The Israeli army pushed deeper into Lebanon and air strikes killed up to 20 people today, despite a UN Security Council demand for a "full cessation of hostilities" in the month-old war with Hizbullah.
Helicopters lifted hundreds of Israeli troops into the south as part of an expanding offensive launched even though Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has backed the UN vote. Mr Olmert was expected to ask his cabinet to approve the resolution on Sunday.
US President George W. Bush welcomed the UN resolution, saying Hizbullah and its sponsors Iran and Syria had brought an "unwanted" war to the region.
A convoy of vehicles snakes along a road toward the southern village of Marj el-Khokh, near the southern town of Marjayoun, Lebanon.
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was to speak on his group's al-Manar television later on Saturday in what would be his first appearance since the Security Council action.
Israel's top general said the offensive would go on until it was clear how any UN-backed ceasefire would take effect.
"We are fighting Hizbullah and will continue to fight it until a ceasefire is decided, but more than that, until it is decided what the mechanism for implementing (that ceasefire) is," Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz told reporters.
"We will continue to operate until we achieve our aims."
The Israeli troop airlift was the biggest operation of its kind in at least the last 30 years, Israeli media reported, saying that more than 50 helicopters were involved.
Hizbullah fired at least 30 rockets into Israel and medics said three people were lightly wounded.
A UN envoy said earlier the United Nations expected the Israeli assault to wind down in one to two days and an expanded international force to begin deploying in a week to 10 days.
"We are not starting from zero," Alvaro de Soto, the UN special envoy for the Middle East peace process, said, adding that several countries had offered contingents for the force.
The UN resolution authorises up to 15,000 UN troops to move into Lebanon to enforce a ceasefire. France is widely expected to lead the force, which will expand the existing UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), but have a stronger mandate.
Mr Bush said the measures in the UN resolution aimed to "stop Hizbullah from acting as a state within a state, and put an end to Iran and Syria's efforts to hold the Lebanese people hostage to their own extremist agenda".
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy made clear in an interview with Le Monde newspaper that the mission of the larger UNIFIL would not include disarming Hizbullah by force.
"We never thought a purely military solution could resolve the problem of Hizbullah," he said. "We are agreed on the goal, the disarmament, but for us the means are purely political."
UNIFIL said a Ghanaian peacekeeper had been wounded by Israeli artillery fire near the southern village of Haris.
Relief officials said Israel was still denying permission for aid convoys to reach distressed civilians in south Lebanon.
Israeli troops pushed west towards Ghandouriyeh, a village 11 km (7 miles) inside Lebanon, their furthest penetration yet, security sources said. Hizbullah said it had destroyed 16 tanks in the fighting and inflicted heavy Israeli casualties.
The Israeli army said more than 30 soldiers had been wounded. It said it had killed more than 40 Hizbullah fighters in the last 24 hours and destroyed several rocket launchers.
Air strikes in the south killed up to 15 people in the village of Rshaf and four civilians in Kharayeb, security sources said. Raids in the Bekaa Valley killed one civilian.
The UN resolution said Hizbullah must halt all attacks and Israel must stop "all offensive military operations".
Lebanon's cabinet, which contains two Hizbullah ministers, was expected to approve the resolution later in the day.
At least 1,061 people in Lebanon and 124 Israelis have been killed in the war that began after Hizbullah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12th.
The planned UN force will monitor the withdrawal of Israeli troops and help the Lebanese army maintain a ceasefire.