'They're shooting, get the hell out'

There was an Israeli officer and two soldiers, tense and sweating from the July heat, in the white van which drove south at speed to where the armoured personnel carriers and Caterpillar D9 bulldozers were parked.

"We almost got hit by an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade]," the officer shouted. "It missed us by 40 metres."

Leaving the van, the officer gave instructions to a group of soldiers against the background of explosions from shelling in the middle distance.

One of them immediately took control and yelled at his comrades: "We were exposed. We need to move quickly. They're shooting at us. Everybody needs to leave the area now. Get into the bushes. Don't go in groups. Get the hell out of here."

Turning the corner he came upon a mobile shop parked beside the road for the soldiers and shouted again: "We were exposed. Get your kit and leave the area." As the APCs slowly turned and lumbered about 200 metres back to their new position below the treeline, smoke - whether or not from earlier Hizbollah mortar fire - could be seen rising from the fields 100m away.

This incident yesterday, the location of which cannot be given because of military censorship, no doubt says little about the whole picture of expanding ground operations launched along Israel's northern border with Lebanon.

The Army said that having taken the Lebanese village of Maroun ar-Ras its troops had taken a hilltop near Bint Jbeil, deeper in southern Lebanon, and then entered the village itself.

It was a small reminder that the ground operations Israel have launched are to create a sterile zone along the Lebanese side of the border and to find and eliminate the network of bunkers and tunnels Hizbollah has established over six years.

Seven soldiers were killed in the fighting around Maroun ar-Ras last week, and yesterday 11 soldiers were reported wounded around Bint Jbeil.

Near the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shimona, smoke rose from an extensive brush fire. There was also smoke rising near the hilltop where two airmen were killed when an Apache helicopter crashed on its way to support troops round Bint Jbeil.

While insisting that the aerial bombardment has dealt some "good blows" to the guerrilla group, IDF officers have not attempted to disguise the level of Hizbollah resistance.

Equally they have expressed "no doubt" that the ground operation will succeed, given time. Israeli media yesterday quoted IDF estimates that it had at most 10 days before a ceasefire.

There were few more incongruous sights yesterday than the arrival at the front of a "Mitzvah tank", one of 11 that orthodox Jewish sect Chabad likes to send to war zones. In reality it is a coach emblazoned with slogans such as "Love Your Fellow Jew".

One of the group, Chaim Nevo, 50, said they had arrived "to save the soldiers and give them power", proclaiming that the war had started because the Government had abandoned parts of "greater Israel".

"The Torah says that is someone is trying to kill you, you have to kill him first," he said.

- INDEPENDENT