Israel, the mid-east, and Russia - Part 2

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Egyptian MPs Discuss Israeli-Palestinian Clashes and Demand Egypt Obtains Nuclear Weapons

Following are excerpts from an Egyptian parliamentary debate on the recent Israeli-Palestinian clashes, which aired on Channel 1, Egyptian TV, on July 4, 2006:

MP Ibrahim Al-Gogari: It is not enough to demand the recalling of the Egyptian ambassador from Israel. We must also demand that the Israeli ambassador to Egypt be expelled, because what is happening now is a violation of all international boundaries, and of all the agreements. Moreover, it is a breach of international human law.

[...]

MP Mustafa Bakri: The Zionist entity must realize that the Egyptian people... Forget about all the others - just Egypt... If Egypt takes a stand everything in the region changes. We know that President Mubarak is exerting efforts and maintaining contacts, which is all fine, but we say to the president: If you take an actual measure, which is supported by the entire Egyptian people, Israel will back down.

[...]

MP Ahmad Dawidar: Mr. Speaker, Israel is a Nazi state. It does not honor any international charter or treaty, and it completely ignores the UN charter. Israel is doing to the Palestinians what Hitler did to them in the Holocaust.

[...]

MP Ali Nasr: We are the strong ones. We are the men of honor. We are a graveyard for the enemies. We do not fear Israel or those behind it. We do not fear Israel or those supporting it.

[...]

MP Sabri 'Amr: There should be campaigns for a boycott, an official boycott, a boycott of the normalization, and a boycott of all the dealings with Israel. We do not want anyone, whoever he may be, to be able to say that [Egyptian] gas is exported to Israel, and that cement and iron are exported to Israel.

[...]

MP Ragab Hmeda: Israel is trying to bring the entire world to its knees. The United States has already knelt before it, and so have all the countries of the European Union. Therefore, any appeal to these countries is bound to fail. The only thing that will deter Israel is nuclear power.

[...]

MP Sa'd 'Abud: We must pursue the nuclear path and arm ourselves with nuclear weapons.

Egyptian MPs Discuss Israeli-Palestinian Clashes and Demand Egypt Obtains Nuclear Weapons

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Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah: We Are Fighting the Battle of the Islamic Nation, Not of Lebanon

Following are excerpts from an address given by Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, which aired on Al-Manar TV on July 16, 2006.

Hassan Nasrallah: I want to say a few words to the good, steadfast, honorable, and pure people, whom we have heard in recent days on the media. We have heard their perseverance, their support, and their love.

You are truly a great people. I am not just saying this out of pride, arrogance, or flattery. This is a people of historic [greatness], on whom hopes are pinned to save Lebanon and the nation - the entire nation - from its state of degradation and humiliation, and to instill new hope in the nation.

I tell you again that with your support, your embrace, with your love, your perseverance, and your steadfastness, we will be victorious. The buildings and places that are being destroyed - we will cooperate with the Lebanese state...

But in this matter, I say to you: Do not worry about what the Israeli war machine can destroy. All we wish is that the wounded be healed, and that the living have a long and healthy life. As for what is being destroyed - with the help of Allah, and by cooperation with the Lebanese state... We too, as an interested party, are determined to be serious in rebuilding what is being destroyed.

I tell you, without going into details now, that we have friends who are also serious in this, and who have a very great ability to help us with pure, clean, and honorable money, and without any political conditions.

There is nothing to worry about regarding the rebuilding of our country. What is important is that we persevere now and emerge victorious from this battle.

[…]

The last point I want to make... I would like to turn to the peoples of the Arab and Islamic world. I turn to them only to make things clear to them, and to face them up to their responsibility. I have no intention to appeal to them, to call upon them, or to request anything from them. From the first moment of Operation True Promise and the ensuing confrontations, I and my brothers have taken upon ourselves and have agreed that in this confrontation we would not ask for anything from any human being.

Many have called us to offer their services, but we have said that we ask for nothing. We will not initiate any request - not on the material level, the political level, not with regard to the media, not on the popular level, or the military level. We make appeals, requests, and supplications only to Allah, because we believe in Him, in His capabilities, in His greatness, and in His true promise that the believers will be victorious.

We place our trust in Allah. When I am turning now to the Arab and Islamic peoples, I am not doing so to ask them to save us or give us aid. No. We, Allah be praised, are fine. We are in a very strong position, and we are at the beginning of a confrontation on which we pin great hopes.

But I would like to face them up to their responsibility. Yesterday, you - and especially the Arab peoples - witnessed the outcome of the meeting of the Arab foreign ministers, and saw what can possibly come out of the Arab League. They themselves talk about the failure of the so-called peace process, and it has become clear that they are incapable - as governments, leaders, and regimes - of doing anything.

In any case, we do not place our bets there. You, the Arab and Islamic peoples, have an interest in taking a stand for the sake of your place in the world to come, if you believe in it, and for the sake of your life in this world, your honor, your strength, your future, and the future or your children and grandchildren. In other words, the way things are now… If, in this conflict, God forbid, Israel succeeds in defeating the resistance in Palestine or in Lebanon, the Arab world - both governments and peoples - will drown in eternal humiliation. It will have no way out. This will only increase the condescension of the Zionists and of their American masters towards the Arab governments and peoples. The American and Israeli interference in the affairs of these governments and peoples will only increase, along with the plundering of our resources, the eradication of our culture and civilization, and the disintegration and division of this region, which will be drawn into internal strife, and so on.

Today, the Arab and Islamic nation is facing an historic opportunity to unite, to release themselves from the plan of disintegration, sectarian and civil wars, to which America is pushing the peoples of the region.

Today, the peoples of the Arab and Islamic nation are facing an historic opportunity to accomplish a great historic victory over the Zionist enemy.

The question is not who imposes his conditions on whom. Today, we have a great opportunity of this kind. I am not exaggerating. In 2000, we in Lebanon, with modest capabilities and efforts, and with a small number of mujahideen, with few supplies and little equipment, presented a model of how resistance can overcome an occupation army.

Today, we are presenting a model, along with the Lebanese people and Lebanon in its entirety - although we serve as the spearhead, and although villages, towns, and neighborhoods affiliated with us are subject to killing and destruction... This is true of all Lebanese, but they are concentrating on us... We are trying to present another model - a model of steadfastness, resistance, perseverance, courage, and of the ability to defeat the enemy. We do this in a battle that is unbalanced in material terms, but in spirit, morale, determination, wisdom, planning, and in placing our trust in Allah, this battle is unbalanced in our favor.

