31 July- AFP- Residents flee as south Lebanon spared Israeli strikes

Residents flee as south Lebanon spared Israeli strikes
31/07/2006 10h12
http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/060731092402.y00knfwp.html

TYRE, Lebanon (AFP) - Israel has spared the battered region of south Lebanon from air attacks for the first time in three weeks as exhausted residents streamed north after being trapped by the bombardments.

Israel agreed to suspend air raids for 48 hours following global outrage over the killing of 52 civilians in strikes on the village of Qana, giving civilians the chance to flee to safer havens and to get in urgently needed aid.

The region around southern port of Tyre, the target of blistering Israeli strikes over the 20 days of its offensive, was calm with no sign of strikes from the navy, artillery or the air.

An AFP correspondent travelling on the road out of Tyre saw three dozen villagers coming in towards the city in battered pick-ups, having finally escaped their besieged homes in the southern village of Jibbain.

"We were trapped for 20 days with no food and no water. We finally escaped as the Israelis let us go," said a delighted Hassan Mahmoud Akid, 65.

A huge convoy of 33 cars, covered in white drapes, was also seen on the road north towards Tyre crammed with exhausted inhabitants of Tair-Harfa in south Lebanon.

A statement for the UN force in Lebanon said that no incident from rocket firing or aerial bombardment had been reported in its area of operations in south Lebanon since 4:00 am (0100 GMT) Monday.

The temporary halt in air attacks was announced by an aide to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who left the Middle East on Monday saying she hoped for a ceasefire this week.

"Israel has agreed to a 48-hour suspension of aerial activity in south Lebanon" pending an investigation into the attack, spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters after late-night talks between Rice and top Israeli officials.

An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed the announcement Monday.

"All air operations have been suspended across all of Lebanon, mainly to allow the population of the south to evacuate the region," she told AFP, adding however that Israel reserved the right to strike Hezbollah commandos preparing attacks.

Israeli artillery earlier bombarded villages in south Lebanon, including Jebbin and Kafra south of Tyre, as well as the regions of Arkoub and Rashaya Al-Fakhar in southeast Lebanon.
Police said there were also violent clashes between Hezbollah militants and Israeli fighters in the border region of Aadissiyeh in south Lebanon for control of a hill.

It was not clear if the clashes were part of the new incursion Israel staged on Sunday, when the army Israeli forces made a fresh push into southern Lebanon on, sparking intense firefights with Hezbollah around the village of of Taibe in the same region.

A civilian was killed Sunday evening in an Israeli air raid on the village of Deir Harfa, just before the 48 hour halt to the air strikes came into force.

And in an indication of Israeli determination to prevent Hezbollah being resupplied, Israeli air strikes also targeted areas near Lebanon's Masnaa border crossing with Syria for the second time in as many days, police said.

Israeli air raids targeted the same area overnight Saturday, closing off the main road to Damascus and wounding at least one person.

Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon warned that the temporary halt to air strikes in no way meant that Jewish state was ending its war against Hezbollah.

"The suspension of our aerial activities does not signify in any way the end to the war. On the contrary, this decision will allow us to win this war and lessen international pressure," Ramon told army radio.