Original source URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/24/world/middleeast/24mideast.html July 24, 2006 THE OVERVIEW Israel Weighs Foreign Troops on Border By CRAIG S. SMITH KIRYAT SHMONA, Israel, July 23 ‹ As Israel again pounded southern Lebanon from the air and ground on Sunday and the Hezbollah militia rained dozens more rockets on Israel¹s north, diplomatic efforts increased with growing discussion of a multinational armed force being placed in the area. Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Israel was interested in a NATO-led force, and the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, spoke of one consisting of European Union members with combat experience and the authority to take control of Lebanon¹s border and crossing points. American officials said they were open to the idea but did not expect American troops to be part of the force. ³It¹s a new idea, we¹ll certainly take it seriously,² John R. Bolton, the American ambassador to the United Nations, told CNN¹s ³Late Edition.² In Washington, President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with a delegation from Saudi Arabia, and officials on both sides said the makeup of a potential international peacekeeping force was discussed. [Page A8.] Israel and the United States initially responded skeptically to the idea of an international force, first proposed last Monday by Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain and Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany and Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy of France were in Israel on Sunday and Ms. Rice was scheduled to arrive Monday. She is expected to go to Rome later in the week for a conference aimed at ending the fighting. While the Israelis and Americans seemed increasingly focused on a multinational force for southern Lebanon that would work with the Lebanese Army to remove the risk to Israel of Hezbollah, it remained unclear how the European countries whose forces would participate would react and how Arab countries viewed the idea. Moreover, in Lebanon the talk was of exchanging the two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah for prisoners in Israel, while the Israelis clearly want a more comprehensive deal that will end the risk Hezbollah poses it on its border. Mr. Peretz repeated Sunday that the offensive was not the start of a full-scale invasion of Lebanon and that Israel¹s activity would remain restricted to well-defined raids. He said the military operations would complement ³broad international activity to complete the process² of subduing Hezbollah and restoring security along its northern border. The fighting on Sunday reflected both Israel¹s heavy reliance on air power to defeat Hezbollah, and the resilient ability of Hezbollah to lob dozens of rockets into Israel despite 12 days of punishing bombings. Israeli planes continued to blast southern Lebanese cities, killing at least 8 civilians, including a Lebanese photographer, and wounding at least 45, Lebanese officials said. The violence struck a number of civilian vehicles. A minibus carrying 18 people fleeing the village of Tireh was hit by a missile. Witnesses and medical officials said three were killed and 13 wounded. Layal Najib, 23, a freelance photographer, was killed when an Israeli missile struck next to her car on the road between the villages of Qana and Siddiqine. Ms. Najib worked at Al Jaras magazine and was also a freelance for Agence France-Presse and several other news outlets. Asked about the attacks on civilian vehicles, an Israeli Army spokesman said the military had hit ³approximately 20 vehicles suspected of serving the terror organization in the launching of missiles at Israel, and were recognized fleeing from or staying at missile-launching areas.² The deaths brought the toll to at least 380, Lebanese authorities said. Lebanon does not differentiate between civilian and Hezbollah deaths. The Israeli military says it has killed more than 100 Hezbollah fighters. The military also said that Hezbollah had fired nearly 100 rockets on northern Israel on Sunday. Two people were killed when at least 13 rockets fell on Haifa, the country¹s third-largest city, bringing Israel¹s civilian death toll in the conflict to 17. Israel has lost 19 soldiers in the fighting. Israel has not said how many ground troops it has in Lebanon, but the Israeli news media said Sunday that it was in the thousands. In Beirut, a senior Lebanese official gave the first word since the fighting began of the Israeli soldiers whose capture set off the crisis on July 12. Lebanon¹s foreign minister, Fawzi Salloukh, a Shiite close to Hezbollah, said the soldiers were ³in good health,² and called on the United Nations to have a third party arrange for a prisoner exchange. He did not say whether he had actually seen the captured soldiers. The government has distanced itself from Hezbollah¹s actions, but has not been overtly critical of it. In a telephone interview with CNN, the Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora, sharply criticized Israeli attacks. ³Israel is committing serious crimes against humanity,² he said. ³They are fragmenting the country piece by piece.