Where are you, oh Arab and Islamic peoples? What are you doing? How will you act? That is up to you. As far as we are concerned, when we began the resistance in 1982, we did not look beyond our borders at all. We looked only to Allah. We relied only upon our people and our mujahideen. Today, we are the same. But what I wanted to tell you at this sensitive moment, and following many military successes in recent days, and following many surprises - and more surprises are yet to come, Allah willing - is that Hizbullah is not waging the battle of Hizbullah or of Lebanon. We are waging the battle of the nation, whether we like it or not, whether the Lebanese like it or not. Lebanon and the resistance of Lebanon are waging the battle of the nation. Where does the nation stand with regard to this battle? This question is directed at you, for the sake of your life in this world and in the world to come.

We Are Fighting the Battle of the Islamic Nation, Not of Lebanon

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Diplomatic efforts underway in Middle East

By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer Sun Jul 16, 7:07 PM ET

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The United Nations, the European Union and Italy pushed ahead with separate efforts Sunday to try to end the fighting between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah.

A senior U.N. envoy led a delegation visiting Beirut for talks with Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. Vijay Nambiar, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special political adviser, called afterward for the release of captured Israeli soldiers, the protection of civilians and infrastructure and expressed support for Lebanon's appeal for a cease-fire.

The U.N. team was expected to visit Israel to meet with officials there, Lebanese media reports said.

Annan has said he was deeply worried about the escalating cross-border fighting, the worst in 24 years. On Saturday, Saniora called for the U.N. to broker a cease-fire to open the way for diplomacy to end the crisis.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana met with Saniora on Sunday. He flew in by British military helicopter from Cyprus because the Beirut airport was closed by Israeli airstrikes.

Solana also met with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a close ally of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. He said he was not carrying any proposals, only exploring what Europe could do.

Solana is expected to return to Brussels on Monday to brief EU foreign ministers but was not scheduled to visit Israel, a Finnish EU presidency official said.

Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers in Israel last week sparked an Israeli military offensive against Lebanon and Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel.

Nambiar called for the release of the soldiers "as part of a solution to this conflict." The U.N. envoy did not elaborate, and his comments did not indicate whether it was a precondition.

Israel has demanded the soldiers' release as a precondition for ending the onslaught.

Nambiar said the United Nations supports Saniora's "call for a cease-fire and his aim of exercising full authority over the entire country." Such control would require deploying the Lebanese army to the south and, implicitly, the disarmament of Hezbollah.

The militant group has refused to give up its weapons, and the government is too weak to take on the powerful guerrillas, whose rockets have struck deep inside Israel.

Nasrallah has offered to trade the soldiers for Arab prisoners. He said an exchange was the only way Israel would get its soldiers back. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has insisted on an unconditional release.

Berri offered a glimmer of hope when he said Sunday there was still a chance that efforts would work.

"Today there is an opportunity to reach an immediate cease-fire and call on one of the countries which used to negotiate to begin discussions on a (prisoner) swap," Berri said, apparently referring to Germany. In 2004, Berlin mediated the exchange of an Israeli civilian and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers for 400 Arab prisoners.

Lebanon's government also disclosed Sunday that Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi relayed to it Israeli conditions to stop its assault on Lebanon: release the soldiers and pull Hezbollah back from the Israeli border.

Information Minister Ghazi Aridi, briefing reporters after an emergency Cabinet meeting, played down the indirect contacts.

"Nothing is official because the real negotiations have not started yet," he told reporters.

James Jeffrey, a U.S. State Department specialist, said in Washington that U.S. officials were in constant contact with Israeli and Lebanese officials.

He said there were "very, very active diplomatic efforts" aimed at bringing an end to the conflict, though the United States was not "advocating a cease-fire at this time."

Diplomatic efforts underway in Middle East

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Taliban takes control of 2 Afghan towns

By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer Mon Jul 17, 7:29 PM ET

KABUL, Afghanistan - Taliban militants seized two towns in tumultuous southern Afghanistan, forcing police and government officials to flee, officials said Monday.

The Taliban operate freely in large areas of southern Afghanistan and police presence there often is virtually nonexistent, but insurgents only were known to have completely seized one town since their hard-line regime was toppled by U.S. forces in 2001.

They were quickly driven out of that town, Chora, in Uruzgan province.

The attacks came with thousands of U.S.-led troops involved in an offensive against Taliban holdouts and allied extremists in remote southern and eastern provinces to curb the deadliest upsurge in violence since the hard-line militia was ousted in late 2001.

On Monday, large numbers of militants chased out police after a brief clash in the town of Naway-i-Barakzayi, in Helmand province near the Pakistan border, district police chief Mullah Sharufuddin said.

Scores of Taliban forces overran police holed up Sunday in a compound in the nearby Helmand town of Garmser. The security forces and a handful of government officials fled, a local government official said.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did not have permission to speak to the media, said Taliban forces were now "moving freely" around the Garmser and the surrounding district.

"We have heard reports of two districts in southern Helmand being under control of the Taliban, and we are in contact with lots of people to build an accurate picture," said another coalition spokesman, Maj. Scott Lundy.

"The Taliban are a credible threat, but the coalition is more than a match for them when and wherever we encounter them," he said.

British military spokesman Capt. Drew Gibson confirmed enemy "activity" in both areas but declined to elaborate. More than 3,000 British soldiers are deploying to Helmand to take over security control from U.S. forces later this month.

Taliban forces killed a coalition soldier and wounded 11 others in a fierce battle Monday in Tirin Kot, capital of Helmand's neighboring Uruzgan province, a U.S. statement said. The nationalities of the soldiers were not released.

More than 800 people, mostly militants, have been killed since May, according to an Associated Press tally of coalition and Afghan figures.

U.S.-led troops entering southern insurgent hotbeds for the first time are facing intense resistance.

In other violence:

• A suicide bomber killed the top two Justice Ministry officials and another employee inside the ministry's office building in the capital of Helmand province, police said.

• Three Afghan soldiers were killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb destroyed their vehicle in the same province.

• In eastern Afghanistan, U.S.-led troops killed four suspected al-Qaida members, including Arab and Chechen fighters, after raiding their hideout.

