Israel aims to evict Lebanese civilians from their villages by bombs

Israel said today that its forces continued operations to strike what Israel describes as forward infrastructure of Hizbullah terror, saying its infantry, engineers and armor forces took over command posts in the city of A-Teibeh and operated around the villages of Al-Adeisa and Rav A-Talatin, west of the community of Metula.

Israel said said it clashed with Hizbullah using who used light weapons, anti-tank missiles and mortars "against Israeli forces operating in the vicinity. There were no (Israeli military) casualties during this fighting." However, a report noted that Hizbullah said it had four of its members killed, and while more than 19 Israeli soldiers were killed.

Isarel's military said "During the night (Israeli military) aircraft struck a number of targets throughout Lebanon, including two launchers used to fire missiles into Israel; two cells of terrorists on two different occasions when they were seen fleeing the site of a missile launch."

However, a report said that the Israeli claim of targeting a car with that Hizbullah official was not a Hizbullah official as Israel claimed. Israel said it struck a road connecting Lebanon to Syria.

Israel's prime minister said he is interested that an effective multi-national force come to Lebanon in order to deploy along Blue Line and at the border crossings between Syria and Lebanon.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says there is a growing consensus on a possible settlement to the conflict between Israel and Hizbullah and expects to see the UN Security Council act on a proposal within the week.

"Based on what we have accomplished, and the urgency of the situation, we will call for United Nations Security Council action this week on a comprehensive settlement that includes three parts: a cease fire, the political principles that provide for a long-term settlement, and the authorization of an international force to support the Lebanese army in keeping the peace," she told reporters yesterday prior to leaving Isarel.

US President George W. Bush spoke yesterday of the necessary conditions for a sustainable long-term settlement include the extension of Lebanese government sovereignty over its entire territory, the introduction of an international stabilization force and an end to Iranian and Syrian support for Hizbullah.

Rice's statements came one day after an Israeli air strike in Qana, Lebanon, killed dozens of civilians, including many children. Rice said she was deeply saddened by such losses, particularly the death of children on both sides of the conflict.

"Too many families have been displaced. Too many people urgently need medical care, or are living in shelters," she said. But she qualified her statement adding "I know what caused this. And I know that there are underlying circumstances having to do with the need to really make this a strong and democratic government that can really extend its authority, that can rebuild its army, that can shield itself from harmful foreign influences, that cannot... have its territory be used in the way that Hizbullah, without its knowledge, used its territory, really sinking then the whole area into the kind of crisis that we've got."

The US is the main supplier of military equipment and the main political backer of Israel.

More than 600 Lebanese civilians have been killed by Israel and close to 800,000 displaced, as a result of what Israel said were two Hizbullah-captured Israeli soldiers that Israel wanted back and refused to exchange for detainees held in Israeli prisons.

An Israeli report said the government approved widening attacks in southern Lebanon, and that 15,000 reservist were being called.

Israel's Prime Minister's Office yesterday told the Lebanese civilians in southern villages that Israel would not strike them for 48 hours to give them a chance to leave their villages. In what seems to be a pattern of intentional destruction of civilian lives for military and political objectives, Israel is seen by some as trying to empty the Lebanese villages to make them uninhabited, for its convenience and control of the area. This act seems can be seen as born of desperation of how to get itself out of the problem it has gotten itself into, by compounding aggression and harm to civilians. David Gergen observed today on Fox news that Israel has gotten itself into a bind, saying the current situation is a political disaster for Israel, and for the US, and it looks like it may be also heading to a military disaster as well, adding that Israeli does not know how to stop without looking like the looser.

Israel repeatedly violates Lebanon's sovereignty, air and sea, on a near daily basis, for which it has been asked repeatedly by the UN to stop doing so. Israel, shows no regard for international law, attacking Palestinian and Lebanese civilians and infrastructure. It does so knowing it has the best weapons given to it from the United States, and under the protection of the US veto at the UN Security Council where the US shoots down resolutions against Israel. Many international organizations have declared Israel to be in violation of International Humanitarian Law, Geneva Convention, organizations such as the Red Cross, Amnesty international, and others. The most recent public declaration that Israel has broken the Geneva Convention came most recently ago from the neutral country of Switzerland. The UN Human Rights Council weeks ago also voted against Israel and agreed to investigate the Israeli acts. Israel frames its aggressions as defensive moves, without mentioning that it is an occupier and outlaw of international resolutions and laws.