Ibl el-Saqi, Lebanon – Israel grabbed strategic high ground in south Lebanon on Thursday but delayed a major push northward as diplomats cited progress toward agreement on a U.N. cease-fire resolution that could soon go to a vote.
With Israeli troops closer to Beirut than at any time since the war began, diplomats said they were close to unlocking the stalemate over a U.N. effort toward a cease-fire.
John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said a vote was possible today.
The United States and France have been trying to bridge differences over a timetable for an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
Early today, eight powerful explosions resounded across Beirut and local media reports said Israeli jets were pounding Hezbollah strongholds in the southern Dahieh suburb. The reports said border crossings in north and east Lebanon were also hit. Security officials and local media said 11 people were killed and 11 wounded at the Abboudiyeh border crossing into Syria, 70 miles northeast of Beirut, after jets struck a busy bridge.
Israeli ground troops took control of the mainly Christian town of Marjayoun before dawn Thursday and blasted away throughout the day at strongly fortified Hezbollah positions in several directions.
An Israeli soldier was killed and two were wounded in fierce battles with Hezbollah guerrillas Thursday, a day after the Israeli military suffered its worst one-day military loss, with 15 soldiers killed. More than 800 people have died in the month-long conflict, including 715 in Lebanon.
A huge explosion rocked the center of the town and the surrounding countryside around sunset, and a big fire could be seen raging from a vantage point in Ibl el-Saqi, about 2 miles to the east.
By taking Marjayoun, the Israeli army was closer to Beirut than at any time since the fighting began July 12 after a cross-border raid in which Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed three.
At the same time, the army was still within about 5 miles of the Israeli border.
Marjayoun, which sits near major road junctions in the south, lies due north of Israel’s Galilee panhandle that juts north into Lebanon.
Marjayoun was used as the command center for the Israeli army and its allied Lebanese militia during an 18-year occupation of south Lebanon that ended in 2000.
The high ground around Marjayoun, including the village of Blatt, overlooks the Litani River valley, one of the staging sites for Hezbollah’s relentless rocket assaults on Israel.
Diplomatic efforts had stalled as the Lebanese called for Israeli troops to start pulling out once hostilities end and Beirut sends 15,000 troops of its own to the south, while Israel has insisted on staying in southern Lebanon until a robust international force is deployed, which could take weeks or months.
“We’ve closed some of the areas of disagreement with the French,” Bolton said.
Suggestions that a new resolution was in the works emerged.
“A new proposal is being drafted, which has positive significance that may bring the war to an end,” Israeli member of parliament Otniel Schneller quoted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as saying. “But if the draft is not accepted, there is the Cabinet decision.”
The Israeli Security Cabinet authorized Olmert to expand the current offensive in Lebanon, but Israeli officials said they would hold off to give diplomacy time to work.
“If we can achieve that by diplomatic means and are sure that there is an intention to implement that document, we shall definitely be in a position where the military operation has achieved diplomatic space and a new situation has been created here in the north,” Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said.