Taliban takes control of 2 Afghan towns

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Government leases six ships to evacuate Canadians from war-torn Lebanon
By JOAN BRYDEN

OTTAWA (CP) - Six chartered passenger ships will be positioned off the coast of Lebanon beginning Wednesday to evacuate up to 4,500 trapped Canadians a day from the strife-torn country.

Foreign Affairs officials said Monday that the plan, for now, is to evacuate Canadians by ship from the port of Beirut. They will be ferried to Cyprus, an island nation about 200 kilometres west of Lebanon in the Mediterranean Sea, where three aircraft have been leased to fly them home.

But officials acknowledged there is no plan yet to get Canadians safely out of southern Lebanon - the region hardest hit by Israeli missiles - to the country's capital.

Canada believes any attempt at an evacuation from the southern cities of Tyr and Saida would be perilous because the port infrastructure has been destroyed in both places.

Consequently, Canadian officials say they are seeking assurances of safe passage through southern Lebanon to Beirut from all "belligerents" in the crisis.

They are also talking to non-governmental organizations, such as the Red Cross, about the most secure route out of southern Lebanon.

Sources said a military reconnaissance squad was dispatched Monday to Lebanon to provide security and logistical advice for the evacuation.

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said the government is also seeking assurances from Israel and Lebanon that the ships carrying Canadians will not be targeted.

"We want assurances that those ships will be protected and afforded the utmost safety," he said.

Sources said one or more Canadian warships might be sent to provide an escort for the refugee ships, although no warships are currently in the vicinity and would take at least a week to get there.

Those ships would be equipped with helicopters that could fly overhead and warn of any incoming missile or rocket fire.

At least 50,000 Canadians are believed to be in Lebanon, but officials said most are dual citizens who live there permanently, and many likely won't want to leave.

About 5,000 Canadians are thought to be visiting the country, and officials expect they will make up the bulk of those who choose to flee the violence. Seven Canadian visitors were killed Sunday during Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

Foreign Affairs advised Canadians in Lebanon on Monday to expect notification about an evacuation within 24 hours. In the meantime, Canadians were advised to stay indoors and keep their travel documents in order and readily available.

Opposition critics accused the government of reacting sluggishly to the plight of Canadians trapped in Lebanon. Liberal leadership hopeful Scott Brison accused the government of "dawdling" on an evacuation plan, thereby endangering the lives of Canadians.

"British ships and French ships are evacuating people right now," Brison said in an interview.

"This is the kind of situation where minutes and hours count, and our government is days behind."

France, Italy, Sweden and Denmark began evacuating their citizens Monday, and the United States was expected to begin evacuating Americans on Tuesday.

Canada's evacuation will not begin until mid-week, and only if assurances of safe passage are received. But officials bristled at suggestions they've been slow off the mark.

"We've put together a plan that provides the safest and securest means of getting Canadians out," one official said at a background briefing for reporters.

MacKay repeatedly rejected criticism that his government has been slow to move in getting Canadians out of Lebanon. He said other countries that have evacuated people from Lebanon have managed to move only small numbers.

"We are facing a different situation in that we have an extremely large number of Canadians currently inside Lebanon," he said. "Make no mistake about it, we have moved with dispatch."

The Foreign Affairs Department took the unusual move of allowing reporters and cameras into its emergency operations centre, where all calls from Canadians in Lebanon, as well as from their worried relatives in Canada, are being fielded.

Officials said they have up to 16 people answering the phones 24 hours a day, quadruple the number of operations officers who normally take calls. As of midday Monday, they'd taken 6,463 calls since last Thursday. Another 4,600 e-mails had been received.

MacKay said he's "very proud" that people in his department volunteered to man the phone lines over the weekend.

"Officials at Foreign Affairs are extremely dedicated," he said. "They understand the trauma, the human turmoil that is taking place in people's lives inside Lebanon."

MacKay suggested Canada faces a "unique" challenge because of the large number of Canadians in Lebanon, almost 25,000 of whom have registered with the Canadian Embassy in Beirut.

But officials acknowledged other countries have similar numbers who've registered with their embassies.

Government leases six ships to evacuate Canadians from war-torn Lebanon

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Israel vows to fight Palestinians until end of terror

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has vowed to fight the Palestinians until terrorism stops, as the military ploughs on with its Gaza offensive, bombing the Foreign Ministry to ruins and killing two people.

Israel has shown little reprieve in the three-week offensive, launched with the twin aims of retrieving a corporal abducted by Hamas militants and stopping rocket fire.

Tanks and troops are in the northern town of Beit Hanun conducting what is their deepest Gaza incursion since withdrawing from the impoverished territory barely 10 months ago after a 38-year occupation.

"Operation Summer Rain" has left at least 87 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier dead since July 5.

Israel opened up a second front after Hezbollah captured another two soldiers last week and has pounded Lebanon with air strikes for six days, killing more than 200 people and seeing world leaders scramble to head off all-out war.

But in an address to Parliament, Mr Olmert has vowed not to wind back Israel's deadly offensives against either Hamas or Hezbollah.

"We will fight the Palestinians without fail until terrorism stops, until Corporal Gilad Shalit is returned safe and sound, and Qassam rocket fire ceases," he said.

Mr Olmert, who is facing the biggest test of his leadership, says Israel will not cease its operations.

"In both cases, in Lebanon and in the Gaza Strip, this is an act of self-defence, because the nation is at a moment of truth," he said.
Foreign ministry bombed

Overnight, fighter jets have bombed the Foreign Ministry in Gaza for the second time in a week, demolishing the building and tightening the noose on the Hamas Government.

In response, Palestinians have fired eight rockets into southern Israel.

Israel has justified its aerial attack by accusing Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmud al-Zahar of planning "terrorist attacks".

Mr Zahar is a leading member of Hamas, whose armed wing was jointly responsible for Cpl Shalit's abduction.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya says Israeli attacks on ministries "prove these actions are to paralyse the work of the Palestinian Government and to destroy the foundations of the Palestinian political system".

An F-16 jet has dropped a missile on the building, already badly damaged in a raid last week, pancaking the five-storey ministry and causing extensive damage to the neighbouring planning and finance ministries.

Three residents of nearby houses were also wounded, medical and security sources said.

Israel has already bombed the Gaza offices of Mr Haniya and those of his Interior Minister Siad Siam this month.

Ground troops have also rounded up a third of the Hamas cabinet in the occupied West Bank, although one of the ministers has since been released.
Fatal tank fire

A 20-year-old resident was killed and a Palestinian gunman left seriously wounded when an Israeli tank opened fire in Beit Hanun, a medical source said.

