Beirut: Eight thousand Israeli troops pressed the first full day of a massive new ground attack in southern Lebanon yesterday and said they seized five suspected Hezbollah fighters in a dramatic raid on a northeastern town. Hezbollah retaliated with its deepest missile strikes yet, firing a record number of rockets into Israel as the conflict escalated.
Israeli military officials, speaking condition of anonymity said their troops were going from village to village clearing them of Hezbollah fighters.
Hezbollah was putting up resistance, but the officials said they were confident it would not change their timetable of reaching a site six kilometres into Lebanon by Thursday. They said they could easily dash inland to the Litani River their final objective but that they were proceeding methodically so as not to leave pockets of resistance behind.
In Baalbek, on the border with Syria, two gutted cars and a minivan with shattered windows, riddled with shrapnel and bullet holes, sat outside an abandoned hospital that was the scene of fierce fighting in the early morning hours.
In the nearby village of Al Jamaliyeh, where airstrikes killed seven including the mayor's son and brother, about 50 people carried pictures of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during a small procession. Bodies of the dead were hastily shrouded in white cloth and carried to the graveyard in the bucket of a back hoe.
Israeli commandos flew in by helicopter in the raid on Baalbek, capturing five suspected Hezbollah fighters and killing at least 10, said Israel's army chief, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz.
Though Israel has not yet released the identity of those captured, when asked by The AP whether any were 'big fish,' Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said: "They are tasty fishes." A Hezbollah spokesman speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed Israeli troops captured 'four or five' people, but said it was not at the hospital.
He denied they were Hezbollah fighters, saying one was a 60-year-old grocery store owner, and two others, the grocer's relatives, work in construction.
Witnesses said Israeli forces partially destroyed the Dar Al Hikma hospital in Baalbek, where chief Hezbollah spokesman Hussain Rahal said fierce fighting raged for more than one hour.
Hezbollah used automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades and fought the commandos inside the Dar Al Hikma hospital, while Israeli jets attacked the surrounding fighter force with missiles, Rahal said.
Olmert said though the scene of the fighting is called a hospital, "there are no patients there and there is no hospital, this is a base of the Hezbollah in disguise." The hospital, which residents said is financed by an Iranian charity that is close to Hezbollah, was empty of patients at the time of the raid, the Hezbollah group said.
"It was empty last night, there was no one there," said the anonymous spokesman.
One of a series of air raids struck Al Jamaliyah, about one kilometre from the hospital, hitting the house of the village's mayor, Hussain Jamaluddin, instantly killing his son, brother, and five other relatives.
A family of seven a mother, father and their five children were killed in another air raid on an area near Al Jamaliyah, witnesses said. A van driver was also killed when another missile struck nearby.
Fighting ended at about 4am (0100 GMT) as precarious calm prevailed in Baalbek, residents said. Hezbollah hit back, firing 206 rockets at towns across northern Israel, wounding at least 21 people and killing one, Israeli police said.
Israel medics said one of the rockets hit near the town of Beit Shean, the deepest rocket strike into Israel so far.
Looking back: Previous commando operations
Israel's overnight commando raid on the eastern town of Baalbek, in which five people were captured, recalls several previous operations in Lebanon and elsewhere.
- In May 1994, helicopter-borne soldiers landed in the eastern Lebanese village of Qsarnaba and abducted Mustafa Dirani, accused by Israel of being behind the 1986 capture of airman Ron Arad.
- In July 1989, commandos abducted Abdul Karim Obaid, a senior Hezbollah leader, from the southern town of Jibchit in a dawn helicopter raid. Both men were released in 2004 as part of a prisoner exchange.
- In February 1992, Hezbollah leader Abbas Moussawi was killed in a helicopter rocket attack on a convoy of vehicles in south Lebanon.
- In April 1973, an elite squad landed by boat in Beirut and killed three senior figures from the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). The raid was portrayed in the recent Steven Spielberg film Munich.
- In July 1976, Israeli forces staged a spectacular hostage release at Entebbe airport in Uganda, after Palestinian militants hijacked a Tel Aviv to Paris airliner.