Israel to Cut Off a Piece of Lebanon
The Israeli security cabinet sanctioned the military to expand combat operations against Hezbollah guerillas. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave the green light to the army to punch all the way in southern Lebanon up to the Litani River.
The yesterday’s sitting of Israeli cabinet coincided with the deadliest news about high numbers of casualties in the southern Lebanon. Five soldiers were killed and a few wounded in fierce clashes with Hezbollah, while the death toll of guerillas widened by dozens of names, said spokesmen of Israeli army.
Nevertheless, the security cabinet needed more than six hours to finally sanction enlarging the battlefield. Israel will reach the Litani River in Lebanon, penetrating up to 30km deep into the country, in hope to curtail four fold the intensity of the rocket attacks of Hezbollah.
Israel has pledged to pull out of Lebanon once international peacekeepers show up there. It may happen in a month, French President Jacques Chirac said Wednesday.
Yesterday, a mass evacuation process from northern Israel was launched. That part of the country is most affected by the rocket attacks of Hezbollah, and the Israelis willing to flee will be carried to Tel-Aviv in the near time and well accommodated in hotels there. Sohnut Jewish Agency and Birthright Program have undertaken to bear the charges incurred over the operation, which budget is estimated at above $450,000. To begin with, the evacuation will last for a week and is expected to cover around 14,000. But the time could be extended with numbers of evacuees going up afterwards.
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All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 10, 2006
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