A second Palestinian, also a young man, has bee killed by Israeli fire in another incident in Beit Hanun, a local medical source said, while a third has been critically wounded in cross-fire between Israelis and Palestinian fighters.

Mr Haniya has likened Israel's incursion in Beit Hanun "to what is happening in Beirut, and in all the villages, towns and refugee camps in Lebanon".

But Israeli tanks parked in the middle of the town have moved out, Palestinian security sources said.

Witnesses say infrastructure, orchards, the electricity network, water and sewage systems have been damaged in the incursion.

Aid groups have expressed concern about the difficulties of providing assistance to 1.4 million people living in Gaza following months of financial crisis and the suspension of direct Western aid to the Hamas-led government.

Cpl Shalit's capture sparked the worst Israeli-Palestinian crisis since the Hamas-led Government was elected in January polls, and some of the deadliest fighting in the Palestinian territories for years.

Israel vows to fight Palestinians until end of terror

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More than 100,000 flee Lebanon for Syria

More than 100,000 people have crossed into Syria from Lebanon over the past five days to escape Israeli attacks, Syrian authorities say.

Official data shows that at least 24,000 Lebanese entered Syria through four crossing points since Thursday, when Israeli strikes to avenge the abduction of two soldiers by Hezbollah fighters intensified.

At least 27,000 Arabs, mostly Gulf tourists, also left, together with more than 6,500 foreigners and 19,000 Syrians.

Syrian border posts registered another 28,000 people leaving Lebanon, but their nationalities were not yet recorded.

Syria remains Lebanon's only outlet to the world since Israel blockaded Lebanese ports and destroyed the country's transport infrastructure.

The country is sending non-military supplies to Lebanon to help it cope with the attacks, the head of the council overseeing bilateral ties says.

Higher Syrian-Lebanese Council secretary general Nasri al-Khoury says the Syrian authorities have also waived airport and port fees for aid bound to Lebanon.

"Aid from Syria, especially medical, has already arrived in Lebanon and a cargo from Kuwait at Damascus airport is on its way," he said.

Mr Khoury says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has "given his instructions to open Syria's ports, airports and roads to help Lebanon".

He says more power is flowing through a joint electricity grid to help Lebanon compensate for capacity destroyed by Israeli air strikes.

More than 100,000 flee Lebanon for Syria

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Israel determined to fight on

AM - Tuesday, 18 July , 2006  08:00:00
Reporter: Emma Griffiths
TONY EASTLEY: There's no sign that the crisis in Lebanon is easing, with Hezbollah guerrillas keeping up their rocket attacks overnight on northern Israel, and Israeli forces pounding sites in Lebanon.

In the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, the Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert sounded as determined as ever to fight on, saying his country would not be held hostage to terror gangs or to a terrorist government.

The Army's Deputy Chief of Staff has estimated that the operation against Lebanon will last at least another week.

Around 17 rockets fired from Lebanon struck towns and cities across northern Israel. One Katyusha rocket landed next to a hospital in the town of Safed, wounding four people.

The ABC's Emma Griffiths filed this report from northern Israel.

(Sound of rocket fire)

EMMA GRIFFITHS: Somewhere on Israel's northern border, we can't reveal where, the country's military are targeting enemy rockets.

DERRONE SPIELMAN (phonetic): This is an artillery barrage, which is called a response barrage. This in response to Katyusha rockets that have been fired in Israel.

Every time you hear a bing behind me, it means that a Katyusha's landed, we plot the trajectory and we respond to try to disable those sites.

EMMA GRIFFITHS: Captain Derrone Spielman says Israeli forces have hit more than 100 Hezbollah rocket sites, but making sure their artillery has hit its mark can be a tricky business.

DERRONE SPIELMAN: In some locations you can know. In some locations we can verify that in fact this was an absolute hit. In other locations, if they've moved - remember these are mobile units - some of them are stationary for longer depending on the type of the rocket. If they've moved, then sometimes it's iffy.

(Sound of air raid siren)

EMMA GRIFFITHS: The rockets are still coming. In the country's third largest city, Haifa, it's been another day punctuated by warning sirens and strikes.

(Sound of sirens and explosions)

A three-storey apartment block had an entire wall stripped away, revealing kitchens and bedrooms.

Ephie Gilat (phonetic) lives in the neighbouring building. He says it's a miracle that no one was killed. The strikes have left a city shaken to the core.

EPHIE GILAT: We're people that just live our lives and then when a big bomb gets into your life, and your house is moving and windows are breaking, and you know that there are wounds around you, it takes everything, not just material. The soul is shaking.

EMMA GRIFFITHS: There's no wavering from Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

(Sound of Ehud Olmert speaking)

In an address to the Israeli Parliament, he said the country would not be deterred from its campaign. He said this was a moment of truth for the nation, when it must say "no more".

Israel has again made it clear the attacks will continue until its conditions are met: the three soldiers captured in Gaza and on the border with Lebanon must be returned, the rocket attacks into northern Israel must stop and Hezbollah must withdraw and disarm.

Ehud Olmert has described this conflict as a fight for the right to a normal life. As it enters its seventh day, more and more Israelis are living a nightmare.

Israel determined to fight on

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Diplomacy Efforts Begin As Fighting Flares

 By LEE KEATH
Associated Press Writers

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Westerners fled by land, sea and air Monday as Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon briefly and Hezbollah rockets knocked down a three-story house in northern Israel. However, there were signs of movement on the diplomatic front to end the worst fighting in 24 years.

The exodus of tourists left downtown Beirut eerily silent, with the shutters down on fancy stores and restaurants in a stark reminder of the country's civil war.

Israeli military officials said an airstrike in Lebanon destroyed at least one long-range Iranian missile capable of hitting Tel Aviv, where sunbathers, swimmers and paddleball players filled the beaches, determined to defy the guerrilla attacks.

By nightfall Monday, 210 Lebanese had been reported killed in the six days of fighting, according to figures provided to The Associated Press by the national police.

Nine civilians, including two children, died in an afternoon airstrike on a bridge near the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanese officials said. At least 24 Israelis have been killed.

Early Tuesday, Israeli warplanes again pounded Hezbollah's stronghold in south Beirut, along with an area near Beirut's airport, witnesses and Lebanese media said. Four major blasts shook the city.

