Cease-fire prospects stall push by Israelis

IBL EL-SAQI, Lebanon — Israel grabbed strategic high ground in south Lebanon on Thursday but delayed a major push northward, as diplomats cited progress toward agreement on a U.N. cease-fire resolution that could soon go to a vote.

With Israeli troops closer to Beirut than at any time since the war began, diplomats said they were close to unlocking the stalemate over a U.N. effort toward a cease-fire. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, said a vote was possible on Friday.

The United States and France have been trying to bridge differences over a timetable for an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

Early Friday, eight powerful explosions resounded across Beirut and local media reports said Israeli jets were pounding Hezbollah strongholds in the southern Dahieh suburb. The reports said a bridge was also hit in Akkar province, 60 miles north of Beirut. There was no immediate word of casualties.

Israeli ground troops took control of the mainly Christian town of Marjayoun before dawn Thursday and blasted away throughout the day at strongly fortified Hezbollah positions in several directions.

An Israeli soldier was killed and two were wounded in fierce battles with Hezbollah guerrillas Thursday, a day after the Israeli military suffered its worst one-day military loss, with 15 soldiers killed. More than 800 people have died in the month-long conflict, including 715 in Lebanon.

A huge explosion rocked the center of the town and the surrounding countryside about sunset and a big fire could be seen raging from a vantage point in Ibl el-Saqi, about two miles to the east.

By taking Marjayoun the Israeli army was closer to Beirut than at any time since the fighting began July 12 after a cross-border raid in which Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed three.

At the same time, the army was still within about five miles of the Israeli border. Marjayoun, which sits near major road junctions in the south, lies due north of Israel's Galilee panhandle that juts north into Lebanon.

Marjayoun was used as the command center for the Israeli army and its allied Lebanese militia during an 18-year occupation of south Lebanon that ended in 2000. The high ground around Marjayoun, including the village of Blatt, overlooks the Litani River valley, one of the staging sites for Hezbollah's relentless rocket assaults on Israel.