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shiraz
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(this is from the CNN, I have the detailed arabic & hebrew source but I'm to tired to translate it so here is the short version)
"But the Lebanese Cabinet postponed its meeting Sunday to discuss implementing the resolution, a Lebanese government minister said.
The meeting was postponed one to two days, the minister said, at the request of parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, a key negotiator with Hezbollah.
The postponement will give government officials more time to meet with Hezbollah leadership to discuss details of implementing the U.N. resolution, the Lebanese minister said"
Hizbullah is blocking the discussions about UNIFIL & Lenabon's army entering southern Lebanon. Remember - according to the agreement, the IDF must stay at Lebanon till the Int & Lebanese forces replace it, so the longer it takes for them to arrive, the longer the war lasts :(
So far 250 missiles (new record) has been fired today at northern Israeli civilians, and that day is far from being over. At least in Haifa we had more then 25 alarms. I'm very tired.
"But the Lebanese Cabinet postponed its meeting Sunday to discuss implementing the resolution, a Lebanese government minister said.
The meeting was postponed one to two days, the minister said, at the request of parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, a key negotiator with Hezbollah.
The postponement will give government officials more time to meet with Hezbollah leadership to discuss details of implementing the U.N. resolution, the Lebanese minister said"
Hizbullah is blocking the discussions about UNIFIL & Lenabon's army entering southern Lebanon. Remember - according to the agreement, the IDF must stay at Lebanon till the Int & Lebanese forces replace it, so the longer it takes for them to arrive, the longer the war lasts :(
So far 250 missiles (new record) has been fired today at northern Israeli civilians, and that day is far from being over. At least in Haifa we had more then 25 alarms. I'm very tired.
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BEIRUT (AP) - More Israeli tanks and soldiers surged into southern Lebanon on Saturday, reaching the Litani River and engaging in some of the heaviest ground combat of the monthlong war just hours after the UN Security Council adopted a ceasefire plan.
The leader of Hezbollah grudgingly joined Lebanon's government in accepting the UN resolution but vowed to keep fighting until Israeli troops leave and hand over territory to a muscular UN peacekeeping force intended to separate the antagonists.
Israel also signalled its intention to approve the plan, but there was no slowing in the bloodshed.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announced early Sunday that a ceasefire would take effect at 8 a.m. Beirut time Monday (1 a.m. EDT), saying both Israeli and Lebanese leaders agreed to the start time. In his statement, Annan called for an immediate halt to the fighting.
Israel was determined to batter Hezbollah until the end, while the guerrillas seemed to be fighting as fiercely as ever after a month of intense Israeli air, artillery and ground assaults.
Israel said 11 of its soldiers were killed and more than 70 wounded in an expanded offensive that tripled Israeli troop strength in southern Lebanon to 30,000. Israel Radio reported 100 troops wounded, which if confirmed would be the Jewish state's highest one-day injury toll of the fighting. Israel did confirm guerrillas shot down a helicopter and there were injuries, but it did not elaborate. Hezbollah claimed to destroy 21 tanks.
Israel said it killed more than 40 Hezbollah fighters. Hezbollah issued a statement saying three of its fighters had been killed but gave no date.
Nineteen Lebanese civilians died from Israeli air strikes, while Hezollah rockets wounded eight people in northern Israel. The 32-day struggle has claimed nearly 900 lives - including at least 763 in Lebanon and 130 in Israel.
The big expansion of Israel troop strength prompted Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, to declare the fight far from finished and likely to get worse.
"We must not make a mistake, not in the resistance, the government or the people, and believe that the war has ended. The war has not ended," he said.
"Today nothing has changed and it appears tomorrow nothing will change," Nasrallah added in his trademark measured tones.
Speaking a few hours before Lebanon's cabinet voted unanimously to accept the UN plan, Nasrallah said Hezbollah would abide by the ceasefire resolution but continue fighting as long as Israeli troops remained in Lebanon.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said his cabinet endorsed the ceasefire plan despite having reservations.
The cabinet harshly condemned Israel's military push Saturday, saying it presented a "flagrant challenge" to the international community after the UN resolution was issued.
A senior Israeli official said the ceasefire was expected to go into effect at 7 a.m. Monday - midnight Sunday EDT.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss sensitive issues publicly, said Israel wanted to seize control of the south so more Hezbollah fighters do not enter the zone before it is handed over to the Lebanese army and UN troops.
Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israeli troops would remain until the international force arrived, and would defend themselves if attacked.
Israel's army chief, Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz, said ground forces had tripled in size in a bid to chase Hezbollah fighters and rocket crews north of the Litani, 29 kilometres north of the border. He did not give a specific figure, but a threefold increase would mean Israel had 30,000 soldiers inside Lebanon.
Lebanese security officials said Israel troops reached the Litani by helicopter at a point about 10 kilometres west of the northern tip of the Israeli panhandle that juts northward alongside southeastern Lebanon.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters, said the commandos cleared the area ahead of the arrival of a column of Israeli armoured vehicles.
The Israelis used more than 50 helicopters to ferry hundreds of commandos into Hezbollah territory in the largest such operation in the Middle East since the October 1973 war.
U.S. President George W. Bush had an eight-minute phone call Saturday with Saniora to discuss the UN resolution and efforts to end hostilities.
"These steps are designed to stop Hezbollah from acting as a state within a state, and put an end to Iran and Syria's efforts to hold the Lebanese people hostage to their own extremist agenda," Bush said. "This in turn will help to restore the sovereignty of Lebanon's democratic government and help ensure security for the people of Lebanon and Israel."
Saniora, an anti-Syria politician whose government was extremely weak when the fighting began, appears to have emerged from the crisis considerably strengthened. He refused to give in to initial ceasefire proposals from the United States and France that would have left Israeli troops in place until an international force was installed.
The ceasefire, unanimously adopted by the UN Security Council on Friday night, calls for a contingent of as many as 30,000 soldiers - half UN, half Lebanese - to enforce the truce.
French President Jacques Chirac said his country was ready to contribute troops. Italy and the predominantly Muslim countries of Turkey and Malaysia also have offered soldiers.
Israeli police said 64 rockets fell on northern Israel, wounding eight people. That compared with an average 200 missiles daily for the last two weeks.
At least 19 Lebanese civilians were killed in Israeli air raids Saturday. In the deadliest strike, Israeli missiles killed at least 15 civilians in the southern village of Rachaf, Lebanese security officials said