Frank talk from Bush caught on open microphone

Extensive, in-depth coverage from ABC News

A cruise ship, the Orient Queen, escorted by a U.S. destroyer was to begin evacuating some of the 25,000 Americans in Lebanon on Tuesday, joining U.S. military helicopters that have ferried about a score of U.S. citizens to a British base on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. More helicopter transfers were planned Tuesday, a U.S. official said.

On the sixth day of its major offensive in Lebanon, Israel was allowing evacuation ships through its blockade of the country. France and Italy moved hundreds of nationals and other Europeans out Monday on a Greek cruise liner.

An Italian ship left earlier with 350 people, and other governments were organizing pullouts by land to Syria.

Diplomatic efforts gained traction with Israel signaling it might scale back its demands. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said fighting would halt only if Hezbollah, a Shiite militia that controls much of south Lebanon, pulls back from the border and releases the two soldiers whose capture last week triggered the Israeli offensive.

An aide to Olmert indicated the prime minister was ready to compromise on the question of dismantling the Islamic militant group. But the aide said Olmert might oppose a U.N. and British idea of deploying international forces to Lebanon.

The current U.N. force in southern Lebanon has proven impotent and a larger, stronger force could hamper any future Israeli attacks, should any deal fall apart. Israel wants the Lebanese government to patrol the south.

In an impassioned speech to Israel's parliament, Olmert said the country would have no mercy on Lebanese militants who attack 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.

Hezbollah's patron Iran, meanwhile, said a cease-fire and prisoner exchange would be acceptable and fair. Israel has ruled out releasing any prisoners.

But Hezbollah dismissed international cease-fire proposals as "Israeli conditions" and accused foreign envoys of allowing Israel time to continue its offensive.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special political adviser emerged from talks with Lebanon's prime minister to say he would present Israel "concrete ideas" to end the fighting.

"We have made some promising first efforts on the way forward," the adviser, Vijay Nambiar, told reporters, while warning that much work needs to be done.

One U.N. official said Nambiar's mission had "very useful discussions" with Lebanon's prime minister and parliament speaker - an ally of Hezbollah's leader.

"They have agreed on some specifics, and this is going to be carried to Israel, and they will probably go back to Lebanon if they are a promising signal," said the official, U.N. Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari.

Despite Arab calls for an immediate cease-fire, the U.N. Security Council on Monday put off a response to the escalating violence to wait for the results of Nambiar's mission.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Annan called for sending international forces to southern Lebanon, and the United States said it did not oppose the idea.

But President Bush also suggested, in a moment of unscripted frank discussion caught on tape, that Annan simply call the president of Syria, another Hezbollah backer, to "make something happen."

Speaking with Blair privately before the G-8 leaders began their final lunch in St. Petersburg, Russia, Bush swore about Hezbollah's border raids and rockets.

"See, the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this s--- and it's over," Bush said.

Meanwhile, the fighting went on.

Israeli warplanes renewed attacks on Beirut's southern suburbs early Tuesday morning, and fired four missiles on the eastern city of Baalbek, witnesses and news reportgs said. Both are Hezbollah strongholds.

Also, Israeli fighter-jets struck a military base in Kfar Chima, a town near southern Beirut, local television stations reported. There was no immediate confirmation from the Lebanese army. There was no word on casualties in the violence early Tuesday.

Attacks by Israeli warplanes and big guns late Sunday and early Monday killed 17 people and wounded at least 53, security officials said. Israeli government spokesman Asaf Shariv said ground troops also entered southern Lebanon, attacked Hezbollah bases near the border and quickly returned to Israel.

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.

In the deepest-ever Hezbollah missile strike into Israel, Katyusha rockets struck the Israeli town of Atlit, 35 miles south of the border. Nobody was hurt.

Later, guerrillas fired three rocket barrages into the port city of Haifa, destroying the three-story building and wounding at least three people, Israeli medics said.

Late Monday, a further barrage of rockets hit northern Israel. Some landed in Haifa and one near a hospital in the northern town of Safed, injuring five people.

Israel also kept up pressure in the Gaza Strip as it searched for another soldier seized by Hamas-linked militants there. It bombed 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.

Diplomacy Efforts Begin As Fighting Flares

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Diplomats Seek Foreign Patrols for Mideast

By STEVEN ERLANGER and JAD MOUAWAD

JERUSALEM, July 17 — Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain and Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations called Monday for an international force in southern Lebanon to end the fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militia, which continued for a sixth deadly day.

The United States and Israel reacted skeptically, with President Bush urging tartly that Mr. Annan telephone President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, a key sponsor of Hezbollah, “and make something happen.” In Russia for a Group of 8 summit meeting, Mr. Bush expressed his views to Mr. Blair, using a vulgarity that was caught by an open microphone.

With the Lebanese death toll exceeding 200 and the Israeli count at 24, the increased efforts to turn to diplomacy showed little prospect of an immediate way out. In Lebanon, a vast majority of those killed were civilians, while in Israel about half of the dead were civilians.

In a televised speech to the Israeli Parliament, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to continue the offensive until Hezbollah freed two captured Israeli soldiers, the Lebanese Army was deployed along the border, and Hezbollah was effectively disarmed. Hezbollah has consistently rejected those terms.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to the Middle East to try to resolve the crisis, Bush administration officials said. The timing is still up in the air, and the trip will be a gamble. Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Daniel Ayalon, said on CNN that it might be too soon for Ms. Rice to accomplish anything.

Israel intensified its bombing across Lebanon on Monday, hitting an Army barracks in Tripoli and bases in Baalbek, both in the north. It shelled fuel tanks in Beirut’s port and continued pounding southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs. In the afternoon, Israel made a brief ground raid into Lebanon.

Israeli military officials said they succeeded in hitting a rocket launcher in Beirut carrying one of Hezbollah’s longest-range rockets, an Iranian Zelzal, with a range of 62 to 124 miles. The attack caused the rocket to flare in the air, leading to reports that an Israeli plane might have been shot down.

At least 43 Lebanese were killed Monday, according to Lebanese authorities, raising the toll to more than 200 since the Israeli offensive began Thursday. In one large group of fatalities, a missile hit a minibus, killing 12 civilians as they were driving through Rmeileh, a seaside town south of Beirut.

[Early Tuesday, Israeli warplanes pounded south Lebanon, killing six members of a family in Aytaroun village, Reuters reported.]

Some 30 rockets fired by Hezbollah hit Haifa and other parts of northern Israel. One rocket leveled much of an apartment house, critically wounding one person. Another Hezbollah rocket landed next to a hospital in Safed, slightly wounding six people.

