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CNN Live Sunday

Hezbollah Rockets Rain Down on Haifa; Secretary Rice Urges U.N. For Peace Plan; Israeli Warplanes Launch Raids on Beirut

Aired August 06, 2006 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Haifa, Israel under attack. Hezbollah rockets rain down on the city. A live report straight ahead. Plus, Israeli warplanes launch daylight raids on Beirut. The target: Hezbollah fighters. And what about a peace plan? U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urges the United Nations to vote on a resolution soon.
Hello and welcome to a special edition of CNN LIVE SUNDAY: Crisis in the Middle East. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Here's what we know right now about the Middle East crisis. Rockets struck a neighborhood. Just before dark in Israel's third- largest city, at least three people killed in the attack and scores wounded. We'll have a life report from Haifa straight ahead. Twelve Israeli reservists were killed and 14 wounded in a rocket assault on the village in northern Israel. It was Hezbollah's deadliest single strike in the 26 days of fighting, now.

Also today, Israeli air attacks on Lebanon killed at least 14 people; the targets included Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut's southern suburbs.

CNN has reporters all across the region bringing you the latest on the fighting and the diplomatic efforts to help end it all. In addition our international assignment desk is tracking developments 24 hours a day.

Well, today's rocket attack on Haifa happened just before dark. CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney heard the rockets explode. She's standing by live for us now -- Fionnuala.

FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Thanks indeed, Fredricka. Indeed, about two hours ago just before 8:00, local time, as the sun was setting, the air raid sirens wailed over Israel's third largest city and shortly after that, we saw about six rockets land inside the city. Of course, people had taken cover once the air raid siren had sounded. So there was an eerie quiet as the rockets landed with thuds. And then shortly after that, almost immediately, smoke began to rise from six vantage points across the city, and then about a few minutes after that, the air was punctuated with the sound of sirens, hospital sirens, ambulance sirens and the police and fire rescue services.

The casualty toll, three people dead, one when a rocket fell on a woman inside her house, 100 people have been wounded and all taken to hospitals. For a time, there were some people who were trapped inside a building and the rescue services worked to get them released.

But it should be said, Fredricka, that about an hour before these rocket attacks landed, the air raid sirens had sounded and we saw seven rockets land in open areas. It is very clear that this city of Haifa is still very much on Hezbollah's radar. It has been the target of intermittent, but sustained attacks over the last 25 days or so of this conflict. It has suffered a number of fatalities. There sometimes is a day or two where there are no rockets, but generally every single day the air raid sirens sound.

And overall the picture has been, Fredricka, that over the last three or four days we have seen an escalation in the number of rockets hitting northern Israel.

John Roberts is just inside Lebanon. He's embedded with Israeli troops and he actually saw six rockets fly overhead as they were heading towards Haifa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can tell you we are deep enough inside Lebanon that -- I don't know if these were the missiles that struck Haifa, but just before we heard about the strike in -- six missiles or so coming over a ridgeline. We could seat trails from the rockets just after they were fired. Those trails don't last too long after those rockets. We initially thought it was a rocket that perhaps was aimed at our location, a tank rocket. There's been intelligence all day that the position that we're in may come under fire, but then those rockets flew right overhead. But it shows how pernicious, how pernicious this threat is.

We had a great vantage point to survey the battlefield of, sort of, central west southern Lebanon, bombing all day, artillery cells tanks taking up positions in nearby towns and yet at the -- as the sun is going down, they fire those Katyusha rockets again. And this is a bit of an escalation for Hezbollah because usually they only fire those rockets during the midday period, say between 10:00 and 3:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon because the sun helps them mask the heat signature from those rockets, helps them mask the contrails from those rockets. So, for them to fire as the sun is going down had rockets are most visible really is a bold stroke by Hezbollah to say we don't care how much you hit us, we don't care how hard you hit us, we're going to continue to fire those rockets into northern Israel.

And also, some concern among the unit that I'm with, because this is a reserve unit, about those deaths in Kifar-Giladi today, the reserve units are very tight. Many of those soldiers know each other and they're all worried that some of their friends may have died in that attack just north of Kiryat Shmona, today -- Fionnuala.

