Israel's Olmert: No Cease-Fire in Lebanon

Before fighting resumed, trucks and cars loaded with people streamed north as thousands of civilians trapped in south Lebanon's war zone for three weeks took advantage of the brief lull to escape.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had agreed to a 48-hour cease-fire beginning at 2 a.m. Monday while the military concluded its inquiry into the attack on the south Lebanese village of Qana, Israel's deadliest strike in nearly three weeks of fighting.

But Israel left open the option of striking targets to stop imminent attacks or if the military completed its inquiry. After Hezbollah guerrillas hit an Israeli tank near the village of Taibeh with an anti-tank missile, Israel said, the army carried out the airstrikes to protect ground troops.

AP Television News footage showed two Israeli tanks side by side in southern Lebanon, with flames suddenly covering one of them. Soldiers emerged from one tank and did not appear to be badly hurt.

In a second airstrike around the port city of Tyre, Israel accidentally killed a Lebanese soldier when it hit a car it believed was carrying a senior Hezbollah official, the Israeli army said.

The Israeli army sought to justify the action, saying the leader believed to have been in the car was a threat to Israel. Instead, the car carried a Lebanese army officer and soldiers. "They were, of course, not the targets and we regret the incident," the army said.

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Israel plans to "expand and strengthen" its attack on Hezbollah, diminishing hopes that the 48- hour airstrike halt could become a longer cease-fire.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned that the entire Middle East peace could collapse because of Israel's fighting in Lebanon. "There is an urgent need for an unconditional cease-fire, which would pave the way for international efforts to end the crisis and deal with its consequences," he said in a nationwide TV address.

In Washington, President Bush stuck to his position that any cease- fire be accompanied by a wider agreement addressing the root causes of the fighting, such as Hezbollah's control of southern Lebanon, and Iran and Syria's influence in Lebanon.

Fighting was heavy in the northeast corner of south Lebanon around Taibeh and other border villages, where Israeli ground forces have been fighting Hezbollah guerrillas for nearly two weeks. Constant Israeli artillery blasts—not covered under the air halt—shook the hills.

Hezbollah guerrillas fired mortars at Misgav Am, near the Israeli town of Kiryat Shemona, in what was initially thought to be a rocket attack, the Israeli army said. No casualties or damage was reported.

By 4:30 p.m. Monday, no Hezbollah rockets had hit the region, a remarkable turnaround for an area hit by dozens of missiles a day during the offensive. 0verall, the suspension of airstrikes also brought relative quiet to much of southern Lebanon.

Israel called the 48-hour halt under U.S. pressure amid worldwide outrage over the Qana strike Sunday morning; of those killed, at least 34 were children and 12 women. Before, the largest death toll from a single Israeli strike was about a dozen.

It was the deadliest single attack in the Israeli onslaught against Lebanon, aimed at reining in Hezbollah, which sparked the conflict by capturing two Israeli soldiers and killing three in a cross-border raid July 12.

Some 519 people have been confirmed killed by Lebanon's Health Ministry since the fighting began. On the Israeli side, 33 soldiers have died, and Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel have killed 18 civilians, Israeli authorities said,

The pause in airstrikes meant the first relative relief for thousands of Lebanese hiding in their homes, in schools or hospitals in the dozens of villages that dot the mountainous south. Huge numbers had fled already, and those left were mostly elderly, sick or too afraid of Israeli bombardment to risk the drive.

Early Monday, few southerners had ventured out, likely questioning whether news of the cease-fire was true. By early afternoon, roads from villages into the port city of Tyre, then north from Tyre along the coast, were packed. With many of the main roads shattered, cars used dirt side roads, with white flags fluttering out windows or white sheets covering the roofs.

Lebanese Red Cross teams escorted by U.N. observers went to the village of Srifa to dig out more than 50 bodies believed still buried under rubble since Israeli strikes wiped out a neighborhood July 19. The bodies have begun decomposing, the Red Cross said.

Some U.N. and Red Cross aid convoys were forced to turn back from destinations in Lebanon because of continued fighting, though other trucks pressed on in an attempt to reach Qana, U.N. officials said.

The stunning bloodshed in Qana increased international pressure on Washington to back an immediate end to the fighting, and pushed American peace efforts to a crucial juncture as fury flared in Lebanon. The Beirut government said it would no longer negotiate over a U.S. peace package without an unconditional cease-fire.

The attack prompted U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to cut short her Mideast mission to return home Monday. In a nationally televised speech before leaving Israel, Rice said she would seek international consensus for a cease-fire and a "lasting settlement" in the conflict through a U.N. Security Council resolution this week.

But Peretz made clear in a speech to parliament that Israel would not agree to an immediate cease-fire and had plans to expand its operation in Lebanon.

"It's forbidden to agree to an immediate cease-fire," Peretz told parliament, as several Arab legislators heckled him and demanded an immediate cessation. "Israel will expand and strengthen its activities against the Hezbollah."

The U.N. Security Council extended the peacekeeping mission in Lebanon by one month, a move meant to ensure that the force does not conflict with what could be a larger international deployment.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan and many world leaders say they want to deploy a larger peacekeeping force with greater authority and more experienced troops, if Hezbollah and Israel agree to end three weeks of fighting.

The council was forced to take action on the U.N. mission now because the peacekeepers' mandate was to expire Monday.

Israel's top ministers were to discuss expanding the army's ground operation at a meeting later Monday, while thousands of reserve soldiers trained for the possibility of being sent into Lebanon.

It was unclear whether the senior ministers would approve a broader ground assault, defense officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to give information to the media.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Rice over the weekend that Israel would need 10 to 14 more days to finish its offensive, and Justice Minister Haim Ramon told Army Radio on Monday that he did not think the fighting was yet over.

"I'm convinced that we won't finish this war until it's clear that Hezbollah has no more abilities to attack Israel from south Lebanon. This is what we are striving for," Ramon said.

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Associated Press correspondents Kathy Gannon in Qana, Lee Keath in Beirut, and Thomas Wagner in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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