Israel Readies Broader Push as Losses Rise

Israel suffered its worst military death toll in a month of fighting in southern Lebanon, when 15 soldiers were killed Wednesday during skirmishes with Hezbollah guerrillas.

The deaths came as the Israeli “security Cabinet” approved an expansion of the army’s ground offensive against Hezbollah, heralding a possible escalation of Israel’s war against the militant group while diplomats struggled to come up with a cease-fire agreement acceptable to both sides.

Hundreds of Israeli tanks, missile launchers and other armor massed in the north Wednesday night, firing a thunderous barrage of artillery into Lebanon as soldiers crossed the border from the Metulla area in larger numbers than in previous days.

In Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, a family of seven was killed when an Israeli airstrike demolished their house. In Beirut, residents counted 10 strikes during a 40-minute stretch Wednesday afternoon.

Warning sirens keened across northern Israel as an estimated 160 rockets rained down through the day.

No deaths were reported in the attacks, but fields around the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shemona were set ablaze.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah warned Arab residents of the Israeli coastal city of Haifa to leave before his fighters unleashed more rockets.

The Israeli army said it was attacking the southern Lebanese towns of Khiam and Marjayoun, but a government spokeswoman denied that the moves represented the start of a sweeping incursion that could extend up to 18 miles north of the border, to the shores of the Litani River, and last a month.

Nine of the Israeli soldiers were killed when a Hezbollah antitank missile hit a house they were inside in the border town of Debel, military sources said.

The Israeli army said it had killed as many as 40 Hezbollah fighters Wednesday.

A report on Israeli television Wednesday night said that the slain militants included members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, identified by papers discovered on their bodies.

Hezbollah denied the report, which could not be independently verified. Iran and Syria are Hezbollah’s main backers.

Israeli officials did not specify when a widened ground assault would begin but have implied that they are willing to give the diplomatic process more time. Officials also did not say how many troops it would require beyond the estimated 10,000 already involved. But it could take days to ready the thousands of military reservists called up for duty last week, whose participation would be crucial in an expanded ground war.

Progress at the United Nations stalled Wednesday as diplomats wrangled over language of a draft cease-fire resolution.

The five permanent members of the Security Council met into the evening Wednesday but failed to bridge differences, particularly on the issue of Israeli withdrawal.

“There are areas where we are still not in agreement; there’s no doubt about that,” said U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton. “But the common objective that we’ve had for quite some time is to create a basis for a sustainable solution that will change the environment in the region to the point where we won’t have to go through this again.”

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch visited Beirut but failed to allay Lebanese concerns over the resolution.

“There is nothing new so far,” Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told reporters after the meeting, adding that he did not expect the U.N. to act within the next two days.

Near Crawford, Texas, where President Bush is vacationing, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow urged restraint while efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution were underway.

“We do not want escalations,” he said, referring to an expanded Israeli offensive.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah leader Nasrallah was blunt.

“You can enter wherever you want. But we will eject you by force,” Nasrallah said to Israel in an address broadcast on the Shiite Muslim militia’s television channel, Al Manar. “Southern Lebanon will be a graveyard for you.”

Humanitarian agencies warned that conditions were growing increasingly desperate for Lebanese trapped in the south, some of whom have run out of food and have been drinking water from ponds or contaminated wells.

Aid convoys have been unable to move into the area south of the Litani River since Sunday, when Israeli warplanes bombed the last makeshift bridge north of the port city of Tyre.

“It’s dire,” said Khalid Mansour, chief spokesman for the United Nations in Lebanon. “Basically, the south is cut off. People cannot move. We have had many villages that have completely run out of food, run out of water. We have patchy communications, and we are operating completely blind.”

Israel’s green light for an expanded ground assault was motivated, in part, by a desire to exert more pressure on the world body to come up with a solution, analysts said.

