Cease-Fire Begins After Fierce Battles

By air and on land, Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters battled fiercely Sunday in a last-minute surge of bloodletting before an official cease-fire went into effect this morning.

Plumes of smoke rose above the hills of the Lebanese port city of Tyre, and sirens warning of incoming rockets sounded across northern Israel minutes before the truce commenced at 8 a.m. Israeli airstrikes hit the town of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley and also targeted the Shiite town of Keyfoun, southeast of Beirut -- which had not been hit previously -- right up to the deadline, Lebanese media reported.

Along the Israel-Lebanon border, however, artillery appeared to fall silent for at least the first hour of the cease-fire.

The Israeli military said it would maintain its air and sea blockade of Lebanon to stop arms smuggling. Warplanes dropped leaflets in Tyre warning of retaliation if Hezbollah continued its rocket attacks.

Israeli tanks, armored vehicles and about 400 Israeli soldiers, many of them reservists, marched back into Israel about 6 a.m., carrying Hezbollah and Lebanese flags. The men, looking happy and relieved, were loaded onto pickup trucks on the Israeli side of the border near the town of Misgav Am.

The last-minute violence came amid signs of potentially serious snags in the Lebanese government’s implementation of the U.N.-brokered truce. On Sunday afternoon, after sharp debate, the Israeli Cabinet formally approved the United Nations resolution calling for a cease-fire.

Throughout the day and into the night, Israeli warplanes and gunboats hammered southern Lebanon, leveling buildings and bombing other infrastructure around Tyre. In south Beirut, just outside Hezbollah-controlled suburbs, 20 explosions in three minutes destroyed a complex of shops, apartments and offices.

At least 22 people were reported killed in the various strikes.

Hezbollah guerrillas unleashed more than 220 rockets on northern Israel, one of the highest counts of the monthlong conflict. Several landed in Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, where billows of black smoke rolled through blue sky. One person died in the daylong barrage.

The intensified fighting capped a weekend of some of the fiercest clashes in nearly five weeks of confrontation, after Israel widened its ground offensive in an eleventh-hour bid to clear out more Hezbollah fighters from southern Lebanon before the cease-fire.

Seven Israeli soldiers were killed and several dozen wounded Sunday, adding to a death toll of 24 on Saturday, the heaviest loss the military has suffered on a single day since the fighting began July 12. The two dozen dead included five soldiers aboard a helicopter that was shot down and the 20-year-old son of author David Grossman, one of Israel’s most prominent peace activists.

Israel says it has killed more than 500 Hezbollah militants, a figure the Shiite Muslim faction denies. The group has so far acknowledged the deaths of about 60 fighters.

Under the U.N. resolution, both sides were to halt attacks this morning, although Israel is allowed to defend its positions.

But troubling signs emerged Sunday as to how Lebanon, Hezbollah and Israel would interpret and implement the agreement, raising the possibility of a continuation of major fighting.

Amid internal feuding, the Lebanese Cabinet postponed a meeting to vote on implementing the cease-fire.

Although officials were reluctant to publicly describe the disagreements, a rift appeared to be developing over the disarmament of Hezbollah, which the resolution demands.

Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat told Lebanese television that the Cabinet had given itself 48 hours to discuss how it would enact the cease-fire’s terms.

“We don’t want to move more quickly than events,” said Michel Pharaon, minister of parliamentary affairs, who represents Lebanon’s small Catholic minority. “Why should we hurry if the Israelis keep bombing us with such ferocity? This is a sensitive issue that will take time to work out.”

Although Hezbollah is obligated to stop military operations and lay down its weapons, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the organization’s leader, has warned that his fighters will continue their campaign against Israeli soldiers as long as the Jewish state maintains troops in Lebanon.

Israel, in turn, contends that its right to defensive action includes preventing efforts by Hezbollah to rearm, at least until the installation of a 15,000-strong international peacekeeping force, along with 15,000 Lebanese troops.

Under the truce, Israeli troops, believed to number about 30,000, will leave the south only as those forces move in, which is days or weeks away.

