Olmert said Israel would have no mercy on militants who attacked its cities with rockets.
"We shall seek out every installation, hit every terrorist helping to attack Israeli citizens, destroy all the terrorist infrastructure, in every place. We shall continue this until Hezbollah does the basic and fair things required of it by every civilized person," he said. "Israel will not agree to live in the shadow of the threat of missiles or rockets against its residents."
Israeli officials have said publicly that Israel would not stop fighting until Hezbollah, a Shiite militia that controls much of south Lebanon, is dismantled. On Monday, Olmert said Hezbollah should be moved away from the border. His comments seemed to be a softening of Israel's earlier position, which could increase chances of a cease-fire.
"We shall struggle for the implementation of the conditions laid down by the international community ... the return of the hostages Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, a total cease-fire, the deployment of the Lebanese army in all of south Lebanon and the removal of Hezbollah from the region," he said.
Israeli officials said earlier Monday that Olmert had conveyed Israel's position to Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, who is attempting to broker the cease-fire deal.
As he spoke, a U.N. delegation also trying to mediate an end to the fighting arrived in Israel from Beirut.
"We hope that we will be able to see our way toward ... a de-escalation of the crisis," said Vijay Nambiar, head of the delegation. He said he would pass on information gathered in the Lebanese capital to Israeli officials, but declined to elaborate.
The fighting began when Hezbollah kidnapped the soldiers in a cross-border raid. Since then, Israel has pounded Lebanon with airstrikes and Hezbollah has fired barrages of rockets and missiles into Israeli towns and cities.
"We are not looking for war or direct conflict, but if necessary, we will not be frightened by it," Olmert said.
He also praised the Israeli people for being strong and united in the face of the rocket bombardment that has sent about half a million Israelis into bomb shelters. He recited a Jewish prayer for the soldiers and said he had pictures of the three captured soldiers _ the two in Lebanon and another held by militants in Gaza _ in his office.
"We shall do everything with all our might to bring them home," he said, but added that Israel could not make a deal that would lead to further kidnappings.
The lengthy speech was Olmert's first major address since the fighting in Lebanon began last week.
He spoke at length about many of those killed and said that Israel was fighting for them.
"When missiles are launched at our residents and our towns, our answer will be war waged at full strength, with all determination, courage and sacrifice," he said.
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon on Monday destroyed at least one long-range Iranian missile capable of hitting Tel Aviv, military officials said.
Israeli aircraft targeted a truck carrying the weapons before they could be launched, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of military regulations. The force of the blast sent at least one missile flying into the air, but it fell nearby.
During nearly a week of fighting, Hezbollah militants have fired missiles up to 25 miles into Israel. But officials have raised concerns the guerrilla group could strike Tel Aviv, about 80 miles south of the border with Lebanon.
President Bush bluntly expressed his frustrations with Hezbollah's actions, suggesting Syria could use its influence with the guerrillas.
Annan and British Prime Minister Tony Blair called for sending international forces to southern Lebanon. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would consider dispatching troops, and the European Union announced it was considering a peacekeeping force as well.
Overnight attacks by Israeli warplanes and big guns killed 17 people and wounded at least 53, Lebanese security officials said. The death toll since fighting began July 12 after Hezbollah captured the Israeli soldiers has climbed above 200 _ 209 in Lebanon, 24 in Israel.
Israeli government spokesman Asaf Shariv said ground troops entered southern Lebanon, attacked Hezbollah bases near the border and quickly returned inside Israel.
A large explosion was heard Monday evening across Beirut in the heavily hit southern suburbs where Hezbollah's headquarters is located. In the south, nine civilians were killed, including two children, when an afternoon strike hit a bridge at the entrance to the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanese security officials said.
An Israeli missile also targeted a building housing the offices of Al-Manar, Hezbollah television, in the southern market town of Nabatiyeh, wounding seven people.
Hezbollah Katyusha rockets landed in the Israeli town of Atlit, about 35 miles south of the border and six miles south of the port of Haifa. Nobody was hurt. Later, guerrillas fired three rocket barrages into Haifa, destroying a three-story building and wounding at least three people, Israeli medics said.
Guerrilla rockets killed eight Israelis in an attack on Haifa Sunday in what was believed to be Hezbollah's deadliest single attack on Israel.
A Lebanese TV station showed video of an object falling to the ground in the Jamjour district near the Hezbollah stronghold of southern Beirut, but the Israeli army said reports that it was an Israeli aircraft were false.
A Lebanese security official said the object was a fuel tank dropped by an Israeli aircraft over Kfar Chima, a town near southern Beirut. After it dropped the fuel tank, the aircraft fired two missiles at three cargo trucks in the area, killing four people and wounding two others, he added, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Israel said its planes and artillery struck 60 targets in Lebanon overnight in retaliation for Sunday's 20-rocket barrage on Haifa, Israel's third-largest city and one that had not been hit before the latest fighting.
Israel also kept up pressure in the Gaza Strip as it searched for a kidnapped soldier, bombing the empty Palestinian Foreign Ministry building for the second time in less than a week in what it said was a warning to the ruling Hamas party.
Israel launched the offensive on June 25 after Hamas-linked militants carried out a cross-border attack on a military outpost, killing two soldiers and capturing one. Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas joined the fray last week, attacking a military patrol in northern Israel, killing eight soldiers and capturing two.
Israeli officials accused Syria and Iran of providing Lebanese guerrillas with sophisticated weapons, saying the missiles that hit Haifa had greater range and heavier warheads than those Hezbollah had fired before.
Speaking on the margin of the Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, Blair said the fighting would not stop until the conditions for a cease-fire were created.
"The only way is if we have a deployment of international forces that can stop bombardment coming into Israel," he said.
Annan appealed to Israel to spare civilian lives and infrastructure. The G-8 nations, who had struggled to reach a consensus on the escalating warfare between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, have expressed concern on the "rising civilian casualties" and urged both sides to stop the violence.
Bush cursed Hezbollah's actions in a discussion with Blair before the G-8 leaders began their final lunch.
"See the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this stuff and it's over," Bush said. He also suggested that Annan call Syrian President Bashar Assad to "make something happen."
Israel Softens Conditions For Cease-Fire