SWEENEY: And indeed John, of course we're just learning that the 12 people who were killed were in fact soldiers who were killed in Kifar-Giladi were in fact soldiers who were supporting their colleagues just across the border in Southern Lebanon. It has been a very deadly day here, and John Roberts, it raises the question just what is the Israeli military capable of doing some Southern Lebanon as we see more and more rockets continually fired into Israel, at least 180 this day and 200 each and every day over the last three or four days with mounting casualties and civilian deaths?

ROBERTS: It's very difficult for the Israeli army, it's very frustrating for the Israeli army that they have all of this firepower and yet at the same time, they cannot get all of those Katyusha rocket launchers and part of it, of course is, you know, the concern over the images that is if they went into Southern Lebanon with the sort of force that could level towns and villages which they easily could do, I mean, the backlash, the public relations backlash in the court of public opinion, the world over, would just be so bad for Israel that they can't fight the -- what they're trying to do is use air power and artillery to take out the rocket launch sites. Identifying them is incredibly difficult.

The unit I'm with is tasked with doing that and the way they do it is if they find the position and they look around. You can triangulate after these rockets are launched. I believe they're in the process or were in the process of doing it after these latest rockets came down on Haifa and perhaps you can send in the air force to drop a bomb on the area, but there's a good chance that the people who fired those rockets are long gone or were even long gone before those rockets were fired because many times they're put on timers. So it's a very frustrating type of, you know, probing for these Katyusha rockets, trying to take them out, but they're so mobile, they are so easily hidden that it's a very, very difficult task.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SWEENEY: John Roberts there illustrating the difficulty the Israeli military is having in terms of trying to track those rocket launchers, 15 people killed today, 12 of them soldiers, three of them here in Haifa, and more than 100 wounded in six rocket attacks hitting Haifa alone this day. Two-hundred rockets hit the northern part of Israel on Saturday, 200 plus again on Friday, three people dying each of those days. It is very clear, Fredricka, that Hezbollah still has the capability to hit Northern Israel and inflict casualties and death.

WHITFIELD: And, Fionnuala, there in Haifa, give me an idea, people there, had they gotten to a point where they had resigned to, you know, this is our day to day life. We're going to try to get back to as much normalcy as we can, given they had gotten sort of a break in recent days from these rocket attacks?

SWEENEY: Well, they had had a relative break in recent days. I mean, the air raid sirens sound pretty intermittently throughout the day and I wouldn't want to use the word complacency, but people do take cover, but people recover quickly also when there hasn't been a rocket attack. And so people begin to go back to their daily business.

Earlier in the week we had done a story on how Haifa seemed to be getting back to normal after a sustained period of rocket attacks. But then something like this happens and the city goes deadly quiet. And each time there say heavy rocket barrage on the city and each time there are casualties, Fredricka, people take a little longer to recover. And the damage that this must be doing to this city economically has well as across Northern Israel, has yet to be quantified. There are economists who say it is too early to say just yet. But one third of Israel's heavy industry, petrochemical industry, is situated in Northern Israel it has to be said it had been other parts of Northern Israel that had been the target of rocket attacks over the last few days, but this evening Haifa really coming within range with three people dead now and more than 100 wounded.

WHITFIELD: And Fionnuala what do we know about the densely populated neighborhood where these missiles strikes occurred?

SWEENEY: Well, you know, Haifa is really a city along the bay of Haifa and you can look across and you see high rise buildings and you see lower lying buildings and people tend to congate in houses. There isn't any complacency once an air raid siren goes off. People try to get into their houses. They try to get into those protected room that each building in Israel is supposed to have. But it is the sheer randomness of the rockets. No one has any idea where they're going land. Sometime you can see them land in open areas, as we did three hours ago, but then two hours ago you see them land across a spectrum of buildings across the city.

This particular area we know was a heavy populated area, but it was a very quiet scene as one surveyed the city, because of course, people were inside taking cover. And then as I was saying earlier, once these rockets impact, one sees immediately the smoke rise and smells the smoke rising and these impacts were quite severe, they were quite strong and one could feel them quite a distance away. And then of course the air is, very shortly afterwards, punctuated with the sounds and the wails of ambulance sirens and the rescue services and indeed helicopters.

The hospitals, of course, going into full action with emergency plans that are well rehearsed over the last 25 days or so. But I think even though people get used to the air red sirens and even though people become, in one sense, attuned to the fact that rocket maze well land inside their city, it is always a shock, of course, not literally, but also physically and indeed far worse for some people who happen to get caught in the immediate impact and aftermath of those rocket attacks -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Fionnuala Sweeney, thanks so much for that update from Haifa.

