Air Attacks Intensify In Lebanon, Israel

When the U.S.-France resolution reaches its final stage at the United Nations, Siniora explained, he will take it to his government, including its Hezbollah ministers, and seek their endorsement if the conditions are ripe. In the meantime, he said, Lebanon cannot embrace the resolution as it stands.

Nabih Berri, head of the Amal party and the main conduit for communication with Hezbollah, indicated why. "All Lebanon, all Lebanese, all the communities of Lebanon reject this draft resolution," he said at a news conference.

The cease-fire must be accompanied by a total Israeli withdrawal, a pledge to end Israeli occupation of the disputed Shebaa Farms area and a prisoner exchange between Israel and Lebanon, Berri said. Trying to impose a settlement without these elements, he added, "will either cause internal conflict in Lebanon or it will be impossible to implement."

Hezbollah ministers, repeating earlier statements from the movement's leaders, said the group's militia in southern Lebanon would not lay down its arms or stop firing until all Israeli soldiers are out of Lebanon. Only then, and only when the Shebaa Farms and prisoner exchange demands have been addressed, will the movement enter into discussions about disarmament and restoration of government authority in the embattled border area, they insisted.

Five of the Lebanese civilian deaths occurred within the same extended family when Israeli rockets slammed into two neighboring houses in the village of Ansar, near the market town of Nabatiyeh about eight miles north of the border, according to Lebanese media, citing local police. Three Lebanese were killed near Naqoura, on the border as it reaches the Mediterranean Sea, they said, and three others were killed in bombing raids in the village of al-Jibbain.

Hezbollah statements said the Israeli tanks were hit at Wadi Honeen, Ras al-Biyada and Adassieh, to the northeast near the town of Taibe, where combat has raged off and on almost since the fighting began July 12. Israeli military officers have said most of their casualties have been caused by Hezbollah's laser-guided tank missiles fired against Israeli armored personnel carriers and the Markava main battle tank.

Roads in the coastal city of Tyre and its hinterland were paralyzed after Israeli aircraft killed a Lebanese soldier standing on a road, fired near a motorcycle and struck a car close to a U.N. convoy, witnesses and U.N. officials said. Several more soldiers were killed in other airstrikes, the military reported.

The reason for airstrikes against Lebanese soldiers was unclear. The Lebanese army, with about 75,000 members, has largely stood aside as Hezbollah battles the Israeli military, although Israeli officials have charged that some soldiers were cooperating with the militia.

U.N. officials said the Israeli rocket landed within 40 yards of a U.N. convoy of 15 trucks and two jeeps carrying humanitarian supplies to southern Lebanon from Beirut. It struck a white van headed the other way at 12:20 p.m., apparently killing the driver, said Khaled Mansour, a U.N. spokesman in Lebanon. Other reports said a passenger was also killed.

No one was hurt in the convoy, which arrived in Tyre.

The snarled wreckage was still in the street at dusk, packages of bread spread behind it along the main road north out of Tyre. Mansour said Israeli forces had been alerted about the convoy's time of departure, expected arrival and route. "You're expected to be safe," he said.

Two rockets were fired at the Lebanese soldier, whose right arm was almost cut off, doctors said, and he died after reaching the hospital. Another rocket was fired as journalists arrived at the scene, slightly wounding a photographer for the New York Times magazine and his Lebanese driver, witnesses said.