Israel's slam dunk turns bloody. Israelis begin to doubt strategy.

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Israel's heaviest losses fuel doubts over strategy

· Soldiers were trying to take border town
· Offensive predicted to last several weeks

Rory McCarthy in Haifa, Suzanne Goldenberg in Tyre and Ian Black in Jerusalem
Thursday July 27, 2006
The Guardian

Growing evidence that the ground battle in Lebanon will be far tougher than Israel had expected emerged yesterday after firefights against Hizbullah in two border villages left Israeli troops counting their highest death toll in a single day since the conflict began.

Up to 13 Israeli soldiers were killed and many more wounded yesterday in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil during the fiercest battle so far in the Middle East conflict. Nearby, in the village of Maroun el-Ras, which troops had entered at the weekend, an Israeli officer was reported killed.

Last night the city of Tyre was hit in a major Israeli air strike. Sixteen people, including six children, were injured when a seven-storey building that had been used as a Hizbullah community centre collapsed.

General Yiftah Ron-Tal, a former commander of Israeli land forces, told Israel Radio: "You can't fight a battle like that without taking losses. The question is whether the mission has been accomplished . . .

report: http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1831157,00.html

[CuteNFuzzy]

1. I fear for the children

who will be punished as a result

[Danieljay]

2. ya, another cakewalk, just like Bush's invasion of Iraq.....

:sarcasm:

[Botany]

3. These are not teens and young men throwing rocks & sling shots but

tough troops. They too have been planning this fight for a long time,
just like Israel. They will try to draw the Israeli troops into skirmishes,
house to house fighting, and attacks by IEDs as they travel over the roads.

Many of the fighters are Palestinians who are the sons and grandsons of people
who think Israel stole their lands and made them prisoners in the land of their
birth. Every time they had a gun pointed at them demanding to see their papers
or a family member who spent time in Israeli jail will fuel these people.

I support Israel's right to exist but the hatreds in the M.E. will fuel this
nightmare until it is white hot. Way to go Condi .... No cease fire = a brutal
war which will chase away the dove of peace and mean death all around.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. Why on earth did they think this would be any different?

The IDF left southern Lebanon in 2000 because they were unable to defeat Hezbollah and were basically losing an asymmetrical war of attrition. What convinced them that this time it would be different? I say nothing convinced them, that the IDF knows full well that this occupation will be just as futile as the last one, that there are other reasons for doing this that have nothing to do with the two captured IDF combatants. The slaughter is deliberate. Syria and Iran are being goaded into a response.

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5. I think the issue is that they have been led to believe this is targeted

soley against Hizbollah. But, Hizbollah calculated that Israel's response would reach far enough into Lebanon to draw the citizens into a campaign of open aggression against the Israelis. Israel obliged with their overreach.

This HAS to be more than their citizens bargained for.

[Strelnikov_]

6. ..