Well, now to Jerusalem and Israel's foreign ministry spokesperson, Mark Regev, joining us now.

Well Mark, how do you try to understand what is taking place here? Do you think in any way this is retaliation for the Israeli defense forces getting that one Hezbollah fighter?

MARK REGEV, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON: I don't know. I can say that following it's obviously a very difficult day for Israelis. Tomorrow there'll be too many funerals in Israel, of our service people and, of course, of innocent civilians. And I think this just forces us to increase our resolve, to increase our determination to deal with this, Hezbollah, military machine. A machine sponsored and supported by Iran, supported by a regime there, in Tehran, which just said at the end of last week they believe Israel should be wiped off the map. So, we have an enemy here that I think all Israelis are uniting behind the government in saying we have to deal with this threat. And we will continue to do so.

WHITFIELD: And among the latest operations of the IDF, I mentioned the capturing of the one Hezbollah fighter, who apparently now has admitted, is that correct? Admitted to helping to take hostage the two Israeli soldiers, which got this started in first place last month?

REGEV: That's correct. But I'd like to make the larger point, if I could. It must be remembered how this crisis started. We've got death and destruction in two countries, in Israel and in Lebanon and it was a crisis that the Lebanese people didn't want and the Israeli people didn't want. It was a crisis orchestrated, initiated by Hezbollah that extremist organization, that Iranian backed organization, and I think if we want to come out of this, we want to come out of this stronger, and we want to come out of this with a -- with -- that we can say firmly never again must Hezbollah be allowed to initiate this sort of regional crisis. And the way to do that is to implement those U.N. resolutions that call on Hezbollah to be dismantled as a military organization. That's not Israel's opinion, that's the official position of the United Nations. Hezbollah must be disarmed as a military structure.

WHITFIELD: Now the U.N. is expected to vote on that measure as early as tomorrow. In the meantime, while you and other members of your government have been outspoken about your point of view on that resolution we haven't heard directly from Hezbollah, we have heard from the Lebanese government or at least representatives who say they're not so happy with this draft resolution as yet. So today's attacks, namely this on Haifa, do you think this is a direct response from Hezbollah that they don't plan to honor what draft resolution may or may not be voted upon as early as tomorrow?

REGEV: I have no illusions about what Hezbollah wants to do. I mean, they're an extremist organization, they're not interested in peace, they're not interested in stability, they're not interested in what's good for Lebanon, they're not interested in what is good for anyone except their own extremist jihadist agenda. And the solution of this is not a deal with Hezbollah or a solution of this is a deal with Lebanon to neutralize this extremist element, this Trojan horse of Iran, in the Middle East. And that can be done by fully implementing those U.N. resolutions that say that Hezbollah must be dismantled as a military organization.

Now what we're doing today, what Israel's doing in our military operations, to defend our own citizens from these indiscriminate rocket attacks is to hit Hezbollah and hurt their military infrastructure. The idea is that...

WHITFIELD: It doesn't look as though you are hurting that infrastructure, that military infrastructure, right? because today we're talking about a bolder strike on Haifa, this coming in the evening. Orderly we don't see Hezbollah striking in the evening because you can see the trail of those missile strikes. This seems to be a rather bold move that perhaps they do still have the arsenal and that perhaps the Israeli defense forces really haven't made a dent in their power --their military power.

REGEV: What we're seeing now, it's difficult, but we're seeing residual attacks. But we are confident that we are crippling their military machine.

WHITFIELD: Why are you confident?

REGEV: We have no doubt that if we look at the number of launchers we've taken out, if we've hit their infrastructure, we've hit their command and control, we are sure, we are confident that we are winning this. And I think what we're seeing now is the endgame of Hezbollah. And if I can make one more point please, by weakening Hezbollah today, we're only going to make it easier for international community and the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah tomorrow as should be done according to those U.N. Resolutions.

WHITFIELD: Well, what convinces you there say weakening of Hezbollah when you're looking at your Israeli death toll now at 92, perhaps higher as -- after, now, this Haifa attack which we're hearing at least three dead and maybe 100 injured, and the Lebanese death toll at now 706?

REGEV: We have no doubt that we are winning this. It is not easy, but we are winning this. We're forcing...

WHITFIELD: So, how do you quantify winning? How do you quantify winning?