² The United Nations¹ top relief official, Jan Egeland, toured the destruction in Beirut and said it would take billions of dollars to repair damage. He was expected to travel later to Israel to help coordinate the delivery of relief aid. As many as 600,000 people have been displaced by the fighting, according to the World Health Organization. The Israeli military announced that aid could enter Lebanon through Beirut¹s port and be transferred to regional aid centers across Lebanon, in coordination with its forces. It did not specify how aid would reach the south, where the aid is most needed. Cyprus continued funneling thousands of foreign evacuees from Lebanon to safety in their home countries on Sunday, welcoming an estimated 6,000 people at its two main ports in Larnaca and Limassol, according to government officials. By the end of the day, many of the evacuees had left the island on charter flights arranged by their governments, mostly through the airport at Larnaca, which is operating well beyond its normal capacity with about 250 arrivals and departures a day, according to airport officials. Nabih Berri, the speaker of Lebanon¹s Parliament, a Shiite and head of the rival Amal movement, said Hezbollah had agreed to allow the Lebanese government to lead any negotiations toward a prisoner exchange. So far, however, Israel has rejected such an exchange, saying the problem of Hezbollah is much larger and needs to be solved. Brig. Gen. Shuki Shachar, the chief of staff of the Northern Command of the Israeli Army, said some ground forces had reached ³the depths² of Lebanon and at least three Lebanese villages were under Israeli control. Tens of thousands of Lebanese fled north to the Lebanese port of Sidon, which Israel attacked for the first time on Sunday. Four people were wounded in the attack, on a Hezbollah-related religious center. Israeli warplanes and helicopters also attacked Hezbollah positions in and around the eastern Bekaa region town of Baalbek and bombed a textile factory in the border town of Manara. General Shachar said the Lebanese civilian death toll was light, considering that Israeli fighter aircraft and attack helicopters had made 1,500 sorties over Lebanon and that Israel had fired more than 20,000 artillery rounds into the country in the last 12 days. ³This is a war, and in war sometimes there are mistakes,² the general said, noting that it is particularly difficult to avoid civilian casualties when fighting a guerrilla force mixed in an indigenous population. Israel has been warning the civilian population of the south to move north to avoid getting hurt. ³The reason for the evacuation of the population is to leave us open space and an open area to hit military and terrorist targets and not to deal with the problem of civilians,² General Shachar said. Israeli military officials say they have found thousands of Katyusha rockets and other missiles hidden in well-camouflaged underground bunkers and also in mosques, hospitals and schools. They say Iran is trying to send fresh supplies of ammunition and rockets to Lebanon through Syria. The general said Israeli troops in Maroun al-Ras are fighting Hezbollah forces in the larger town of Bint Jbail, a mile or two deeper into the country. Hezbollah confirmed Sunday that Israeli forces had occupied Maroun al-Ras and said three of its fighters had been killed there, but said in a statement that it had, in turn, inflicted losses on Israeli forces. ³Our steadfast mujahedeen have presented through the Maroun al-Ras confrontations and the losses of the enemy ‹ in troops, tanks and helicopters ‹ an example of what the confrontations will be in every town, village and position,² the statement said. An Italian soldier, Capt. Roberto Punzo, working with the United Nations observer team in southern Lebanon, was wounded by Hezbollah gunfire during the fighting. He was evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in Haifa. Hezbollah rockets continued to fall close to the border. The town of Kiryat Shmona was engulfed in dense white smoke by brush fires started by rockets, most of which fell in forests and fields of this sparsely populated area. Yellow crop-dusters circled overhead dropping red fire suppressant. In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian militants fired a dozen smaller Qassam rockets into southern Israel on Sunday without causing serious damage. The attacks suggested that earlier reports of a Palestinian Authority attempt to broker a unilateral cease-fire among the militants had failed. Sabrina Tavernise contributed reporting from Beirut for this article, and Renwick McLean from Larnaca, Cyprus. 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