By RAVI NESSMAN
The Associated Press
Monday, August 14, 2006; 1:05 AM

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).