But at the root of the decision was the grim recognition that four weeks of air, naval and ground operations have not significantly dented Hezbollah’s ability to mount rocket attacks from across a wide swath of southern Lebanon.

“Otherwise, what would be done?” said Uzi Eilam, an analyst at Tel Aviv University’s Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies. “We would sit there, skirmishing with Hezbollah at the front, and that’s it. We would not prevent the launching of the Katyushas to the north.”

Israeli military commanders say a ground offensive is essential, in part because Hezbollah guerrillas are sustained by a well-hidden network of tunnels and bunkers.

Although some officials said the assault could end in a month, others were less optimistic.

“Personally, I fear this will take much longer,” said Eli Yishai, a member of the so-called security Cabinet who was one of three abstaining from the vote to approve a widened offensive, out of concern about additional casualties.

Nine of the small group of senior advisors voted in favor, none against, after a six-hour closed-door debate.

After the decision, Israel’s leaders immediately began preparing the public for the prospect of a broader, longer military campaign and the possibility of more deaths.

“This is a battle we must win,” Justice Minister Haim Ramon said. “We are paying a price in blood -- a heavy, painful price -- but this is the price we must pay because it is critical to the security of us all.”

But some lawmakers warned that an extended ground war would create “a death trap” for Israeli soldiers, while some supporters of the decision said a large-scale incursion should have been mounted much earlier.

Internal disagreement over the war’s prosecution already has led Israel to name a new commander to direct operations in Lebanon, replacing a key general who headed the army’s northern command.

By contrast, Nasrallah tried in his address to portray his organization, classified as a terrorist group by the United States, as being of the same mind as the fragile Lebanese government, with which Hezbollah has had rocky relations.

Nasrallah reiterated his support for Lebanon’s seven-point peace plan, which calls for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces and deployment of 15,000 Lebanese troops in their place, in preparation for an international force under U.N. auspices.

“The deployment of the army will bring about a political solution. And we prefer a national army to a mercenary force, where we don’t know who will control it, and which could be controlled by the enemy,” he said.

The U.S. and Israel say a strong multinational force is necessary from the outset because they believe the Lebanese army is too weak to prevent Hezbollah from reestablishing itself in the south.

In a statement, the militia announced that four of its fighters were killed Wednesday, bringing its total declared death toll to 58.

Meanwhile, Israel continued its offensive in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli missile strike in Gaza City on Wednesday killed three Palestinians, including a 5-year-old girl. The other two victims were fighters with the militant group Popular Resistance Committees.

A spokesman for the militant group acknowledged that several cadres had been conducting drills in an open area near downtown Gaza.

The group is one of several that took part in a June 25 raid that killed two Israeli soldiers and captured a third, touching off a six-week Israeli offensive that has left more than 175 Palestinians dead.

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Chu reported from Jerusalem and Murphy from Beirut. Times staff writers Paul Richter in Washington and Tracy Wilkinson in Kiryat Shemona and special correspondent Maha al-Azar in Beirut contributed to this report.

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Intense shelling, ground fighting

LEBANON

A family of seven is killed in the Bekaa Valley when an Israeli airstrike demolishes their house. Israeli rockets also strike Beirut. Intense ground fighting in southern Lebanon leaves 15 Israeli soldiers dead, nine of them in the town of Debel. Hezbollah threatens to make southern Lebanon a “graveyard” for the Israeli army.

ISRAEL

Hezbollah fires an estimated 160 rockets into northern Israel, igniting fires around Kiryat Shemona. The Israeli army reports killing as many as 40 militants. Among the dead combatants, an Israeli television report says, are several Iranian Revolutionary Guard members. Israel says it has not begun moving deeper into southern Lebanon, despite earlier approval by the “security Cabinet” to widen its ground war in the region.

DIPLOMACY

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch holds talks in Beirut with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who says no progress is made. At the United Nations, diplomats fail to bridge differences over Israeli withdrawal and other issues in a draft resolution to halt the fighting.