The Israeli military dropped leaflets Tuesday over the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, warning of stepped-up operations and urging people to stay off the roads or risk being a target.
The leaflet drop coincided with consideration by Israel’s Security Cabinet of a possible expansion of the military offensive in southern Lebanon as well as with international efforts to bring the fighting to a halt.
CNN’s Karl Penhaul reported Tuesday from Tyre that Israeli warplanes and artillery were pounding suspected Hezbollah positions south of the city.
Humanitarian aid workers said they fear a two-day bombardment six miles south of the city may be a prelude to a ground attack, Penhaul reported.
One of the leaflets, which a Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. reporter showed on the air, said that “terrorist elements … are using you as human shields by launching rockets toward the state of Israel from your homes.”
The translated leaflet continued, “All cars and of any type will be shelled if seen moving south of the Litani River because it will be considered a suspect of transferring rockets, military ammunitions and those causing destruction.”
The warning is in effect for all residents south of the Litani River. Tyre is the largest city in that region.
The area has been a launching point for Hezbollah’s rockets, more than 100 of which had been fired into northern Israel by Tuesday afternoon, Israeli police said. Many militants drive mobile launchers into cornfields, fire the rockets and then disappear, according to CNN’s Brent Sadler.
Tyre has faced artillery fire and heavy bombardment from Israeli warships off the Lebanese coast.
On Monday, Israeli airstrikes destroyed the main road connecting Tyre to northern Lebanon.
Also destroyed was a makeshift bridge spanning the Litani River in Qasmiye, about six miles (10 kilometers) north of Tyre. The U.N. peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, said it was working with Lebanese authorities and the Israeli military to put up a temporary bridge there.
A spokesman for Doctors Without Borders said the destruction from airstrikes forced the aid group to bring supplies into Tyre by forming a human chain across the Litani.
The group runs a clinic in Tyre and has been sending in mobile teams to provide medical care and aid to civilians in the city.
The International Committee of the Red Cross was able to win “freedom of movement” for its convoys, which have been providing aid to people in the region, Red Cross spokesman Roland Huguenin-Benjamin said Tuesday.
Thousands of people are still believed to be living in shelters in southern Lebanon villages, Huguenin-Benjamin added. While the Red Cross is allowed to bring ships into the Lebanese ports of Tyre and Sidon, he said, damaged roads have hindered the delivery of aid into the countryside.
Lebanese proposal under consideration
As combat between Israel and Hezbollah continued, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Security Cabinet on Wednesday will consider expanding the southern Lebanon military offensive.
Olmert expressed cautious optimism toward a Lebanese proposal to deploy 15,000 troops to the southern border with Israel, calling the idea “interesting.”
The proposal, reached by Lebanon’s government late Monday, is for its troops to deploy to southern Lebanon if Israeli forces leave the country.
Israel has resisted calls for a withdrawal, saying it will only do so once the Hezbollah militia is disarmed.
Lebanon and its Arab League allies have been pressing the United Nations for an immediate Israeli withdrawal as part of a deal to end the fighting.
Such a withdrawal is not mentioned in the U.N. draft resolution by the United States and France.
The Security Council is scheduled to meet with the Arab League delegation around 3 p.m. Tuesday.
President Bush on Monday said he anticipates that Hezbollah and Israel will not agree with all aspects of a Mideast cease-fire resolution but said “we all recognize that the violence must stop.”
Airstrikes and rocket attacks
The Israel Defense Forces reported it carried out 82 airstrikes in Lebanon overnight targeting buildings, access routes and missile launchers.
Lebanese security forces put the Lebanese death toll at more than 776, most of them civilians.
Overnight combat also left one Israeli soldier dead and four wounded, officials said Tuesday.
The death brings the Israeli death toll in the nearly month-old conflict to 98, including 35 civilians killed by Hezbollah rocket attacks.
Hezbollah rocket fire wounded two people in Israel on Tuesday, police said. Rockets hit the towns of Safed, Kiryat Shmona and Maalot, and open fields near Akko, Tiberias, Safed and Naharia, some setting fields ablaze and causing damage to buildings, police said.
According to the IDF, Hezbollah fighters in Dabel fired anti-tank missiles on Israeli troops with deadly results.
Israeli forces killed four Hezbollah fighters in the village of Al Mansouri and three others in the villages of Bint Jbeil and Ramiya, the IDF said. Five guerrillas were taken prisoner in Bint Jbeil and Shihin, according to the Israeli military.
Bint Jbeil has been the scene of heavy fighting since the Israeli campaign began July 12, when Hezbollah sparked the crisis by capturing two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.
