ISRAELI OFFENSIVE ON HOLD; 15 TROOPS DIE

Report: Israel tables wider Lebanon offensive (MSNBC)

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert put plans for an expanded Lebanon offensive on hold on Thursday to give a chance for U.S.-led efforts to form a peacekeeper force that could curb Hezbollah, a newspaper said. Israel’s Maariv daily said the suspension decision was made after midnight, hours after Olmert’s security cabinet decided to deepen an already four-week-old assault on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon. The shift in position occurred a day after Israel approved a massive new ground offensive into southern Lebanon in an effort to inflict further damage on Hezbollah and halt most rocket attacks before the U.N. Security Council demands a cease-fire.

The Wednesday decision came on the deadliest day of the war for Israeli troops in Lebanon, with 15 soldiers killed. It coincided with mounting demands from the international community for both sides to halt the fighting, which has killed at least 829 people. The plan to force Hezbollah guerrillas — and their short-range rockets — out of southern Lebanon and past the Litani River would have escalated the fierce fighting there and, if successful, left Israel in control of a security zone that it evacuated six years ago after a bloody 18-year occupation.

A new Israeli offensive would also have put tremendous pressure on the United Nations to agree quickly on a cease-fire to end the fighting that has caused widespread destruction across southern Lebanon and forced hundreds of thousands of Israelis into bomb shelters. Israeli officials implied they would halt the new offensive if a cease-fire agreement removes Hezbollah from the border.

In a televised speech before Olmert's shift, Hezbollah’s leader taunted the Israelis. “If you enter our land, we will throw you out by force and we will turn the land of our invaluable south into your graveyard,” Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said. “We will be waiting for you at every village, at every valley. Thousands of courageous holy warriors are waiting for you.”