Hizbullah fighters staged several attacks on Israeli soldiers inside the Israeli-occupied "security zone" in south Lebanon yesterday while Israeli planes targeted Hizbullah positions. However, there were no fatalities, and both sides were clearly working to keep civilians out of the conflict.
Israel cancelled the state of emergency in the north and told hundreds of thousands of people that, after three days, they could safely emerge from their underground bomb-shelters.
A meeting planned for yesterday to clarify four-year-old "understandings" that were drawn up to prevent the kind of escalation in fighting that has occurred over the past two weeks was postponed to today.
Representatives from Israel, Syria and Lebanon, with the US and France in mediating roles, are to convene at Nakura in south Lebanon.
Each side charges that the other has breached those understandings: Israel accuses Hizbullah of using civilian cover to fire on its troops; Lebanon accuses Israel of hitting its civilian infrastructure.
Israeli leaders hope these talks will quickly be followed by a resumption of formal peace negotiations.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, has promised to withdraw from the security zone by July, ideally under the terms of an agreement with Syria and Lebanon.
A survey published yesterday suggests that 57 per cent of Israelis want him to order that pullout, even if it has to be unilateral.
The desire to get out of Lebanon has been heightened by the deaths of six Israeli soldiers in the past two weeks.