With its continued air assaults and naval blockade, Israel is mounting pressure on the Lebanese government to crack down on Hezbollah operations.
Foreign Minister Ehud Barak ruled out diplomatic activity to end the operation, codenamed “Grapes of Wrath,” until Lebanon curbed Hezbollah operations against Israel.
“Right now, our guns and our aircraft are hitting the Hezbollah, and I believe that the time will come for diplomatic contacts only once the government in Beirut will realize its responsibility to take over Hezbollah,” Barak said Sunday.
The Israel Defense Force chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Amnon Shahak, said that the massive wave of Lebanese refugees fleeing the repeated Israeli bombardments of targets in southern Lebanon would force the Lebanese government into action.
“This flood of people is going to put pressure on the Lebanese government, and in turn, on Hezbollah,” Shahak said at a Sunday briefing. “These people have to decide if Hezbollah, which promises to be their protector, is really what they want.”
The Israeli raids on targets in Lebanon came in the wake of repeated Katyusha rocket assaults launched by Hezbollah on northern Israeli communities.
After Hezbollah unleashed a Katyusha attack on northern Israel April 9, Prime Minister Shimon Peres responded two days later with a series of air assaults at Hezbollah positions within Lebanon.
At Sunday’s weekly Cabinet meeting, Peres offered to stop the Israeli strikes if Hezbollah ceased its rocket attacks on northern Israel.
“If the Hezbollah ceases its attacks, we will cease ours,” Peres said at the Cabinet meeting, adding that “Israel has the patience, fortitude and ability to continue carrying out the required actions until Hezbollah attacks cease.”
The prime minister’s remarks came as hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians fled north to escape the IDF raids, and as northern Israel came under a counter-barrage of Katyusha rockets.
Despite four days of Israeli strikes, Hezbollah units responded Sunday by firing some 45 rockets at the Galilee panhandle and western Galilee.
The Katyushas caused only light damage, and only three injuries were reported.
The low casualty figure was in part attributed to the fact that residents of northern Israeli communities had heeded army directives to remain in bomb shelters and security rooms.
Another factor was that many homes were empty, after thousands of northern residents fled to central and southern Israel shortly after the hostilities broke out.
On Sunday night, one Katyusha rocket hit a shelter housing scores of people, but only two were lightly hurt.
One Israeli woman was listed in serious condition from a Katyusha rocket attack last Friday.
Overall, more than 500 apartments had sustained damage in the wave of rocket attacks which began last week.
The Israeli military operation began April 11, after the Passover holiday’s conclusion, when Israel launched air operations that extended to the southern suburbs of Beirut for a surgical strike against what was described as the logistics center of Hezbollah.
It marked the first time Israel targeted the Lebanese capital since the 1982 war in Lebanon.
Last week, the IDF issued a statement advising Lebanese civilians to leave four villages in southern Lebanon that Israel charged were being used by Hezbollah fighters as bases.
On Sunday, the IDF extended the warning to Lebanese residents of more than 42 villages south of the Litani River, telling them to get out of the area or risk their lives.
In addition to the artillery and air strikes, Israel imposed a naval blockade on Lebanon.
On Saturday, an Israeli helicopter rocketed an ambulance near Tyre, killing four children and two women, sources in Lebanon said.
Israel said a member of Hezbollah had also been traveling in the vehicle.
On Sunday, Israeli planes rocketed a relay station in Jamhour, located south of Beirut, knocking out power in the surrounding area.
Israel said the raid was in response to a Hezbollah rocket attack the previous night that had knocked out electricity in the northern Israeli border town of Kiryat Shmona.
“No place is immune,” Peres told Israel Radio. “If they will hit electricity in our places, their electricity will face the same problem.”
The air force also hit two targets in the Bekaa Valley which it said served Hezbollah for transmitting its “Voice of the Oppressed” radio station.
The United States has given its support to the Israeli strikes in Lebanon.
U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher said over the weekend that the Israeli actions were a legitimate response to Hezbollah’s rocket attacks on northern Israel.
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