The Israeli government authorized the call-up of as many as 15,000 reservists Thursday, as a senior official asserted that the lack of an international consensus on a cease-fire in Lebanon amounted to “permission from the world” for Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah.
But the Israeli government decided, at least for now, against widening the offensive in Lebanon, even though the decision on reservists suggested that the option is still on the table.
While Israeli warplanes hit targets throughout Lebanon, including an army base and a radio relay station, Hezbollah again fired dozens of rockets into the towns along Israel’s northern border; no one was reported seriously injured.
Israeli ground forces continued battling for control of a strategic Hezbollah stronghold about 2 1/2 miles inside Lebanon, where nine Israeli soldiers died a day earlier. The large-scale Israeli troop call-up came a day after a meeting of high-level diplomats failed to bring about a demand for an immediate cease-fire, which Israel interpreted as a go-ahead to continue its offensive, Israeli officials said.
The meeting in Rome ended inconclusively, with the United States and Britain willing to give Israel more time to pursue Hezbollah while most European leaders urged an immediate cease-fire.
“We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world to continue this operation, this war, until Hezbollah isn’t present in Lebanon, and until it is disarmed,” Justice Minister Haim Ramon told Israel’s Army Radio. “Everyone understands that a victory for Hezbollah is a victory for world terror.”
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice–who was in Malaysia after a trip to Beirut, Jerusalem and the Rome conference–said Thursday that she was prepared to make a second tour of the Middle East, The Associated Press reported.
“I am more than happy to go back,” Rice said, if her efforts can “move toward a sustainable cease-fire that would end the violence.”
Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s strongest backers, Syria and Iran, were holding meetings in Damascus, though it was unclear whether the talks in the Syrian capital were intended to rein in the militia or encourage it to intensify the fight against Israel. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah also arrived in Damascus on Thursday, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Seyassah, quoting official Syrian sources.
Israeli commentators said that by holding off on a large-scale ground offensive, Israel might be trying to avoid entangling Syria in the conflict. The Syrian government has signaled it would regard such an offensive as a threat.
After a meeting of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s security Cabinet on Thursday, the army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, said at a news conference that the troop call-up would involve a total of about 15,000 reservists. He described the step as meant to “prepare us for all options.”
In fighting Thursday, a volley of more than 80 Hezbollah rockets fell across Israel’s northern tier, leaving 19 people with minor injuries. One set a factory on fire in the border town of Kiryat Shmona. No one was inside at the time.
For the fourth day, Israeli ground forces battled for control of Bint Jbeil, a key regional center of Hezbollah support that the army says is used for launching Katyusha rockets into northern Israel. In a briefing for reporters in Safat, Brig. Gen. Shuki Shihrur said the army also was operating in four other villages along the border.
The fighting so far has claimed at least 437 lives in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 52 in Israel, comprising 33 soldiers and 19 civilians.
Meanwhile in the Palestinian territories, President Mahmoud Abbas said “intensive efforts” are under way to free an Israeli soldier whose capture June 25 prompted Israel to launch its monthlong offensive in the Gaza Strip.
More Top Picks Helmets Baseballs