Israel and Hizbollah fight on despite UN vote

More Israeli troops poured into Lebanon yesterday, capturing a broader swathe of territory in heavy fighting with Hizbollah guerrillas, as both sides said they would obey a UN resolution on a truce - but not yet.

Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his fighters would abide by Friday's UN Security Council resolution calling for a "full cessation of hostilities" once the timing of the truce was agreed and once Israeli forces also adhered to it.

Israel would halt offensive operations in Lebanon at 4 a.m. GMT tomorrow but would continue to engage Hizbollah in areas where the army was operating, a senior government official said.

Helicopters lifted hundreds of Israeli troops into the south as part of an expanding offensive launched even though Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has backed the UN vote. Olmert was expected to ask his cabinet to approve the resolution today.

Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz, Israel's top general, said Israel had tripled its forces in Lebanon since Thursday. Israeli television said seven Israeli soldiers were killed yesterday.

The Israeli army said more than 30 soldiers had been wounded. It said it had killed more than 40 Hizbollah fighters in the last 24 hours and destroyed several rocket launchers. Hizbollah denied it had lost 40 fighters in the fighting.

Israeli air strikes killed up to 20 people yesterday, Lebanese security sources said. Hizbollah fired at least 65 rockets into Israel - a considerable decrease from recent days - lightly wounding several people.

"Once there is an agreement to stop the hostilities or the military operations, the resistance will abide by it," Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast on Hizbollah's al-Manar television.

But he added: "As long as there is Israeli military movement, Israeli field aggression and Israeli soldiers occupying our land... it is our natural right to confront them, fight them and defend our land, our homes, and ourselves."

He said Hizbollah would co-operate with Lebanese and UN troops due to be deployed in south Lebanon under the Security Council resolution adopted on Friday to end the month-old war.

Halutz said the offensive would go on till it was clear how any UN-backed ceasefire would take effect. "We will continue to operate until we achieve our aims," he told reporters.

US President George W. Bush welcomed the resolution, saying Hizbollah and its sponsors Iran and Syria had brought an "unwanted" war to the region. Bush said the UN resolution aimed to "put an end to Iran and Syria's efforts to hold the Lebanese people hostage to their own extremist agenda".

A UN envoy said earlier the United Nations expected the Israeli assault to wind down in one to two days and an expanded international force to begin deploying in a week to 10 days.

The UN resolution authorises up to 15,000 UN troops to move into Lebanon to enforce a ceasefire. France is widely expected to lead the force, which will expand the existing UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), but have a stronger mandate.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy made clear in an interview with Le Monde newspaper that the mission of the larger UNIFIL would not include disarming Hizbollah by force.

UNIFIL said a Ghanaian peacekeeper had been wounded by Israeli artillery fire near the southern village of Haris.

Relief officials said Israel was still denying permission for aid convoys to reach distressed civilians in south Lebanon.

Hizbollah said it had destroyed 16 tanks in the fighting and inflicted heavy Israeli casualties.

Air strikes in the south killed up to 15 people in the village of Rshaf and four civilians in Kharayeb, security sources said. Raids in the Bekaa Valley killed one civilian.

Major General Udi Adam, head of the Israeli northern command, said some Israeli forces had reached as far as the Litani river in Lebanon. He said at least 500 Hizbollah fighters had been killed so far in the conflict. Hizbollah has announced fewer than 100 deaths.

At least 1,061 people in Lebanon and 124 Israelis have been killed in the war that began after Hizbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12. The planned UN force will monitor the withdrawal of Israeli troops and help the Lebanese army maintain a ceasefire.