Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah early Wednesday vowed his fighters would begin firing rockets deeper into Israel, beyond the northern port of Haifa. In a speech broadcast on Hizbullah's al-Manar television, Nasrallah urged his people to be patient.
"Our steadfastness will change the regional and international reality around us. The enemy won't have a lot of time, no matter what cover the American administration is providing it," Nasrallah said. According to him, his group will enter a new stage in the fighting, vowing "our attacks will not remain limited to Haifa." In the last two weeks, Hizbullah has rained hundreds of rockets on northern Israel. The group has repeatedly hit the city of Haifa, the third largest in Israel.
nasrallah also said Israel's offensive in Lebanon was part of a conspiracy with the U.S. to create a new Middle East. "In the new Middle East, there is no place for any resistance movement. The resistance movements in Palestine and Lebanon must be eliminated," Nasrallah added.
UN observers killed by Israel
Meanwhile, four United Nations observers died on Tuesday in an Israeli strike on a UN base in southern Lebanon. The victims included observers from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, UN and Lebanese military officials said.
Israel said on Wednesday that it regrets the "tragic" deaths of the observers and would thoroughly investigate the causes that led to their deaths. "Israel sincerely regrets the tragic death of the UN personnel in south Lebanon," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev, according to the AP.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had earlier called for an inquiry into what he described Israel's "apparently deliberate targeting" of the UN observer force. Dan Ayalon, Israel's Ambassador to Washington, demanded that Annan apologize for the remarks, which he called "baseless."
The four observers died after a bomb directly struck the building and shelter of an Indian patrol base from an observer force in the town of Khiyam near the eastern end of the border with Israel, said Milos Struger, spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL. "There are casualties among the observers. UNIFIL immediately despatched a rescue and medical team and they're currently on the location but unable to clear the rubble," Struger said.