Israel’s rejection of an international force stems partly from recent history. The foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, said in an interview that such a force must be able to intervene, unlike the current troops, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or Unifil, which was established in 1978.

“We have an experience with Unifil,” she said: When an Israeli was seized previously, “they just watched.”

The Israeli military wants to continue its largely aerial campaign against Hezbollah, with one senior Israeli official suggesting that Hezbollah’s capacity to launch missiles had already been degraded “about 30 percent.”

Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, on the Israeli general staff, said, “We have damaged Hezbollah but they still have significant operational capacity.” He noted the decline in rockets launched into Israel in the last two days — an average of 40 a day, down from initial highs of 150 — and said it was a testament to the damage caused by the Israelis.

“It will take time, it’s more than a matter of days on the military side,” he said. “We aim to change the situation and not go back to where we are.”

Israel’s deputy chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinski, told Agence France-Presse: “The operation will last for at least another week. The international pressure on Israel will allow us to continue for another week at least.”

In his speech, Prime Minister Olmert said, “The terrorist organizations we are fighting take their orders from the Tehran-Damascus axis of evil.” He said Israel would continue to fight until both Hezbollah and Hamas stopped attacks on Israel.

“In Lebanon, we will fight to enforce the demands long voiced by the international community,” he said. He demanded “an absolute end to fire” from Hezbollah, “the deployment of the Lebanese Army all along the southern border, and the departure of Hezbollah from this region and fulfillment of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559.”

That resolution calls for the pullout of all foreign forces from Lebanon, the disbanding and disarmament of all militias and the deployment of the Lebanese Army on the border. But the Security Council included no provisions to implement the agreement, and the Lebanese government, which contains some Hezbollah ministers, is considered too weak to do so.

Hezbollah is supported by Iran and Syria, and Mr. Bush’s pungent conclusion, as he summarized it to Mr. Blair in Russia was, “What they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this gotcha2, and it’s over.”

cont'd next post

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The current conflict began when Hezbollah fighters crossed into Israel and captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12, and Israel immediately attacked Hezbollah positions in Lebanon, calling the initial incursion an act of war. Hezbollah, a radical Shiite group, was established with Iranian help in 1982 to fight Israel, and both Iran and Syria supply the group with money and weaponry.

“Israel is making it possible for the Lebanese government to move in,” Foreign Minister Livni said. “In a way, Israel is doing the Lebanese government’s job for it” by taking on Hezbollah, which has been a state-within-a-state in southern Lebanon and southern Beirut.

“Israel shares the same goals as the international community, and for us the best option is full implementation of 1559,” Ms. Livni said. “That’s the way out of this crisis, and now is the time to implement it.”

It was a great accomplishment to get the Syrians largely out of Lebanon, she said, but there is more to do. “The Syrians have left,” she said, “but they have a kind of branch in Lebanon, and Hezbollah keeps an open front for Iran with Israel.”

At the United Nations, the Security Council went into its third session on Lebanon in four days, but beforehand John R. Bolton, the American ambassador, discouraged talk of a multilateral force. Three questions must be addressed, he said: “Would such a force be empowered to deal with the real problem? The real problem is Hezbollah. Would it be empowered to deal with countries like Syria and Iran that support Hezbollah?”

Third, he said, was how a new force would improve on Unifil or help strengthen Lebanese institutions.

Asked why the United States was not backing an immediate cease-fire, he said, “We could have a cease-fire in a matter of nanoseconds if Hezbollah and Hamas would release their kidnap victims and would stop engaging in rocket attacks and other acts of terrorism against Israel.”

A United Nations mission dispatched by Mr. Annan to the region will make its first visit to Israel on Friday and return to report at the end of the week.

Initially, Mr. Olmert refused to see the team, but changed his mind after Ms. Livni argued that a robust international force that could enforce Resolution 1559, blessed by the United Nations, would be an opportunity for Israel to be seen on the right side of international legitimacy.

The Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora, met with Mr. Annan’s team and said afterward, “We don’t want to talk about any steps before they become concrete, and I want to assure the Lebanese people that we are exerting all possible efforts to resolve the crisis.”

Michael Young, a Lebanese political analyst, said: “The Israelis are creating a humanitarian and social and economic crisis. But there is also a great deal of anger in the country at Hezbollah for inviting disaster on Lebanon.”

Officials in Washington said an attack on Friday on an Israeli naval vessel by a C-802 anti-ship cruise missile was Hezbollah’s most sophisticated to date. Given that advanced radar is needed to guide a C-802 to its target, Israeli officials have accused the Lebanese military of directly aiding Hezbollah fighters, and Israeli jets struck several radar targets in Lebanon over the weekend.

Of the 13,000 missiles and rockets estimated to be in Hezbollah’s arsenal, about 11,000 are believed to have been shipped from Iran. Western intelligence officials also say Syria has armed Hezbollah with short- and medium-range rockets, some of which have been used in the current attacks on Israel.

Western governments were rushing to set up evacuation plans for thousands of foreigners living in Lebanon or on vacation. British military helicopters started carrying some out of Lebanon on Monday. A Greek passenger ferry chartered by the French government reached Beirut Monday afternoon and loaded about 1,200 people before heading for Cyprus. Norway, Sweden, Italy and Ukraine also started organizing the departure of their citizens.

The United States is planning to start evacuating its citizens on Tuesday. The embassy said there was no mandatory evacuation. There are 8,000 Americans registered with the embassy, but the number of Americans or Lebanese also holding American citizenship could be three times larger.

At the Pentagon on Monday, officials said a commercial passenger ship had been contracted to ferry Americans from Lebanon to Cyprus. Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said the ship, the Orient Queen, would be able to carry 750 passengers at a time on the five-hour trip.

A Navy destroyer would be available to escort the ship, Mr. Whitman said.

By early Monday, 64 Americans, designated by the embassy as having special needs, had been evacuated by Marine helicopters.

In front of the French Consulate in Beirut, stranded tourists and foreign residents lugged their bags and lined up to register for evacuation.

“I’m worried this may drag on, and I’m leaving,” said Souad Mehdi, 32, a French citizen on holiday with her two sons. “My heart and thoughts are still here with my family and friends. I am scared I won’t see them again.”

