Rice Outlines Proposal to Deploy Force In Lebanon

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, left, and U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman, top left, look on as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice greets Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh in a visit to Beirut. (By Ben Curtis -- Associated Press)

"The target is not to dismantle totally Hezbollah from its missiles capability -- that's not the mission," Dichter said. "But we know that we, Israel, by our means, and the guidelines we gave to the [military], can't drive Hezbollah from its means of warfare."

Lebanese medics spoke about a weekend incident that highlighted what they said was Israel's indiscriminant targeting in the south.

On Saturday, Israeli forces struck two ambulances outside the town of Qana, injuring six Red Cross volunteer medics as well as the three wounded passengers they were carrying, Red Cross medics said. The ambulances were flashing blue lights and had illuminated the Red Cross flag, the medics said.

"I fell down," said Qassem Shalaan, 28, one of the wounded medics, who was standing about three feet from the first ambulance when it was struck. "I opened my eyes to make sure I could still see, then I checked my body and I was okay."

He had three stitches below his lip and cuts on his leg. His eardrums were bruised.

As the medics in the other ambulance called for help, a second missile hit it less than a minute later, wounding the three other medics, they said.

The medics, all wearing flak jackets and helmets, kept working despite their injuries. They took the wounded -- a 14-year-old boy, his father and his grandmother -- into a nearby home. There, in the basement, they used their shirts as bandages amid shelling that lasted throughout their two-hour wait for help.

"I'll speak for myself, but I feel like I have no cover even as a Red Cross worker," Shalaan said from his hospital bed.

By evening, Sami Yazbak, head of the Red Cross in Tyre, said he had received an Israeli apology and an assurance they would not be attacked again. Shaalan returned to the Red Cross office, a small, six-room compound a short way from the Mediterranean coast. He had taken off his bandages before seeing his mother so as not to worry her.

Wilson reported from Jerusalem. Correspondents Anthony Shadid in Tyre, Edward Cody in Beirut, Jonathan Finer in Avivim and John Ward Anderson in Jerusalem contributed to this report.