Israeli soldiers from a mobile artillery unit pray in the northern village of Fassuta near the Lebanese border yesterday. - Reuters
BEIRUT, (Reuters)
Thirteen Israeli soldiers were reported killed in fierce fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon yesterday and world diplomats in Rome called for a lasting, but not immediate, ceasefire in the 15-day-old war.
Participants at the crisis conference on Lebanon pledged to work urgently for a "lasting, permanent and sustainable" ceasefire, but did not demand that the fighting stop now.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the conference had agreed that a U.N.-mandated international force was needed.
NATO's chief said it was too early to discuss a possible role for the alliance, as suggested by Israel.
In the Gaza Strip, scene of another Israeli offensive, Israeli forces killed 14 Palestinians, including nine militants and a three-year-old girl, in fighting across the territory.
GAZA OFFENSIVE
Israel has killed 133 Palestinians in a month-long campaign to recover a captured soldier and stop rocket fire from Gaza.
Its war against Hezbollah has killed at least 418 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians. At least 42 Israelis have also died.
The battles occurred as foreign ministers, including Rice, met in Rome to discuss how to end the conflict and bring humanitarian aid to Lebanon.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had said he wanted the meeting to urge the Security Council to call for an immediate ceasefire — an idea resisted by Washington, which wants a "durable solution" first.
Annan said it was important to include Iran and Syria to reach an agreement to end fighting in Lebanon. Rice has blamed the two countries, Hezbollah's main allies, for stoking the conflict.
Israel, Iran and Syria were not invited to the Rome talks.
Hezbollah vowed not to accept "humiliating" truce terms and to take its rocket strikes deeper into Israel. Hours later, more missiles hit the port of Haifa, wounding several people, police said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert strove to limit diplomatic damage from the killing of four U.N. observers in an air strike on their post in south Lebanon on Tuesday, telling Annan he was sorry at the deaths, but expressing shock at the U.N. chief's suggestion the attack was deliberate.
China condemned the air raid, in which a Chinese observer was killed. The others were from Finland, Austria and Canada.
BUILDING FLATTENED
U.N. officials said the raid flattened the building housing the observers. Initial U.N. assessments suggested Israel had used precision-guided munitions, diplomats in Jerusalem said.
Israeli bombing has forced an estimated 750,000 people to flee their homes. Many are still trapped in war zones.
The first U.N. aid convoy left Beirut for the southern port of Tyre. The 10 trucks were carrying 90 tonnes of supplies, including enough medicine for 50,000 people for three months.
A Jordanian military plane landed at Beirut airport to evacuate badly wounded people from among 2,000 hurt in Lebanon so far. It was the first jet to land at the airport since Israeli planes bombed runways on July 13.
Israel, with tacit U.S. approval, has said it will press on with its assault. It also plans to enforce a narrow no-go zone reaching two km (1.2 miles) into south Lebanon with air strikes and artillery fire until international forces are deployed.
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whose group ignited the war by capturing two Israeli soldiers in a raid into Israel on July 12, rejected U.S. ceasefire conditions.
Olmert said he wanted the war to end soon, but only after Israel had achieved its goals, a parliamentary official said.
