War Update

Israeli ground troops entered Lebanon, but have returned to Israel after brief scuffles with Hezbollah on the border.

Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into Israel, killing at least two civilians and injuring more. Israel responded with increased air strikes, including “a single strike on a convoy of families fleeing the fighting in a village near Tyre in the south of the country.”

According to witnesses and photographs from the scene of the worst incident, an Israeli missile incinerated a car and a small truck full of families leaving their Lebanese border village of Marwaheen near Tyre after the Israeli army used loudhailers to tell residents they had just hours to go. Pictures showed charred bodies of children strewn across the road.

UN peacekeepers recovered the bodies. Half the passengers were children or teenagers, according to medical sources. It was the deadliest single strike since Israel started an air campaign against Lebanon after two of its soldiers were captured by Hizbollah on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the international response remains inconsistent. Syria and Iran have applauded Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers, yet Bush has demanded that Syria intervene (“I call on Syria to exert influence over Hezbollah”) while condemning only Hezbollah (“The best way to stop the violence is for Hezbollah to lay down its arms and to stop attacking”).

The EU is considering the deployment of a peacekeeping force and has asked Israel to show restraint. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have called for the deployment of international forces.

The European Union has asked Israel to show restraint and Britain was yesterday trying desperately tried to straddle the divide between America and other world leaders at the G8 summit…

The EU, France and Russia have all condemned the Israeli air strikes as 'disproportionate' but Tony Blair's spokesman, speaking on the way to the G8 summit, refused to condemn the Israeli actions. Instead he said it was essential for the captured Israeli soldiers to be released 'and for all sides to act with constraint'.

Lots of calls for restraint. They don’t appear to be working.