A Lebanese refugee gestures in a classroom at a school serving as a temporary shelter for refugees at Mansora in Al- Bekaa in east Beirut yesterday. - Reuters
JERUSALEM (Reuters):
Israel agreed yesterday to allow aid airlifts to Lebanon, but said it was determined to pursue a war against Hezbollah that key ally the United States has sanctioned despite a heavy civilian death toll.
After meeting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said both agreed that disarming Hezbollah and deploying an international force in its place in southern Lebanon were key to resolving the two-week-old crisis.
Israel said it would hold a "security strip" inside southern Lebanon until that force arrived.
The war will take centre stage at an international conference in Rome today, where Arab and some European nations are expected to call for an immediate ceasefire over Washington's objections. Rice later flew to Italy.
On the battlefield, Israeli troops and tanks fought Hezbollah inside the guerrilla stronghold town of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon. Israel said it killed up to 30 fighters.
Israeli warplanes bombarded Hezbollah's Beirut stronghold and launched 100 strikes across south Lebanon. One attack killed a family of seven, Lebanese security sources said.
Hezbollah rockets killed a 15-year-old girl in an Arab Israeli town in the Galilee, medics said.
A total of 411 people in Lebanon and 42 Israelis have been killed in a conflict that erupted after Hezbollah abducted two Israeli soldiers in a July 12 cross-border raid.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah said he feared Israel's offensive could ignite a wider war in the Middle East.
But Rice, who visited bomb-battered Beirut on Monday, said it was time for a "new Middle East".
"A durable solution will be one that strengthens the forces of peace and democracy in the region," she said.
Amid mounting international concern at civilian casualties and the plight of people displaced in Lebanon, Olmert said Israel would allow aid airlifts to reach the country.
AIRLIFTS TO BEIRUT
Israel has imposed an air and sea blockade and bombed Beirut airport runways.
Lebanon says Israel's bombardment has displaced a fifth of its population. Most of its dead are civilians.
"The Prime Minister said Israel will allow, with advance coordination, for planes carrying humanitarian aid to land at Beirut airport," Olmert's office said.
United Nations humanitarian agencies said they were still largely blocked from bringing relief supplies into Lebanon, and from getting injured and very sick people to hospitals.
