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Israel says world backs offensive
Israel says the decision by a summit of world powers not to call for a halt to its Lebanon offensive has given it the green light to continue.
"We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world... to continue the operation," Justice Minister Haim Ramon said.
His comments came before Israeli cabinet ministers decided not to launch a large-scale ground offensive.
Israel has launched fresh air raids, amid ongoing fighting in south Lebanon.
At least 423 Lebanese and 51 Israelis have died in the violence since Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July.
In other developments:
* Following the deaths of four UN observers in an Israeli air strike, Australia has withdrawn 12 UN peacekeepers, describing the prospect of sending an international force to Lebanon right now as a "suicide mission"
* UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres says 500,000 people have been displaced within Lebanon by the fighting
* A poll of Israelis published by Israel's Maariv daily newspaper suggests 82% back the continuing offensive and 95% say Israel's action is justified
Sustainable truce
Foreign ministers attending emergency talks on the crisis in Rome on Wednesday did not call for an immediate ceasefire, vowing instead to work with the "utmost urgency" for a sustainable truce.
Speaking on Israeli army radio, Mr Ramon - a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - said "everyone understands that a victory for Hezbollah is a victory for world terror".
He said that in order to prevent casualties among Israeli soldiers battling Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, villages should be flattened by the Israeli air force before ground troops moved in.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5219360.stm
His comments came before Israeli cabinet ministers decided not to launch a large-scale ground offensive.
Israel has launched fresh air raids, amid ongoing fighting in south Lebanon.
At least 423 Lebanese and 51 Israelis have died in the violence since Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July.
In other developments:
* Following the deaths of four UN observers in an Israeli air strike, Australia has withdrawn 12 UN peacekeepers, describing the prospect of sending an international force to Lebanon right now as a "suicide mission"
* UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres says 500,000 people have been displaced within Lebanon by the fighting
* A poll of Israelis published by Israel's Maariv daily newspaper suggests 82% back the continuing offensive and 95% say Israel's action is justified
Sustainable truce
Foreign ministers attending emergency talks on the crisis in Rome on Wednesday did not call for an immediate ceasefire, vowing instead to work with the "utmost urgency" for a sustainable truce.
Speaking on Israeli army radio, Mr Ramon - a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - said "everyone understands that a victory for Hezbollah is a victory for world terror".
He said that in order to prevent casualties among Israeli soldiers battling Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, villages should be flattened by the Israeli air force before ground troops moved in.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5219360.stm
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Ahmed Abul Gheit, the Egyptian foreign minister, said the international conference in Rome "failed to meet Arab demands", the official Middle East News Agency reported on Thursday as Israel continued its attacks.
Air attacks
Israeli warplanes carried out raids on suspected Hezbollah strongholds in south Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley east of Beirut on Thursday.
One policeman and two civilians died in the Bekaa, police said.
Warplanes also hit a Lebanese army base and a radio relay station, fired more than 400 missiles overnight at Khiam in the south, and destroyed several roads.
Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, had called for an "immediate cessation of hostilities" at the Rome talks, but Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, argued that Hezbollah needed to be disarmed first.
Israeli troops with a Hezbollah
flag returning from south Lebanon
More
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D7B2C3B2-AACB-4C0C-9DEC-3AAE9A97F48E.htm