Diplomats Seek Foreign Patrols for Mideast

[Shammu]

Tension between the state of Israel and its Arab neighbors began with its foundation

Alex Argote 
Just when the world was heaving a sigh of relief, thinking it had seen the worst of the age-old conflict in the Middle East, the thin facade of peace was shattered by yet another cycle of violence.

The ongoing border clashes between Israeli Defence Forces and Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon have already claimed the lives of scores of civilians of both countries and left hundreds more wounded, forever bearing the scars of a mindless conflict.

The Jewish people have had a long and troubled history. First as the wanderers and slaves of Biblical times and then as victims of persecution across Europe. After the end of the Second World War, the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust were given the nation state of Israel under the auspices of the United Nations.

The solution unfortunately spawned a host of unsolved problems when Arab countries reacted violently against the formation of the new state.

In 1947, the United Nations approved U.N. Resolution 181, thereby carving the British Mandate of Palestine into two divisions, the Jewish state of Israel and the Arab state. Jerusalem and Bethlehem, owing to their religious significance and being claimed as major landmarks by Christians, Jews and Muslims, were placed under United Nations administration.

Since the end of the Second World War there have been numerous conflicts between Israel and Arab nations.

In 1948 Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq invaded Israel.

The combined Arab military forces launched offensives in the north, west and south of Israel but the Israelis, led by able commanders and operating with clear and effective strategies, repulsed the assaults.

The war ended in 1949 after thousands of Arabs and Israelis had lost their lives. The 1948 war was followed in 1956 by the Suez crisis, then the 1967 Six-Day War broke out, years later, the Yom Kippur War erupted in 1973. During the 1980s, Israel invaded neighboring Lebanon to crush the Palestinian militants who had holed up in that country.

Most notable of all the confrontations is the 1967 Six-Day War fought between Israel and the Arab countries of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Syria.

Realizing that they were militarily disadvantaged the Israelis launched a pre-emptive strike and practically destroyed the superior Egyptian airplanes as they were sitting on the tarmac.

The destruction of the Egyptian airforce allowed the Israelis unopposed control of the skies and this advantage helped them to win. Their victory allowed them to capture sizable chunks of territory like the Gaza strip, the Sinai peninsula, the West Bank and the Golan heights.

The Six-Day War has had great implications for the geopolitics of the Middle East. Even the return of most of the captured territories by Ariel Sharon did little to temper down the waves of violence ripping across the region.

Now, the hostilities have been reignited. In July 2006 Hezbollah militants crossed the northern Israeli border and killed several soldiers before abducting two more.

Israel threw a naval blockade on all ports of entry to Lebanon to force the Lebanese authorities to pressure Hezbollah into releasing the captured Israeli soldiers. Israeli warplanes also swooped deep inside Lebanese airspace and pounded hundreds of targets, including Beirut airport and the Hezbollah headquarters in southern Beirut.

In retaliation, Hezbollah guerillas launched hundreds of rounds of screaming Katyuska rockets at the communities and cities of northern Israel.

The ongoing violence has not only killed civilians on both sides but it has also sent the price of oil skyrocketing like the death-dealing Katyuskas

So once again, images of wanton destruction are splashed over the frontpages and the wheels of hate and discord gear up again into the full swing of carnage and devastation.

Tension between the state of Israel and its Arab neighbors began with its foundation

[Shammu]

UN Shows True Colors During Israeli Fight Against Terror
 

By Jim Kouri

(AXcess News) New York - While all eyes are on developments at the United Nations headquarters in New York, a key UN official in Geneva held a press conference that critics point to as evidence of the UN's double-standard when it addresses Israel.

A senior UN official said on Friday that Israel's military blockade of Lebanon, as well as the Palestinian territories, was "obviously in violation of international law" as civilians suffered most from such actions.

"The law is simple. Civilians must be shielded. Civilians are protected persons. Civilian infrastructure is protected," UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland said during a press conference.

"If sealing off borders, if sealing off harbors, if bombing airports first and foremost means that innocent third parties cannot receive goods, cannot travel, cannot get to health facilities, cannot get their daily needs met ... Israel's blockade is obviously wrong" he said.

The UN's top humanitarian aid official also urged the international community to respond to an emergency appeal for aid for the Palestinians and said civilians must be spared in the spiraling Middle East conflict.

"Never before have the Palestinians needed our compassion and solidarity more," he said.

"The crisis in Palestinian areas has been building since 2000, but it has never been worse in this decade than it has over the last few days," he said.

However, Egeland made no call for solidarity and compassion for the Israeli people being killed by terrorists from two groups -- Hezbollah and Hamas. In fact, Egeland did not mention the terrorists responsible for the escalation in violence. He also failed to mention Iran's and Syria's complicity in the growing violence in the region.

Egeland was speaking to mostly European reporters following a meeting of aid agencies and donor governments. He said the UN was facing a substantial shortfall in its $386 million appeal for aid in Palestinian areas. It has received less than one-third of the funding it needs to help deal with a humanitarian crisis caused by escalating violence in the conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis, he complained.

Again, he failed to mention the shortfall came about as a result of the Palestinian people voting terrorists into positions of political power.

Egeland condemned Israel's bombing of civilian facilities in Gaza, which he said had paralyzed electricity and water supplies. The sanitation system in Gaza was falling apart, food and medical supplies were running short and disease rates were climbing, he warned.

The closest Egeland came to addressing the suffering and fears of the Israeli people is when he urged all parties in the conflict to exercise restraint.

Meanwhile, in New York City, the Lebanese ambassador is playing "the victim" in the fighting between the Iranian-created, Syria-backed Hezbollah and the Jewish State. However, he avoided discussing how Lebanon not only harbors an avowed terrorist group, they also allowed them to serve in the Lebanese legislature in order to appease them.

In the midst of this violence, throughout the day on cable news channels, one appeaser after another goes before the television cameras and pontificates about the need to talk.

"We must sit down and talk."  "Our leaders must have the combatants talk." "We must send a UN mission to the region to talk."

What if someone were killing members of your family: sons, daughters, cousins, nieces, uncles, aunts are all being killed or threatened by a maniac. Would you sit and talk to the maniacal murderer? I hope not. Only a coward would do such a thing and consider himself or herself a reasonable person.

The disturbing and ugly truth is that talk cannot and will not quell the rising tide of radical Islamic fascism. The Israelis are fighting the same enemy the US is supposed to be fighting and Americans should keep there eyes on what's happening in the Middle East.

