Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met top defense officials Monday to discuss broadening air and ground attacks in Lebanon, a day after Hezbollah rockets killed 15 people in northern Israel.

There was no announcement after the talks concluded, but the sources said Defense Minister Amir Peretz urged an expanded ground push up to the Litani River, 20km inside southern Lebanon.

Peretz was quoted as saying that he has ordered the army to eliminate Hezbollah rocket launching sites "wherever they are" if the diplomatic process isn't concluded soon.

 

Speaking to the Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, Peretz said that he has instructed the Israel Defense Forces to "take control" of launching sites "wherever they are to minimize the fire of Katyasha rockets and take the Israeli people out of the shelters."

The IDF plans to ramp up their offensive in Lebanon in response to Sunday's rocket attacks on northern Israel.

A senior General Staff officer told Haaretz that for the first time since the fighting began, Israel plans to attack strategic infrastructure targets and symbols of the Lebanese government.

Other than bombing the Beirut airport to prevent arms transfers to Hezbollah, Israel has hitherto not targeted Lebanon's infrastructure, insisting that it is only at war with Hezbollah, not with the Lebanese government or people.

However, the officer said, "we are now in a process of renewed escalation. We will continue hitting everything that moves in Hezbollah - but we will also hit strategic civilian infrastructure."

Altogether, Hezbollah fired more than 170 rockets at Israel on Sunday, including a barrage of at least 22 rockets on Haifa at about 8 P.M. that killed three people and wounded about 40.

The 12 reservists were killed, and another 12 wounded, by a single rocket - one of about 35 fired at the Galilee panhandle Sunday - that hit their muster point at around noon.

Sources in the IDF General Staff said that until the chances of a UN-sponsored cease-fire become clearer, which is expected to happen in the coming days, Israel will continue to press its offensive.

If Hezbollah has not ceased its fire by this weekend, they added, the IDF will recommend an additional significant expansion of the operation, including the conquest of most of Lebanon south of the Litani River, including the area around Tyre, and a significant increase in air strikes on infrastructure targets. "It could be that at the end of the story, Lebanon will be dark for a few years," said one.

The General Staff believes that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has recently stepped up his attacks because he expects the international community to impose a cease-fire soon.

"He thinks that we're nearing the end, and therefore, he's taking risks, such as activating long-range rocket launchers, even though he knows that the air force will destroy almost every such launcher immediately after the launch," explained one officer.
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