以色列在大量散发传单催促黎巴嫩边境居民离开战区后数天，终于开始展开地面攻势，越过边境，占领了黎巴嫩边境城市。目的为了在黎边境创建缓冲区防止真主党利用边境袭击以色列本土。
以色列为了向黎巴嫩人民提供人道援助，部分解除了对黎巴嫩港口的封锁，人道援助物资已经抵达黎巴嫩。
Israel Seizes Control of Southern Lebanon Town, Find Weapons Cache
Saturday, July 22, 2006
ON THE ISRAEL-LEBANON BORDER ― The commander of Israeli ground forces said Saturday that the Israeli army has won control of a village in southern Lebanon that allows troops to overlook Hezbollah command posts in the area.
Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz also said the soldiers had found a mosque in Maroun al-Ras that contained stockpiles of weapons, including rockets.
"The forces have completed, more or less, their control of the area of the village Maroun al-Ras, and there have been lots of strikes against terrorists," Gantz told a new conference in Tel Aviv on Saturday night. "It was a difficult fight that continued for not a short time."
The soldiers ― backed by artillery and tank fire ― moved into Maroun al-Ras in several waves and took control, military officials said.
Tens of thousands of Lebanese fleeing north packed into the port of Sidon to escape the increased Israeli offensive
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said the conflict had displaced at least 700,000 Lebanese so far, and Israel's destruction of bridges and roads has made access to them difficult. "I'm afraid of a major humanitarian disaster," he told a major news network.
As part of an effort to avert a possible humanitarian crisis, Israel eased its blockade of Lebanon's ports to allow the first shiploads of aid to arrive. It remained unclear how that aid would get to the isolated towns and villages in the south, where the fighting has been centered over the past 11 days. (Full story)
Israel increased its limited ground offensive in the area Saturday as Hezbollah guerrillas continued firing rockets into northern Israel.
A group of Israeli tanks, bulldozers and armored personnel carriers knocked down a border fence and entered the area about 3 p.m. The equipment and about 25 soldiers raced past a U.N. outpost and headed into the village that other Israeli soldiers already had seized. Gunfire could be heard coming from the village, and artillery based inside Israel also was firing into the area.
In all, a total of about 2,000 Israeli troops entered the area Saturday, but some returned to Israel during the day. No Israeli or Hezbollah casualties were immediately reported.
Lebanese security sources, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said the Israeli military had made incursions of only a few hundred yards into the Maroun al-Ras and Yaroun villages. An Associated Press reporter on the Israeli side of the border saw the Israeli troops head into Maroun al-Ras and said they were fighting with Hezbollah militants.
In Maroun al-Ras, about 32 residents took refuge at the U.N. observers post. But almost the entire remaining population of the village ― about 2,300 before the crisis broke out ― were believed to have fled, Lebanese security officials said.
At one point, a half-ton bomb was dropped on a Hezbollah outpost, about 500 meters (yards) from the border and near the village. Other positions were bombarded by Israeli gunboats operating off the coast.
Soldiers told The Associated Press that Israeli forces were just 200 yards (600 feet) from Hezbollah militants on Saturday morning who fired back.
Also Saturday, Hezbollah guerrillas fired at the Israeli army base of Nurit on Israel's side of the border, and wounded one soldier, the army said.
An Israeli military radio that broadcasts in the south, Al-Mashriq, warned residents of 13 villages to flee by 4 p.m. The villages form a corridor about six kilometers wide extending north from the border to a point about 18 kilometers from the border, 8 kilometers south of the Litani River.
Israeli military officials have said they want to push Hezbollah beyond the river. More than 400,000 people live south of the Litani. Though tens of thousands have left, many are believed still there, trapped by the damaged roads or by fear of being caught in an airstrike.
A deeper Israeli ground incursion could dramatically increase the pain in Lebanon.
Israel's offensive began July 12 when Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in a cross-border raid.
The Lebanese health ministry reported 362 deaths in Lebanon so far in the onslaught. Thirty-four Israelis also have been killed, including 18 soldiers and an air force officer killed Friday in the collision of two helicopters.
A senior Israeli military official said that despite the growing ground offensive, Israel did not want to occupy southern Lebanon as it did from 1982 to 2000 to create a buffer zone to protect northern Israel.
Instead, Israel wants to weaken Hezbollah to make it easier for the Lebanese army to move into areas previously controlled by the guerrillas, possibly with the aid of a beefed up international peacekeeping force, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the topic's military sensitivity.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit the Middle East on Sunday, her first trip to the region since the crisis erupted, but she ruled out a quick cease-fire as a "false promise." (Full story)
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets at northern Israeli towns from north of the Lebanese border, killing 15 civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands of Israelis to repeatedly flee into bunkers.
On Saturday, at least 92 rockets struck northern Israeli, hitting Carmiel, Kiryat Shemona, Nahariya and smaller communities, wounding five Israelis were wounded.
After Maroun al-Ras was taken, several small groups of Israeli soldiers in armored personal carriers traveled to and from the village.
In Marwahin, also along the border, Israeli troops recovered anti-tank missiles, a launcher, and other weapons used by Hezbollah. The army said that more than 150 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon had been attacked.
Elsewhere, Israeli warplanes blasted communications and television transmission towers in the central and northern Lebanese mountains, knocking out the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp.
Israel's army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, on Friday said the military would conduct "limited ground operations as much as needed in order to harm the terror that harms us" ― leaving it unclear how deep and how powerful the Israeli punch into Lebanon would be.
On Friday, Israel knocked out a key bridge on the road to Syria and pummeled Hezbollah positions in the south as long lines of tanks and armored personnel carriers lined up at the border ― in some places close enough to see Lebanese homes on the other side.
