Hizbullah fired more rockets into Israel yesterday than on any previous day of the 22-day-old war, killing one Israeli and wounding 123 after helicopter-borne commandos launched Israel's deepest raid into Lebanon.
Israeli sources said about 10,000 soldiers were now battling Hizbullah in southern Lebanon. The naval bombardment, which continued sporadically throughout the day, was only one element in a conflict which expanded dramatically yesterday.
Overnight, Israeli troops launched a raid on the Bekaa valley town of Baalbek, capturing five Hizbullah men and killing 10 others, the Israelis said. They also attacked the hospital built by the Ayatollah Khomeini Foundation and a Lebanese army post, killing a soldier and wounding two others.
Hizbullah retaliated with the worst barrage of rockets and missiles into Israel since the war started on July 12th - estimated to be about 200. One of the missiles reached 70km into Israel, the farthest distance so far.
The launch of the missile into central Israel seemed a response to the assertion by Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert that Israel had "entirely destroyed Hizbullah infrastructure".
Israel expanded its ground offensive, engaging in street fighting with rifles and heavy machine guns in villages such as Ayta ash Shaab. Other ground incursions with tanks and troops occurred on the outskirts of Yarun, Hula, Addaisseh and Kfar Kila.
Last night the United Nations appeared to be on the verge of breaking the deadlock, paving the way for a Security Council resolution in which major powers including the US and the UK would demand an immediate end to fighting.
As the violence escalated yesterday, diplomats insisted that disagreements on the council were now all but resolved and that a resolution could be voted on by early next week.
The delay will give Israel more time to pursue its military offensive against Hizbullah.
The US and the UK have been opposing calls for an immediate ceasefire, demanding that a long-term solution be devised first, while France - on whom any multinational force might well rely for troops and leadership - has insisted that a ceasefire must precede any such negotiations.
However, there is now "95 per cent convergence" between Washington, London and Paris, one council diplomat said.
Meanwhile in Israel, Mr Olmert said yesterday that Israel would not halt its three-week offensive in Lebanon until a "robust" international peacekeeping force had been deployed in south Lebanon, and intimated that the outcome of the conflict would generate "new momentum" for his plan to withdraw from much of the West Bank.
The Israeli leader said the force should be deployed along Israel's border with Lebanon, as well as the Lebanon-Syria border, in order "to prevent the smuggling of arms from Syria to Lebanon as they are doing now".
The force, he said, would have to implement a UN resolution calling for the disarmament of Hizbullah.