Mideast Cease-Fire Goes Into Effect

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, center, chairs the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem Sunday Aug. 13, 2006. Olmert opened a Cabinet session Sunday to vote on a U.N. cease-fire plan, telling ministers he hoped two captured Israeli soldiers would be freed. From left, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transportation Shaul Mofaz, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Olmert, Cabinet Secretary Yisrael Maimon and Vice Premier Shimon Peres.(AP Photo/Ronen Zvulun, Pool) (Ronen Zvulun - AP)

JERUSALEM -- A U.N.-imposed cease-fire went into effect Monday designed to end a month of violence that killed more than 900 people, devastated much of southern Lebanon and forced hundreds of thousands of Israelis into bomb shelters.

In the final hours before the truce, Israeli aircraft struck targets in the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon and a Palestinian refugee camp in the south, but soldiers were ordered to halt their offensive as of 8 a.m. (1 a.m. EST).