In Beirut, ships continued to arrive at the main port, part of a massive evacuation effort to pull out Americans and other foreigners.
以色列为了向黎巴嫩人民提供人道援助，部分解除了对黎巴嫩港口的封锁，人道援助物资已经抵达黎巴嫩。
Israel Seizes Control of Southern Lebanon Town, Find Weapons Cache
Saturday, July 22, 2006
ON THE ISRAEL-LEBANON BORDER ― The commander of Israeli ground forces said Saturday that the Israeli army has won control of a village in southern Lebanon that allows troops to overlook Hezbollah command posts in the area.
Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz also said the soldiers had found a mosque in Maroun al-Ras that contained stockpiles of weapons, including rockets.
"The forces have completed, more or less, their control of the area of the village Maroun al-Ras, and there have been lots of strikes against terrorists," Gantz told a new conference in Tel Aviv on Saturday night. "It was a difficult fight that continued for not a short time."
The soldiers ― backed by artillery and tank fire ― moved into Maroun al-Ras in several waves and took control, military officials said.
Tens of thousands of Lebanese fleeing north packed into the port of Sidon to escape the increased Israeli offensive
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said the conflict had displaced at least 700,000 Lebanese so far, and Israel's destruction of bridges and roads has made access to them difficult. "I'm afraid of a major humanitarian disaster," he told a major news network.
As part of an effort to avert a possible humanitarian crisis, Israel eased its blockade of Lebanon's ports to allow the first shiploads of aid to arrive. It remained unclear how that aid would get to the isolated towns and villages in the south, where the fighting has been centered over the past 11 days. (Full story)
Israel increased its limited ground offensive in the area Saturday as Hezbollah guerrillas continued firing rockets into northern Israel.
A group of Israeli tanks, bulldozers and armored personnel carriers knocked down a border fence and entered the area about 3 p.m. The equipment and about 25 soldiers raced past a U.N. outpost and headed into the village that other Israeli soldiers already had seized. Gunfire could be heard coming from the village, and artillery based inside Israel also was firing into the area.
In all, a total of about 2,000 Israeli troops entered the area Saturday, but some returned to Israel during the day. No Israeli or Hezbollah casualties were immediately reported.
Lebanese security sources, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said the Israeli military had made incursions of only a few hundred yards into the Maroun al-Ras and Yaroun villages. An Associated Press reporter on the Israeli side of the border saw the Israeli troops head into Maroun al-Ras and said they were fighting with Hezbollah militants.
In Maroun al-Ras, about 32 residents took refuge at the U.N. observers post. But almost the entire remaining population of the village ― about 2,300 before the crisis broke out ― were believed to have fled, Lebanese security officials said.
At one point, a half-ton bomb was dropped on a Hezbollah outpost, about 500 meters (yards) from the border and near the village. Other positions were bombarded by Israeli gunboats operating off the coast.
Soldiers told The Associated Press that Israeli forces were just 200 yards (600 feet) from Hezbollah militants on Saturday morning who fired back.
Also Saturday, Hezbollah guerrillas fired at the Israeli army base of Nurit on Israel's side of the border, and wounded one soldier, the army said.
An Israeli military radio that broadcasts in the south, Al-Mashriq, warned residents of 13 villages to flee by 4 p.m. The villages form a corridor about six kilometers wide extending north from the border to a point about 18 kilometers from the border, 8 kilometers south of the Litani River.
Israeli military officials have said they want to push Hezbollah beyond the river. More than 400,000 people live south of the Litani. Though tens of thousands have left, many are believed still there, trapped by the damaged roads or by fear of being caught in an airstrike.
A deeper Israeli ground incursion could dramatically increase the pain in Lebanon.
Israel's offensive began July 12 when Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in a cross-border raid.
The Lebanese health ministry reported 362 deaths in Lebanon so far in the onslaught. Thirty-four Israelis also have been killed, including 18 soldiers and an air force officer killed Friday in the collision of two helicopters.
A senior Israeli military official said that despite the growing ground offensive, Israel did not want to occupy southern Lebanon as it did from 1982 to 2000 to create a buffer zone to protect northern Israel.
Instead, Israel wants to weaken Hezbollah to make it easier for the Lebanese army to move into areas previously controlled by the guerrillas, possibly with the aid of a beefed up international peacekeeping force, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the topic's military sensitivity.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit the Middle East on Sunday, her first trip to the region since the crisis erupted, but she ruled out a quick cease-fire as a "false promise." (Full story)
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets at northern Israeli towns from north of the Lebanese border, killing 15 civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands of Israelis to repeatedly flee into bunkers.
On Saturday, at least 92 rockets struck northern Israeli, hitting Carmiel, Kiryat Shemona, Nahariya and smaller communities, wounding five Israelis were wounded.
After Maroun al-Ras was taken, several small groups of Israeli soldiers in armored personal carriers traveled to and from the village.
In Marwahin, also along the border, Israeli troops recovered anti-tank missiles, a launcher, and other weapons used by Hezbollah. The army said that more than 150 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon had been attacked.
Elsewhere, Israeli warplanes blasted communications and television transmission towers in the central and northern Lebanese mountains, knocking out the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp.
Israel's army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, on Friday said the military would conduct "limited ground operations as much as needed in order to harm the terror that harms us" ― leaving it unclear how deep and how powerful the Israeli punch into Lebanon would be.
On Friday, Israel knocked out a key bridge on the road to Syria and pummeled Hezbollah positions in the south as long lines of tanks and armored personnel carriers lined up at the border ― in some places close enough to see Lebanese homes on the other side.
In Beirut, ships continued to arrive at the main port, part of a massive evacuation effort to pull out Americans and other foreigners.
