Mideast cease-fire goes into effect

Mideast cease-fire goes into effect
BY KATHY GANNON ASSOCIATED PRESS
Copyright 2006 Associated Press.
August 14, 2006

BINT JBAIL, Lebanon-- Lebanese civilians defied an Israeli travel ban and streamed back to their homes in war-ravaged areas Monday after a U.N. cease-fire halted fighting in the monthlong conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that has claimed more than 900 lives.

For the first time in a month, no rockets were fired into northern Israel, but few Israelis who fled the war were seen returning and Israel's government advised them to stay away for now to see whether the truce held.

Israeli soldiers reported killing six Hezbollah fighters in three skirmishes in southern Lebanon after the guns fell silent, highlighting the tensions that could unravel the peace plan.

Lebanese, Israeli and U.N. officers met on the border to discuss the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army in the region, U.N. spokesman Milos Strugar said.

The meeting, the first involving a Lebanese army officer and a counterpart from Israel since Israeli forces withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, marked the first step in the process of military disengagement as demanded by a U.N. Security Council resolution.

The fighting persisted until the last minutes before the cease-fire took effect Monday morning, with Israel destroying an antenna for Hezbollah's TV station and Hezbollah guerrillas clashing with Israeli troops near the southern city of Tyre and the border village of Kfar Kila.

Israeli warplanes struck a Hezbollah stronghold in eastern Lebanon and a Palestinian refugee camp in the south, killing two people, and Israeli artillery pounded targets across the border through the night.

After the cease-fire took effect, lines of cars--some loaded with mattresses and luggage--snaked slowly around bomb craters and ruined bridges as residents began heading south to find out what is left of their homes and businesses.

Humanitarian groups also sent convoys of food, water and medical supplies into the south, but the clogged roads slowed the effort. U.N. officials said 24 U.N. trucks took more than five hours to reach the port of Tyre from Sidon, a trip that normally takes 45 minutes.

Israel has not lifted its threat to destroy any vehicle on the roads of most of south Lebanon. But Defense Minister Amir Peretz said at midafternoon that aside from isolated skirmishes with Hezbollah, the cease-fire was holding and could have implications for future relations with Israel's neighbors.

In some places in the south, the rubble was still smoldering from a barrage of Israeli airstrikes just before the cease-fire took effect at 8 a.m. (1 a.m. EDT).

"I just want to find my home," said Ahmad Maana, who went back to Kafra, about five miles from the Israeli border, where whole sections of the town were flattened.

In Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, people wrapped their faces with scarves as wind kicked up dust from the wreckage left by Israeli bombardments. Ahmed al-Zein poked through the ruins of his shop.

"This was the most beautiful street in the neighborhood," he said. "Now it's like an earthquake zone."

There were no reports of Israeli strikes on cars--a sign Israel did not want to risk rekindling the conflict. But at least one child was killed and 15 people were wounded by ordnance that detonated as they returned to their homes in the south, security officials said.

The rush to return came despite a standoff that threatened to keep the cease-fire from taking root. Israeli forces remain in Lebanon, and Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said the militia would consider them legitimate targets until they leave.

Still, the truce ushered in a calm that the border region had not seen for more than a month.

Stores that had been closed for weeks began to reopen in Haifa, Israel's third largest city and a frequent target of Hezbollah rockets, and a few people returned to the beaches.

In Kiryat Shemona, where more than half the population fled during the war, streets were mostly empty but traffic lights winked on again. The few grocery stores that braved more than 700 rockets on the town were still the only places for food, with restaurants and cafes shut.

Residents stirred from their bomb shelters, but there was no influx of returning refugees.

"People are still scared," Haim Biton, 42, said, predicting things would not get back to normal soon. "You don't know what's going to happen."

"The city is still in a coma," said Shoshi Bar-Sheshet, the deputy manager of a mortgage bank. Getting back to normal "doesn't happen overnight," she said.

The next step in the peace effort--sending in a peacekeeping mission--appeared days away.

A Lebanese Cabinet minister told Europe-1 radio in France that Lebanese soldiers could move into the southern part of the country as early as Wednesday. In Paris, the French foreign ministry said a U.N. peacekeeping force should be mobilized "as quickly as possible."

The U.N. plan calls for a joint Lebanese-international force to move south of the Litani River, about 18 miles from the Israeli border, and stand as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah militiamen.

"The Lebanese army is readying itself along the Litani to cross the river in 48 to 72 hours," said Lebanese Communications Minister Marwan Hamade.

A United Nations force that now has 2,000 observers in south Lebanon is due to be boosted to 15,000 soldiers, and Lebanon's army is to send in a 15,000-man contingent.

France and Italy, along with predominantly Muslim Turkey and Malaysia, have signaled willingness to contribute troops to the peacekeeping force, but consultations are needed on the force's makeup and mandate. Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Italy's troops could be ready within two weeks.

Officials said Israeli troops would begin pulling out as soon as the Lebanese and international troops start deploying to the area. But it appeared Israeli forces were staying put for now. Some exhausted soldiers left early Monday and were being replaced by fresh troops.

Israel also would maintain its air and sea blockade of Lebanon to prevent arms from reaching Hezbollah guerrillas, Israeli army officials said.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave the order Sunday to halt firing as of Monday morning, his spokesman Asaf Shariv said. However, "if someone fires at us we will fire back," he added.

Isaac Herzog, a senior minister in the Israeli Cabinet, said it was unlikely all fighting would be silenced immediately. "Experience teaches us that after that a process begins of phased relaxation," in the fighting, he said.

The Israeli army reported scattered skirmishes with Hezbollah militiamen.

Officials said four militia fighters were killed near the town of Hadatha when the armed group approached an Israeli position three hours after the cease-fire began. Two further clashes occurred later in the day, with one guerrilla killed in each, officials said.

Both Hezbollah and Israel claimed they came out ahead in the conflict.

Hezbollah distributed leaflets congratulating Lebanon on its "big victory" and thanking citizens for their patience during the fighting, which began July 12 when guerrillas killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two others in a cross-border raid.

Olmert told Israel's parliament that the offensive had eliminated the "state within a state" run by Hezbollah and restored Lebanon's sovereignty in the south.

Peretz, the defense minister, said Islamic extremists had been weakened, opening a window for negotiations with Lebanon and for renewing talks with Palestinians.

Lebanon said nearly 791 people were killed in the fighting. Israel said 116 soldiers and 39 civilians died in combat or from Hezbollah rockets.

Contributing: AP writers Arthur Max in Jerusalem and Zeina Karam in Beirut, Lebanon.

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