Israel readies ground assault

Warns Lebanese away from border

By Charles A. Radin and Rafael D. Frankel, Globe Correspondent

AVIVIM, Israel -- Israeli aircraft and artillery pounded suspected Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and tanks gathered on the border yesterday as signs mounted that a substantial Israeli ground incursion was imminent.

Small units of Israeli ground forces ventured repeatedly into southern Lebanon in search of Hezbollah rocket caches in advance of the anticipated offensive, and a top Israeli commander said about 100 Hezbollah fighters had been killed in the 10 days of combat.

The Israel Defense Forces dropped thousands of leaflets on villages in southern Lebanon and made telephone calls to residents warning them to leave an area of about 20 miles wide between the border and the Litani River.

Israel yesterday ordered several thousand reserves to report to duty. A military source said three battalions -- about 800 soldiers -- already have been deployed in Lebanon and 3,000 more soldiers are on standby to go if needed.

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said at a nationally televised briefing in Tel Aviv that any military incursion into Lebanon would be limited in scope.

``We will fight terror wherever it is because if we do not fight it, it will fight us. If we don't reach it, it will reach us," Halutz said. ``We will also conduct limited ground operations as much as needed in order to harm the terror that harms us."

Israelis have said they have no intention of reoccupying southern Lebanon six years after their withdrawal ended an 18-year occupation. Rather, they intend to root out Hezbollah fighters and perhaps clear the way for an international buffer force in the heavily Shi'ite Muslim region, where Hezbollah has widespread support.

The ground operation would involve destroying Hezbollah hideouts, tunnels, rocket launchers, and weapons stockpiles, Israeli military officials said.

In response to a request from Israel, the Bush administration is speeding up shipment of precision-guided bombs to Israel, The New York Times reported in today's editions. The bombs are part of a package of weapons approved for sale last year.

As Israeli air strikes continued yesterday, Lebanese health officials said the country's death toll rose to 362 and that most of the victims were civilians. Lebanese soldiers yesterday buried 72 people killed in recent bombings in a mass grave outside the coastal city of Tyre.

Fifteen rockets launched by Hezbollah heavily damaged two buildings and wounded six people in Haifa, Israel's major northern city, but there were no deaths or critical injuries. More than 80 missiles from Lebanon landed on cities and towns across northern Israel, wounding a total of 30 people, the army said.

As thousands more refugees joined the flow of about 500,000 people estimated by the Lebanese government to be fleeing the fighting, Israeli planes and artillery raked the southern border region, a stronghold of Hezbollah militiamen and rocket launchers since Israel withdrew from the area in 2000.

At Avivim, a mountaintop Israeli cooperative on the Lebanese border that has become a rallying and staging point for Israeli special forces, tanks, armored personnel carriers, other military vehicles, and a contingent of troops massed just before sundown yesterday. A soldier in the area, who declined to give his name because he was not authorized to speak with the media, said an operation into Lebanon from Avivim was imminent.

``After sundown it all starts," he said. ``This is just the calm before the storm."

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she would visit the region beginning tomorrow . But she said a quick cease-fire in the conflict would be a ``false promise " and that any solution would need to address the root cause of the conflict. The United States has supported Israel's contention that the underlying problem is Hezbollah's continued role as an armed militia in southern Lebanon on the border with Israel.

Israel yesterday agreed to open a route for humanitarian supplies into Lebanon, where food and fuel were running low.

The evacuation of foreigners from Beirut picked up speed yesterday. US officials reported that about one-third of the 25,000 Americans in Lebanon would be evacuated by the weekend.

On the mountainside downhill from Avivim, batteries of Israeli gunners sent volley after volley of artillery fire across the border. Each round left a blaze of fire in the muzzle of the cannon and set off alarms in cars parked nearby. Army spokesmen said the fire was directed mostly at mobile launching pads for Katyusha rockets that has been identified by air force reconnaissance craft.

Among the spectators was Haim Avraham , 57, whose son Benyamin was killed six years ago by Hezbollah as he patrolled nearby Mount Dov.

Before one round, a gunner popped his head out of an armored personnel carrier and shouted down to Avraham: ``Haim, this one is for Benny."

``Yes, yes," Avraham shouted, pumping his fist in the air, ``and send another one from me too!"

Avraham said he had driven to the conflict zone from Petach Tikvah, in central Israel, ``to strengthen the soldiers. We need to help them do their work and finish the job against Hezbollah."

Army spokesman Marcus Sheff said Israel also is massing vehicles at a number of other locations along the Lebanese border. ``There are several military plans we have in the drawer which we can pull out at any time," he said.

Despite the comparatively lower level of fighting yesterday, there appeared to be broad agreement in diplomatic circles yesterday that the time is not yet right for an all-out attempt to reach a cease-fire.

Terje Roed-Larsen , the United Nations special envoy to the Middle East, who in the past has been a cheerleader for truces between Israel and its foes and has criticized Israel when he felt it was not yielding enough, said in an interview with CNN yesterday, ``I think we have to recognize and be realistic here that for the moment a cease-fire is not possible."

And Rice reinforced the Bush administration position that a cease-fire under which Hezbollah would not be disarmed would be worthless.

``A cease-fire would be a false promise if it simply returns us to the status quo, allowing terrorists to launch attacks at the time and terms of their choosing and to threaten innocent people, Arab and Israeli," Rice said. ``That would be a guarantee of future violence."

Army chief Halutz said Hezbollah miscalculated if it believed Israel would not respond to aggression. ``The restraint which we showed over the course of years is interpreted . . . among the terrorists as weakness," the army chief said. ``On this count, they made a horrible mistake by assuming that we would persist in holding back and restraining ourselves."

He said that about 100 Hezbollah gunmen have been killed since the offensive began 10 days ago.

Charles A. Radin reported from Jerusalem and Rafael D. Frankel from Avivim. Globe correspondent Alon Tuval contributed from Haifa. Material from Associated Press also was used.

©2006 Globe Newspaper Company