MIDDLE EAST: Israeli defence minister Amir Peretz did not rule out the possibility yesterday that Israel would launch a ground offensive in Lebanon, just hours before at least six more Israeli soldiers were killed in fierce close-quarter battles with Hizbullah fighters just inside Lebanon.
"We have no intention of occupying Lebanon, but we also have no intention of retreating from any military measures," Mr Peretz said during a tour of northern Israel, which has absorbed hundreds of rockets fired by Hizbullah militants since fighting erupted nine days ago.
"If we have to carry out operations that require we operate everywhere, we will do this without hesitation."
Asked whether the army would send large numbers of troops into Lebanon, the head of Israel's ground forces, Maj Gen Beni Gantz, replied that "operations on the ground" are also necessary.
Israeli troops, mainly special forces, have been operating inside Lebanon, carrying out strikes on Hizbullah positions, military officials have confirmed.
The soldiers, operating with the backing of fighter aircraft and helicopter gunships, have been searching for underground tunnels, often dug beneath homes in villages in south Lebanon, where Israel says Hizbullah fighters are hiding and where the rockets they are firing into Israel have been stashed.
Occasionally the fighters emerge from the tunnels, fire a rocket into Israel, and then disappear back into their hideouts.
But this activity falls far short of a massive ground invasion that Mr Peretz referred to yesterday, and the debate in Israel - both among politicians and among media commentators - is growing over whether Israel can achieve its stated goal of significantly weakening Hizbullah by means of an aerial offensive alone.
Some Israeli columnists have begun suggesting that the massive aerial bombardment is striking Lebanon harder than Hizbullah and that the Shia organisation cannot be destroyed within a few days, and certainly not from the air.
"The problem is that a ground operation is likely to result in many casualties, and require a large reserve call-up, which will erode public support for the military operation," diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote yesterday in the daily Haaretz.
"And this is the reason, even though the plans are ready, why there is no green light for the Israeli forces to move into Lebanon."
The deaths of at least six soldiers yesterday, and another two who were killed in clashes with Hizbullah inside Lebanon just 24 hours earlier, will have increased fears on the Israeli side about the number of casualties the army would incur in the event of a massive ground push, especially with Hizbullah forces dug in.
The "Lebanon trauma", as some in Israel call it, is still fresh in the minds of many Israelis: the Jewish state occupied a buffer zone in south Lebanon for 18 years before withdrawing in May 2000 after suffering hundreds of casualties in incessant Hizbullah attacks on troops patrolling the zone.
The former head of Israel's national security council, Giora Eiland, yesterday questioned the wisdom of a ground invasion, saying that "the price of such a move will be high, its effectiveness much lower, and we certainly can't decide on such a move right now."
In a letter to soldiers that was released to the media, army chief Lieut Gen Dan Halutz said that the fighting "could last much longer" and that the army would "operate for as long as necessary until security is returned to the state of Israel".
But Israeli leaders know the military offensive is not open-ended. With the US giving tacit backing to Israel, the assessment in Jerusalem is that the military has a green light to continue its operations until the arrival of secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.