Attacks widen as diplomats struggle over ceasefire plan
Israeli warplanes intensified airstrikes and launched a new commando raid in south Lebanon today, killing at least 23 people in one of the heaviest tolls in days.
Lebanon’s prime minister, choking back tears, pleaded for a cease-fire but demanded that any UN plan require a full Israeli withdrawal from his country.
Fuad Saniora’s emotional address to Arab League diplomats including a stunning claim that more than 40 people had just been killed by Israeli bombs in the border village of Houla.
Later, he said just one person was killed and blamed the error on information from the battlefield, but offered no other explanation.
The diplomatic push for a cease-fire was revving up, but with many obstacles in the way.
Saniora has proposed speeding up the deployment of Lebanese troops in the south to assure a halt to fighting, but said Israeli troops have to pull out of Lebanese territory as part of a ceasefire, an aide said.
Saniora got strong backing from Arab nations, whose foreign ministers gathered in Beirut and calling for changes in a US-French ceasefire plan to include Lebanon’s proposals.
A high-level delegation, including Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, headed to the United Nations to press for revisions.
The village of Houla lies near the heart of ground fighting, and rescue workers may have been unable to retrieve many of the bodies to get a firm count on casualties.
UN peacekeepers said Hezbollah guerrillas fired rockets from near the village earlier today.
But at least 23 other Lebanese were confirmed dead by rescue and security officials in bombardment elsewhere – the highest one-day Lebanese death toll in days, amid what appeared to be a stepped up Israeli onslaught after Hezbollah rockets killed 15 people in northern Israel on yesterday.
An Israeli soldier died today in ground fighting in the south, the military said.
Rescue officials had initially reported seeing five bodies following an air strike near the southern port of Tyre, but they later said the deaths were not confirmed and were based on witness reports of people trapped in the rubble.
