KIRYAT SHMONA, Israel - Despite being bombarded by Hizbollah rockets for
weeks, civilians in northern Israel expressed anger and frustration on Sunday as
Israel agreed to a U.N.-brokered truce to end weeks of fighting.
Reda Sindian, 4, who was injured during an
Israeli air strike, lies on a bed at a hospital in the village of Riya,
north of Beirut August 13, 2006. [Reuters] |
Residents, many of whom have spent a month living in bomb shelters to avoid
rockets that have killed 40 civilians, said they wanted Israel's army to hit the
Lebanese guerrilla group harder and not end the war in a position of perceived
weakness.
"We haven't reached our targets," said Ron Goldman, a contractor in the town
of Sdeh Eliezer, where many people have fled to avoid rockets fired by
Hizbollah.
"A ceasefire as things are now will make Hizbollah stronger and Israel
weaker. If we already went in, then we need to finish the job," he said.
Despite the U.N. Security Council's unanimous call on Friday for an end to
the hostilities, Israeli troops continued offensive operations inside Lebanon on
Sunday and Hizbollah launched more rockets into Israel, killing one person.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Saturday that he had received
assurances from Israel and Lebanon that a ceasefire would be implemented from
0500 GMT on Monday.
But residents of the north, where most of the 3,500 Hizbollah rockets fired
in the month-long conflict have landed, said the imminent truce was no cause for
celebration.
"I don't feel any safer," said Igor Marchib, a 24-year-old from Safed, a town
about 15 km (10 miles) from the Lebanese border which has been struck repeatedly
by rocket fire.
"I don't know if we failed or succeeded, and that's not good," he said of
Israel's campaign, which has seen about 30,000 troops sent in to southern
Lebanon, with the loss of at least 104 soldiers and hundreds more wounded.
On the Lebanese side, Israeli air strikes and bombardments have killed more
than 1,000 people, most of them civilians.