“There has to be a total and complete arms embargo on Hezbollah. So arms transportations for Hezbollah are a violation of the cease-fire,” said Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry. “We will be entitled to act.”

Regev did not specify what kind of action would be authorized, but Reuters news service quoted an unnamed senior Israeli official as saying it could include airstrikes on convoys suspected of carrying weapons to Hezbollah anywhere in Lebanese territory.

Skirmishes are therefore expected to continue despite the official cease-fire. The hope is that large-scale operations will be suspended.

Observers fear that ongoing clashes could push back the arrival of the multinational force, which would then fuel a cycle of more violence and further delays. Optimistically, the international mediators should arrive in seven to 10 days; countries potentially contributing to the force include France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Morocco and Indonesia.

“The coming days are days of uncertainty,” said Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz, the head of Israeli ground forces.

Both Israel and Hezbollah insist that they will abide by the cease-fire agreement, but they used the lead-up to the truce to pound each other and to cement their positions.

Among the targets pummeled by Israeli aircraft Sunday were gas stations around Tyre, as well as a number of factories in central and southern Lebanon, including a biscuit and candy factory in the mountains east of Beirut, Lebanese radio reported. Israeli gunboats also shelled the coastal road north of the southern city of Sidon and around the town of Nabatiyeh.

The afternoon barrage of explosions in Beirut destroyed the 10-building Imam Hassan residential and commercial complex in the Rumaish district, which lies outside the Hezbollah-controlled zone of the capital’s southern suburbs.

At least seven people were reported killed.

“I was sleeping. When I woke up, all the buildings behind us had fallen down,” said Yussef Hatoum, 63, who lives near the bombing scene. “It was really terrifying. It was like a horror movie.”

Wide swaths of northern Israel were on constant alert for rockets as the wail of sirens sent thousands of battle-weary residents scrambling for safety in shelters and fortified rooms.

On Saturday, the military expressed optimism that its newly expanded ground offensive had reduced the threat of rockets, because the 65 Katyushas that landed in Israel represented one of the lowest tallies of the war. But on Sunday, the number shot beyond 220, with one of them crashing into a house near the town of Shlomi and killing an elderly man inside.

Israeli armor and troops continued moving across the border into Lebanon even as the Cabinet met in Jerusalem to vote on the cease-fire resolution.

The final vote was 24-0 in favor, with one abstention and plenty of heated debate, media reports said.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose handling of the war has come under increasing criticism for its shifting objectives and perceived indecision, characterized the resolution as a victory for Israel.

He said that establishment of a robust international force and the disarming of Hezbollah would deprive the militant group of the ability to act in Lebanon as a state within a state.

“If implemented, [the resolution] will result in a significant change in the rules of the game in Lebanon and Israel’s relationship with Lebanon,” said Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. “Not every resolution is implemented; I am aware of the difficulties.

“But having said this, however, I can say that the Security Council resolution is good for Israel.”

Eli Yishai, another minister, demanded that Israeli forces be hard-nosed in defending their positions.

“One thing must be clear: Any village from which a stone is thrown will itself be reduced to a pile of stones,” he said. “And if a Katyusha is fired at Israel, Lebanon’s infrastructure must be hit harshly because Lebanon allows Hezbollah to act.”

Others criticized the ramped-up offensive on the eve of the cease-fire, questioning what could be achieved militarily in such a short time beyond a public-relations victory showing troops reaching the geographically strategic Litani River.

There have already been calls for Olmert to resign and talk of establishing an inquiry into the way he and his defense minister, Amir Peretz, have prosecuted the war.

Some opposition politicians and military leaders say a major ground offensive should have been launched in the early days of fighting.

Chu reported from Jerusalem and Daragahi from Beirut. Times staff writers Megan K. Stack in Nabatiyeh, Carolyn Cole in Tyre, Tracy Wilkinson in Kiryat Shemona, Israel, Damon Winter near Misgav Am and special correspondent Maha al-Azar in Beirut contributed to this report.