BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hizbollah killed 12 Israeli soldiers on Sunday in its deadliest rocket strike yet and Israeli bombs killed 19 Lebanese civilians as Lebanon rejected a draft U.N. resolution to end the 26-day-old war.
A rocket struck a group of Israeli reservists, called up for the Lebanon offensive, in the Israeli village of Kfar Giladi. Medics said dozens were wounded.
Soldiers near the scene held their heads and one wept as a military ambulance pulled away. Helicopters landed nearby to fly the badly wounded to hospitals further from the war front.
"I don't recall so many dead ever. This is terrible," said Ron Valensi, head of the upper Galilee municipal council and a resident of Kfar Giladi, speaking on Channel 2 Television.
Lebanon's parliament speaker Nabih Berri said his country rejected the U.S.-French draft Security Council resolution because it would let Israeli forces stay on Lebanese soil.
Berri, a Shi'ite politician who has been the main channel between Hizbollah and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, said the draft ignored the Beirut government's seven-point plan calling for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the return of all displaced civilians among other things.
"All of Lebanon rejects any resolution that is outside these seven points," Berri told a news conference.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that agreeing on a resolution would not end all fighting.
"I would hope that you would see very early on an end to large-scale violence," she said, but did not rule out "skirmishes for some time to come."
U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said that once a resolution was adopted, Washington wanted a second one establishing a peacekeeping force in days, not weeks.
Hizbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, has killed 57 Israeli soldiers and 33 civilians in the conflict, sparked when its men seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
more
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2279651
A rocket struck a group of Israeli reservists, called up for the Lebanon offensive, in the Israeli village of Kfar Giladi. Medics said dozens were wounded.
Soldiers near the scene held their heads and one wept as a military ambulance pulled away. Helicopters landed nearby to fly the badly wounded to hospitals further from the war front.
"I don't recall so many dead ever. This is terrible," said Ron Valensi, head of the upper Galilee municipal council and a resident of Kfar Giladi, speaking on Channel 2 Television.
Lebanon's parliament speaker Nabih Berri said his country rejected the U.S.-French draft Security Council resolution because it would let Israeli forces stay on Lebanese soil.
Berri, a Shi'ite politician who has been the main channel between Hizbollah and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, said the draft ignored the Beirut government's seven-point plan calling for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the return of all displaced civilians among other things.
"All of Lebanon rejects any resolution that is outside these seven points," Berri told a news conference.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that agreeing on a resolution would not end all fighting.
"I would hope that you would see very early on an end to large-scale violence," she said, but did not rule out "skirmishes for some time to come."
U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said that once a resolution was adopted, Washington wanted a second one establishing a peacekeeping force in days, not weeks.
Hizbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, has killed 57 Israeli soldiers and 33 civilians in the conflict, sparked when its men seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
more
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2279651
