Israel to expand offensive

JERUSALEM: Israel plans to step up its offensive against Hizbollah guerrillas until an international force is deployed in south Lebanon despite calls for an immediate truce, officials said on Monday.

“We cannot agree to an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon because then we will find ourselves in a few months in a similar situation,” Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said. “The army will expand and deepen its actions against Hizbollah,” he vowed during a heated parliamentary session in which four Israeli Arab lawmakers were escorted out for heckling. One parliament member called Peretz a murderer.

Senior Israeli officials said the government wants to pursue its military offensive until an international force arrives because any pause could be exploited by Hizbollah to strengthen its positions in southern Lebanon. If approved by the UN Security Council later this week, the first contingent of a stabilisation force could be dispatched to south Lebanon within days, possibly as soon as next week, Israeli officials and Western diplomats estimated.   

Israeli officials acknowledged that the United States was under mounting pressure and that it was unclear whether it would let the offensive continue until peacekeepers arrive.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert plans to meet his security cabinet to discuss Israel’s military and diplomatic options, security sources said. “We know the offensive is going to end. The timetable is the biggest question now,” a Western diplomat in Jerusalem said.