REGEV: Well, I'll explain that, we're pushing them away from the border area so they can no longer orchestrate violence. they'll no longer be that immediate friction. Until recently if you went to the north of Israel, you saw Hezbollah flags. They're no longer there, by pushing them back, we're pushing them deep into Lebanon. Also, and not less importantly, we're cutting Hezbollah off from its natural suppliers, that's the regimes in Iran and in Syria. We have cut their supply routes. Now if the cease-fire that's being debated now at the United Nations, contains those two elements, restricts Hezbollah's movements so they can't come back south and keeps them cut off from Iran and Syria, as we hope the resolution will be, that'll be a basis for a weakened Hezbollah, for a contained Hezbollah and ultimately from that point of view, we can move on and see Hezbollah disarmed as it should be, according to the international resolutions.

WHITFIELD: Mark Regev, spokesperson for the Israeli foreign ministry. Thanks so much for your time from Jerusalem.

REGEV: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: On now to Beirut, Lebanon, where we find our Hala Gorani. And Hala, a few things that need responding to from the Lebanese government point of view, whether it be the U.N. draft resolution, to be possibly voted on tomorrow, the Haifa attacks today, and the point of view of Hezbollah and whether indeed they are being weakened by these continuous attacks from Israel.

HALA GORANI, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, there are really two angles to this story. These two angles have been running parallel or sometimes moving away from each other over the last few weeks and in the weeks since this conflict began. You have the diplomatic angle, of course which you refer to and the military one, as well. This day we saw airstrikes all over the country and two explosions which we heard from our vantage point here in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Let me bring in our Beirut bureau chief, Brent Sadler, for the latest on Israeli military activity on this side of the border -- Brent.

BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF: Thanks Hala, yes, earlier this day, we saw for the first time Israeli airstrikes in the broad daylight hours, in the afternoon, against the Hezbollah stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut. This has been the subject of repeated attacks by the Israelis over this past more than three weeks of activity, again trying to go after leadership targets, it's understood, and possible stockpiles of weapons in that southern part of the city.

Now it's very clear from all of the positions that we could see that this smoke was rising above the city, everybody could see it. Normally at this time of day the roads are pretty busy because people have got used to airstrikes in the middle of the night. This was another twist, yet another military twist in the ongoing operation here -- Hala.

GORANI: Now, of course, there's the diplomatic dance that has been going on not only in New York, at U.N. Headquarters, but also in Beirut this day. The secretary-general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, arriving in the Lebanese capital, just as some of those explosions went off -- Brent.

SADLER That's absolutely right, Hala. Aircraft -- military aircraft touched down at Beirut Airport, as that raid got underway and we saw some officials getting quite jittery and we saw a rattled Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League answering questions. He said he had no quick reaction to the fact that air raids were going on as he arrived. Really making some vanguard activity here ahead of an Arab foreign minister's meeting Monday. But he said that it had to be condemned, the fact that Israel continues to strike civilian populations. We're going to see a meeting of Arab ministers here on Monday and we're going to see a lot of condemnation from those ministers as to the amounts of civilian loss of life here, over 700, here in Lebanon, and the enormous amount of damage that piles up every day -- Hala.

GORANI: Well, Syria, of course, also invited to this foreign ministers meeting. And we saw today the Syrian foreign minister in Beirut make statements marking perhaps, Brent, Syria's literal and symbolic return to Lebanon since it pulled out its 14,000 troops from this country a few years ago.

SADLER: Absolutely symbolic on a day that Israel launches daylight strikes on the outskirts of the city, the Syrian foreign minister, Walid Mouallem, was also moving about in the capital at the same time as those aerial bombs were dropping outside Beirut. He saw the Lebanese president, the speaker of the parliament, who speaks for Hezbollah, and also the Lebanese prime minister.

Now, Walid Mouallem, that was the first top level visit to this country since Syrian troops withdraw under intense U.S.-led international pressure last year and the cede of revolutionary forces that also put pressure on Syrian forces to leave, and the re-entry of the Syrians here, at this crucial time, was absolutely clear, Mouallem said, that the United Nations' draft resolution that should be voted on as early as Monday, is, he said, a recipe -- was doomed to failure. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALID MOUALLEM, SYRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: This draft resolution is a recipe for the continuation of the war because, unfortunately, it is not fair for Lebanon. Second, it is a recipe for possible civil war in Lebanon which nobody, nobody, nobody has any interest to see this happening except Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SADLER: Now Mouallem also told a news conference, Hala, that if this conflict spreads to a wider regional field, then if attacked, Syria's leadership, i.e. President Bashar al Assad, has already given orders to Syria's military to immediately strike back in the face of any Israeli ground or air actions hitting Syria -- Hala.

