Israel-Lebanon Conflict

BEIRUT : The guns fell silent in Lebanon as a UN-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appeared to take hold after some of the most intense fighting of the devastating month-old conflict.

Israel had launched an 11th-hour wave of air strikes before the deadline for a cessation of hostilities in a war that has killed about 1,300 people, displaced hundreds of thousands and laid waste to swathes of Lebanon.

After the ceasefire deal took effect at 8 am (0500 GMT), Israel began withdrawing its forces from Lebanon although it said it would maintain its air and sea blockade that has all but cut the country off from the outside world.

Israeli forces had pursued their battle to wipe out Hezbollah until the last minute, shelling areas around Tyre and Khiam in the war-battered south and unleashing air strikes on the ancient eastern city of Baalbek, killing five members of the Lebanese army and security forces and two civilians.

But shortly after 8 am, exhausted refugees emerged from their shelters in Lebanon to stock up on provisions and inspect ruined homes while towns in northern Israel that have borne the brunt of rocket attacks remained deserted.

Warplanes dropped leaflets over Beirut blaming Hezbollah and its Iranian and Syrian "masters" for the devastation and warning it would respond to any future attack.

"With its isolationist, reckless and false policy, Hezbollah has brought you many achievements: destruction, displacement and death," said one leaflet.

"Can you pay this price a second time? Know that the Israeli Defence Forces will return and work with the required force against any terrorist act that will be launched from Lebanon to harm the state of Israel."

At least 38 Lebanese civilians and four soldiers had been killed Sunday as fighter jets pounded Beirut and other targets across the country after some of the most intense fighting of the 34-day conflict.

Seven Israeli soldiers were also killed in action Sunday, and an Israeli civilian was killed in a rocket attack as the Shiite militia fired a record 250 rockets at the Jewish state.

The timing for the ceasefire was unveiled by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Saturday following the adoption of a Security Council resolution calling for a "cessation of hostilities" and deployment of an international peacekeeping force in south Lebanon.

Both the Israeli and Lebanese cabinets endorsed the resolution, while Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his fighters would abide by any ceasefire -- but would also continue to fight until the last Israeli soldier left Lebanon.

In a sign of potential problems ahead, a Lebanese cabinet meeting to discuss the thorny issue of Hezbollah's disarmament was postponed because the Shiite movement was standing by a refusal to give up its weapons.

"This is the moment of truth and they do not want to give up their arms," a cabinet minister told AFP.

Israel has urged the world to apply UN resolution 1701 firmly, warning that Hezbollah must be dismantled and the Lebanese army quickly deployed in the the militia's stronghold in the south.

"The application of the resolution will depend on the will of the Lebanese government, but especially on the determination of the international community," Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said.

The United States, Israel's major ally, said it viewed the truce as a "positive step" but that it would take some time for the UN resolution to be carried out fully.

The agreement to halt fighting raised hopes of an end to the deadliest cross-border conflict in a quarter century which has claimed the lives of close to 1,150 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and 156 Israelis.

But with Hezbollah vowing to fight until the last Israeli soldier leaves Lebanon and Israel stressing that it will respond to any attack on its troops or rocket fire, it was unclear whether the cessation of hostilities would hold.

In one of the deadliest raids Sunday, at least 15 people were killed, including three children, in Israeli air strikes in Beirut's southern suburbs. Another eight people were killed near Baalbek.

In what the media called the largest ground operation since the 1973 Middle East war, Israeli forces on Sunday had swept through south Lebanon where Hezbollah is rooted, with some troops reaching the strategic Litani River which runs as far as 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border.

A total of 24 soldiers had been killed in combat Saturday -- the highest single-day toll since the war began on July 12 after Hezbollah captured two Israeli servicemen in a deadly cross-border raid.

The Litani has served as a tactical boundary for Israel's operations in Lebanon since it first invaded its northern neighbour in 1978, leading to a long and bloody occupation that ended only six years ago.

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres sought to put a positive spin on the war's outcome despite the failure to stem Hezbollah rocket fire.

"I think that we have finished more or less the victors both militarily and politically," he said, predicting that Hezbollah would end with "its tail between its legs."

The International Committee of the Red Cross condemned the continuing heavy civilian casualties, saying: "It is unacceptable that after more than 30 days of ongoing military operations, all necessary precautions to spare civilian life and those engaged in medical work have still not been taken."

In addition to the high death toll in Lebanon, more than 900,000 people have been displaced by Israeli bombardments that have destroyed thousands of homes, dozens of bridges and hundreds of kilometres (miles) of roads.

"Lebanon will be I think the last state to sign a peace treaty with Israel," its UN ambassador Nouhad Mahmoud told CNN television.

The UN resolution, unanimously adopted Friday by the Security Council after weeks of diplomatic wrangling, calls for a full cessation of hostilities, the deployment of a 15,000-strong international force in southern Lebanon and then a withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Morocco, Indonesia, Italy, Turkey, Spain and Malaysia have already agreed to send troops to bolster the UN force there, the Lebanese government said.

The resolution also calls for the release of the two captive Israeli soldiers and for a solution to the issue of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel.

While approving the resolution, the Lebanese cabinet expressed reservations that it did not go far enough in condemning the large-scale Israeli destruction and that it failed to address the issue of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa farms.

You mean they've fired rockets into their own land?