MIDDLE EAST: As the Israeli government yesterday approved the UN ceasefire resolution calling for an end to hostilities between Israel and Hizbullah, fighting escalated to an intensity not yet seen since the conflict erupted a month ago, and it was not clear how or if the shooting would end when the truce officially goes into effect at 5am GMT today.
Government ministers, who voted overwhelmingly in favour of the UN resolution with only one minister out of 25 abstaining, publicly praised the terms of the ceasefire resolution, but in private expressed fears over whether it would be effectively implemented.
Twenty-four Israeli soldiers were killed on Saturday in clashes with Hizbullah and there were more casualties yesterday, with troops, tanks and armoured vehicles pushing deep into Lebanon as Israel continued with a massive ground push toward the Litani river, some 30km from the Israeli border. The deaths brought to 108 the number of Israeli soldiers killed in the fighting so far.
Israel tripled its forces in Lebanon over the weekend to 30,000, with helicopters airlifting large numbers of soldiers to points deep inside south Lebanon.
Five soldiers were killed on Saturday evening when Hizbullah succeeded in shooting down a helicopter that had just dropped off troops. Many of the Israeli casualties over the weekend were the result of anti-tank fire by Hizbullah.
The Shia group also unleashed a massive rocket salvo yesterday, with over 250 missiles hitting northern Israel in what was the heaviest barrage of rockets since Hizbullah's July 12th abduction of two Israeli soldiers sparked the fighting.
One Israeli was killed and two were seriously injured in the rocket attacks, bringing to 39 the number of Israeli civilians killed.
Asked why Israel had launched a massive ground push despite the UN ceasefire vote, Israeli officials said the operation was meant to weaken Hizbullah forces in south Lebanon as much as possible before the territory is handed over to the Lebanese army and an international peacekeeping force, as stipulated by the UN resolution.
Israeli leaders fear a situation in which the arrival of an international force in south Lebanon is delayed and its troops become targets for Hizbullah fighters. The leader of the Shia organization, Hassan Nasrallah, said on Saturday that despite the ceasefire, Hizbullah would continue to attack Israeli troops as long as they remained on Lebanese soil.
Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni said yesterday that Israel would not allow its soldiers to become "sitting ducks" in Lebanon.
Israel fears that if it withdraws its forces before the arrival of foreign troops, Hizbullah will fill the vacuum in south Lebanon. Military officials believe fighting on the ground will continue until then - a scenario that could threaten the ceasefire.
Prime minister Ehud Olmert, who has come in for increasing criticism over his management of the conflict in recent days, told his cabinet that the UN resolution would create the conditions for the disarming of Hizbullah and that it would cease being a "state within a state".
But Ms Livni sounded less categorical, conceding that the UN resolution was "the best that could be extracted from the Security Council" and that it "could bring about the disarming of Hizbullah". She said the major achievement for Israel in the ceasefire agreement was the expansion of the Unifil force already operating in south Lebanon to 15,000 troops and its authorisation to use force to impose its authority.
According to the resolution, Hizbullah will not be allowed to operate south of the Litani river, thus forcing it away from the border with Israel. There will also be an embargo on weapons being transferred to the Shia group, but it will not be disarmed.
The resolution calls for the release of the two abducted Israeli soldiers in the preamble, but does not make it a condition for the cessation of hostilities. Mr Olmert met yesterday with the parents of the two captured soldiers and reportedly told them he would negotiate for their release.
Mr Olmert told his ministers yesterday that there were many issues, "both in the fighting and in the civilian rear" that need to be checked. But, he said, "now is not the time to deal with this".
The son of renowned Israeli novelist and peace activist David Grossman was killed by an anti-tank missile while serving in Lebanon on Saturday, just three days after the author joined two other famous Israeli writers, Amos Oz and AB Yehoshua, in publicly urging the government to end the war with Hizbullah.