Israel strikes deep into Lebanon
Peres estimates end of fighting in a matter of weeks

Tuesday, August 1, 2006; Posted: 11:45 p.m. EDT (03:45 GMT)

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Israeli troops landed Tuesday near the eastern Lebanese town of Baalbeck, Lebanese security sources said, and the Israeli military also engaged in fierce fighting with Hezbollah forces just across the border with Lebanon.

Israeli aircraft flew support missions as troops hit the ground about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) north of Baalbeck in the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border, the sources said.

The Lebanese army also reported heavy helicopter traffic east and west of the town, the northernmost ground operation for Israel during the nearly three-week conflict. (Watch as Israel presses north -- 3:06)

Israeli troops entered Hikma Hospital in northern Baalbeck, where they checked the identification cards of all staff and patients, the sources said, adding that there was no indication that anyone was taken from the hospital.

Witnesses, however, said "several" people were taken out of the hospital.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that Israeli troops operating in Baalbeck hit a number of militants and arrested some of them, although no numbers were given.

There were no injuries among Israeli soldiers, the IDF said, and the arrested militants were taken to Israel.

The Israeli Security Cabinet earlier in the day had approved an expansion of Israel's three-week-old military campaign in Lebanon.

Tuesday's fighting was concentrated near the Lebanese villages of Tayba, just outside the Israeli town of Metulla, and Aita Al-Shaab further west.

The IDF said three of its soldiers were killed and 25 wounded in the fighting in Aita Al-Shaab. Five other soldiers were wounded on the Israeli side of the border when they were hit by a mortar shell, it said.

In two days of fighting, the IDF said forces have killed or wounded more than 20 Hezbollah fighters across southern Lebanon. Hezbollah said four of its forces died in Tuesday's fighting. (Watch Israeli bombardment pound Aita Al-Shaab -- 3:09)

Just outside the village, the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon reported intensive Israeli shelling in the villages of Ramia, Dibil and Qawzah on Monday and Tuesday morning. (See where the fighting is taking place)

In Tayba, the IDF said it took control of several strategic positions that it said have been used by Hezbollah fighters to launch missiles at northern Israel.

Israeli police reported 14 cross-border strikes hitting northern Israel on Tuesday, two using Katyusha rockets and 12 using mortar shells.

East of Tayba, Israeli forces Tuesday heavily shelled the town of Kfar Kela a day after pounding it with airstrikes, according to U.N. observers.

Israeli forces have also been operating in the areas of Odaise and Rab Talateen for the past two days, according to the IDF.

To the west, U.N. officials said, Israel gunboats in the Mediterranean Sea pounded southern Lebanon. (Watch Lebanese racing to get out of range -- 1:51)
Israel: Hezbollah taking a beating

Israel said it has killed 300 of the estimated 2,000 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon during its three-week offensive. A Hezbollah spokesman said 43 of its fighters have been killed, Reuters news service reported.

"Hezbollah has taken a serious beating, and that is why the pressure of a ground offensive will produce the expected results," Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Tuesday on Israeli Channel 10.

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres, in Washington to meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, told reporters the end of the war was "not far away."

"You can count it in matters of weeks, not months," he said.

But Rice saw the process going more quickly. "Certainly we are talking about days not weeks before we are able to get a cease-fire," she said on PBS' "NewsHour."

Despite an overall decrease in attacks in the last two days, Ramon said the Lebanese militia has increased the number of rocket launches from areas north of the Litani River -- about 20 miles from the border -- where the Israeli military has asked residents in two locations to evacuate.

In its initial quest to create a security buffer to protect northern Israel from Katyusha rockets, the Israeli military said it wanted Hezbollah fighters to push back to the Litani River.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israeli forces were weakening Hezbollah daily and that no cease-fire would come until Israel was safe from a future war.

"Every additional day is a day that drains the strength of this cruel enemy," Olmert said in a speech Tuesday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held the United States and Britain responsible for the bloodshed in Lebanon, The Associated Press reported.

"The U.S. and Britain are accomplices in all crimes committed by the occupying Zionist regime," he said in a speech.

The United States and Israel accuse Syria and Iran of supporting Hezbollah, and the Bekaa Valley has long been considered a haven for Hezbollah, with supply routes from Syria.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair had sharp words for Iran and Syria on Tuesday.

"We need to make it clear to Syria and Iran that there is a choice: Come into the international community and play by the same rules as the rest of us, or be confronted," he said. (Full story)
Aid process difficult

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan met Tuesday with representatives of the five permanent Security Council members to discuss how to stop the fighting, deliver aid to civilians and send a multinational force into southern Lebanon.

The United Nations said it had little success getting aid into southern Lebanon before the end of Israel's self-declared 48-hour lull in fighting.

The European Union said it approved $64 million in humanitarian aid for Lebanon, and EU foreign ministers called on Israel and Hezbollah to agree to an "immediate cessation of hostilities." (Full story)

The conflict began July 12 when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed three others in a cross-border raid. (Watch captured soldier's wife plead -- 5:54)

As of Tuesday, 557 Lebanese civilians and soldiers have died and 2,128 have been wounded in the conflict, according to Lebanon's Internal Security Forces.

Israel has reported 54 deaths, including 19 civilians killed by Hezbollah rocket attacks.

CNN's Nada Husseini, John Roberts, John King, Elise Labott, Richard Roth and Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.

Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

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