But they must also observe what's happening in a building in Midtown Manhattan in which world leaders are plotting the New World Order, which means a maverick nation such as Israel must be destroyed. Israel stands in the way of the unification of the Middle East and the Muslim nations must be appeased even if 7 million Jews have to die. Sound familiar?

Ponder this: The United Nations has been discussing for months what resolutions regarding Iran and North Korea should be passed. But they were able to draw up a resolution and present it to their Security Council condemning Israel in a mere few hours. And it would have passed if the US didn't blocked it.

UN Shows True Colors During Israeli Fight Against Terror

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IDF arrests eight fugitives throughout West Bank
, THE JERUSALEM POST    Jul. 18, 2006

The IDF arrested eight wanted fugitives throughout the West Bank on Tuesday.

Of those, two belonged to the Fatah, two to the Hamas, two were Tanzim operatives and one was an Islamic Jihad member.

IDF arrests eight fugitives throughout West Bank

[Shammu]

Israel Sends Ground Forces into Lebanon;UNSC Failed to Act on Conflicts
from china

Israeli ground troops have entered southern Lebanon to attack Hezbollah bases on the border, a government spokesman said Monday. Israel's six-day-old offensive against Hezbollah following the capture of two Israeli soldiers earlier had been an aerial campaign.

The government spokesman, Asaf Shariv, said the Israeli army chief of staff confirmed that ground troops were also in Lebanon.

Earlier Monday, Israeli fighter bombers pummeled Lebanese infrastructure, setting Beirut's port ablaze and hitting a Hezbollah stronghold in attacks that killed at least 17 people and wounded at least 53 others in overnight attacks, Lebanese security officials said as the death toll from the conflict rose to more than 200 - 196 in Lebanon and 24 in Israel. Hezbollah retaliated by firing rockets that flew farther into Israel than ever before.

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 June 28 after Hamas-linked militants carried out a cross-border attack on a military outpost, killing two soldiers and capturing another. Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas joined the fray last week, attacking a military patrol in northern Israel, killing eight soldiers and capturing two.

Israel said its planes and artillery struck 60 targets in Lebanon overnight as its military sought punishment for the barrage of 20 rockets on Haifa, the country's third-largest city and one that had not been hit before the current round of fighting began July 12.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed "far-reaching consequences" for the Haifa attack. The eight deaths made it Hezbollah's deadliest strike ever on Israel.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also arrived in Syria for talks with the government on the crisis. Syria and Iran have applauded Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers, which triggered the offensive.

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, British Prime Minister Tony 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.

UN Secretary-General Kofi 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.

Foreigners continued to flee and several nations moved to get their citizens out. Russia sent an airliner to Jordan on Monday as it prepared to evacuate its citizens from Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. Britain also airlifted 40 of its citizens from Lebanon over the weekend and another group was taken out Monday, Ambassador James Watt said. A French ship was due to arrive in the port later Monday to evacuate Europeans.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said Sunday that despite Israel's attacks, the guerrillas were "in their full strength and power" and that their "missile stockpiles are still full."

"When the Zionists behave like there are no rules and no red lines and no limits to the confrontation, it is our right to behave in the same way," Nasrallah said in a televised address, looking tired. He said Hezbollah had hit Haifa because of Israel's strikes on Lebanese civilians.

Syria and Jordan on Monday sent relief to the Lebanese people who had gone through Israeli bombardment over the past six days.

Syrian Ministry of Health provided Lebanon with six tons of medical and nutritional materials, the official SANA news agency reported.

"Since the first day of the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, Syria has sent 18 tons of aids for different needs," a ministry source said.

Meanwhile, the Jordanian Hashemite Charity Foundation sent urgent relief to Lebanon and the Palestinians to help them overcome the ordeal inflicted by the consistent Israeli aggressions, local media reported.

A total of 20 trucks loaded with 300 tons of tents, pharmaceuticals, children food and other foodstuffs left for Lebanon while another 25 trucks loaded with 350 tons of relief drove to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Syria has also received hundreds of Lebanese families at the Institution for Blinds, in cooperation with the Naba Civil Association, and offered them all required needs, SANA said. "There are enough places to receive all the incomers," said Labor and Social Affairs Minister Diala al-ubgone86 Aref.

Aref said the ministry, along with the Secretariat General of the Syrian-Lebanese Supreme Council, has set up centers on the borders between the two countries to receive the Lebanese people.

Syrian border crossings have become Lebanon's main outlet to the outside world since Israel imposed air and sea blockade on the country during a massive offensive launched on July 12 in response to the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Lebanese Hezbollah.

Also on Monday, the UN Security Council held closed-door consultations on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Lebanon but failed to decide what the world body should do to stop the bloodshed.
 
The 15-member council had convened on the same agenda Saturday, reaching no agreement on adopting a statement calling for a ceasefire, with Lebanon accusing the United States of blocking the effort.

"Whatever measures can be taken, even humanitarian measures, cannot be taken under fire," Nouhad Mahmoud, the Lebanese special envoy, said. "That's the urgent thing ... without the ceasefire, nothing can be achieved."

US Ambassador John Bolton said he expects no decision from the council until a three-member UN crisis team dispatched to the Middle East returns and reports back to the council.

The team, which Secretary-General Kofi Annan decided to send to the region last week, has already visited Egypt and is now holding meetings with Lebanese officials in Beirut. The team also planned to travel to Syria, Jordan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Speaking to reporters after the council wrapped up the meeting, Ibrahim Gambari, UN undersecretary general for political affairs, said he briefed the council on the situation in the Middle East.

Describing what was happening in the region as a "situation of open war," he said the conflict would bring devastating consequences to not only Lebanon and Israel, but also the entire Middle East.

He also noted that the humanitarian situation in Lebanon "is becoming more sever," saying the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was dispatching a four-member team to Beirut and Damascus to provide emergency humanitarian coordination support.

French Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said it was important for the council to work on "a contribution for a sustainable solution," noting that work towards such a lasting solution was much more important than any resolution, press statement or other declaration that could be produced quickly.

"There have been many thoughts and discussions going on and we have to take stock of all these ideas and work on a contribution of the council towards a sustainable solution," he replied to a question about a proposed multinational force and other possible long-term measures.

After Monday's consultations, the French and US ambassadors called for the implementation of resolution 1559 adopted by the council in September, 2004 which called for the withdrawal of all remaining foreign forces from Lebanon, disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias.

Israel Sends Ground Forces into Lebanon;UNSC Failed to Act on Conflicts