MIDDLE EAST: There are growing doubts that the Israeli air force can dramatically weaken Hizbullah, writes Peter Hirschberg, in Jerusalem
Israel called up several thousand reserve soldiers yesterday to bolster its forces in the north and dropped leaflets telling residents of Lebanese villages along the border to leave their homes, in what appeared to be indications the military was planning to broaden its ground offensive in south Lebanon.
However, army chief Lt Gen Dan Halutz insisted last night that Israel's ground operation would remain "limited" in Lebanon. "We have no intention of carrying out a broad ground operation," he told reporters at a press conference in Tel Aviv.
But Israel's inability to silence the rocket fire - Hizbullah fired dozens more rockets at towns in northern Israel yesterday, injuring 16 people in the city of Haifa alone - has sparked a growing debate over whether the Israeli air force can achieve the government's stated aim of dramatically weakening Hizbullah, or whether ground forces are also needed.
Some of the reservists, who began reporting to pick-up points around the country yesterday afternoon, will be sent to the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been conducting another offensive ever since a soldier was snatched by Palestinian militants in late June.
They will free up soldiers from the regular army who will be moved to the northern border, where roads yesterday were jammed with lines of tanks and armoured personnel carriers.
Elite units have been carrying out pin-point operations in south Lebanon, where they have been targeting Hizbullah fighters who have been firing rockets into Israel. But the full extent of this activity was not made public until late Thursday night when it emerged there were several thousand elite Israeli troops operating up to two kilometres inside Lebanon.
The troops have been trying to uncover underground bunkers and tunnels where Hizbullah militants are hiding with rockets they have been firing into Israel, the army said.
For now, military officials say the ground activity will be confined to raids from Israel into Lebanon, with the aim of sweeping villages close to the border for Hizbullah fighters and weaponry. The army, officials add, has no intention of setting up permanent positions inside Lebanon.
Israel's ambassador to the United States, Danny Ayalon, yesterday said the government had no plan to push deep into Lebanon, but that the military would focus on Hizbullah installations close to the border. He said the aim was to destroy Hizbullah weapons stockpiles and command-and-control centres.
"I would say by and large about 40 per cent of Hizbullah's capabilities are neutralised," he said in Washington. "Most of the long-range [ missiles] have been hit, a lot of the medium-range, but they still have thousands and thousands of rockets, short-range and others. It is not an easy operation."
Prime minister Ehud Olmert is said to be strongly opposed to a massive ground push into Lebanon. "It's not a ground operation, it's a surgical operation," said Rafi Eitan, a minister in Mr Olmert's cabinet, when asked yesterday to define Israel's ground activity in south Lebanon. "When you go in on the ground," he conceded, "you pay the price."
Six Israeli soldiers have: they were killed in the space of 24 hours, between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday afternoon, in close-quarter fighting with Hizbullah militants just inside Lebanon. The military says that Hizbullah has spent several years preparing for a ground confrontation with Israel, and that its fighters are well-organised and highly motivated.
Lt Gen Halutz said yesterday that around 100 Hizbullah fighters had been killed in the Israeli offensive.
When it comes to ordering a massive ground operation, Israel's leaders are deterred by the bitter memories of the 18-year occupation of a buffer zone inside south Lebanon, which was set up to keep Lebanese guerillas from infiltrating across the border. Israel withdrew its forces in May 2000 after suffering hundreds of casualties in almost daily skirmishes with Hizbullah gunmen, who used the mountainous terrain to their advantage in taking on a much more powerful, but conventional fighting force.
A massive ground push, Mr Olmert knows, would likely result in stiff casualties which could, in turn, undercut strong public support for the military operation he ordered.
But if Hizbullah continues to weather the massive Israeli aerial bombardment and the rockets keep landing in Israel, paralysing the north of the country, Mr Olmert might feel compelled to commit more and more ground forces. That, say some Israeli military observers, is exactly what Hizbullah wants.