GORANI: Brent, finally, as this conflict drags on, entering its fourth week, and we're observing a hardening, what seems look a hardening of positions on either side of the border, are there fears now that this will escalate into a wider regional war?

SADLER: I was out on the streets for much of the morning today, Hala, I can tell you many Lebanese of all religious ilks are extremely concerned that once voted upon, this draft resolution, even with some minor changes, is really going to be the prelude of a second phase of this conflict, perhaps seeing the Israelis drive ever deeper into territory. They just don't think it's going to work. That's really the smell on the street here. And given the support that Syria is given the Lebanese government's rejection of the plan so far, give than we are going see Arab diplomats coming into this Lebanese capital at this crucial time, the signs believe many Lebanese are ominous. They believe that there is going to be a sharp escalation on what we have seen today in Haifa with these latest katyusha rocket attacks by Israel and now expected retaliation from Israel against Lebanese targets that this is really going to make matters even worse than they already are, if that can be possibly imagined. Not good signs -- Hala.

GORANI: All right, Brent Sadler, our Beirut bureau chief. Well, Fredricka, that's the view from Lebanon. The Lebanese capital eerily quiet this day as some expect Israeli military activity perhaps to pick up after that Haifa attack. Back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Hala Gorani in Beirut. We're going to talk more about the Israeli military strategy when we come right back.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Day 26 of the deadly conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. And here's that we know, at least three people have died in the Hezbollah rocket attack on the Israeli seaport of Haifa. The damage is said to be widespread. Israeli officials say at least 100 people were wounded.

The Israeli military says it's captured a Hezbollah fighter involved in the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier -- two Israeli soldiers last month. Israeli defense forces say the man admits to a role in the kidnapping on July 12.

Today's rocket attack on Haifa just happened just before dark. CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney heard the rockets explode, she's standing by for us now, and unusual for it to strike at this time of day. It was about 6:00 your time, right?

SWEENEY: Actually it was just about 2-1/2 hours ago, Fredricka, just before 8:00 as the sun was going down. Now, there had been an air raid siren an hour before and it was still quite light then and we were able to see several rockets land in open areas and no one was injured then. There had been a number of air raid sirens throughout the day, but there hadn't been any rockets directly fired at Haifa and often that is the case often. Although the air raid sirens sound, it doesn't necessarily mean that rockets are headed towards Haifa. However just before 8:00 as the sun had just sat, the air read sirens sounded again and this time six rockets landed across the spectrum of the town and one could see smoke rising from six vantage points, three people dead, as you reported, and 100 people wounded. For a time, some people were trapped in the rubble underneath a building, but they have since been evacuated and taken to hospital. It has been quite a deadly day in terms of Israeli casualties, both civilian and military. I want to go now to Matthew Chance who's standing by live on the Israeli-Lebanese border with more of what took place there earlier in the day -- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Thanks very much Fionnuala. Well, just a short distance from here, near a kabbutz called Kifar Giladi, which is a small communal farm, right on the Lebanese border, Israel received its deadliest rocket strike to date. It fell on an area just inside Lebanese borders, as I mentioned, according to the Israeli government, it killed at least 12 Israeli reservist soldiers who were stationed there, preparing for the possibility of going into southern Lebanon where much of their battalion, a parachute regiment had already been deployed.

They were standing there on the car park when a barrage of Katyusha rockets rained down upon them. Remember all across this area, Fionnuala, as you well know, there have been dozens of these rockets falling throughout the course of this day and indeed on every day for the past several weeks. One of them got lucky, from the Hezbollah, point of view. They hit these Israeli troops who were standing, some of them resting as they prepared for the possibility of going into battle, 12 of them killed, so a big deadly strike on Israeli forces. But it a question, though Fionnuala, what will the consequences of this be? Often in this region, tactics are decided by these terrible incidents, these terrible killings, the response of the Israeli government, what will that be, certainly there'll be a demand from the Israeli public for more action from the Israeli military, a lot of concern about what that reaction will be -- Fionnuala.

SWEENEY: Indeed. And Matthew, what is the mood there this evening?

CHANCE: Well, the mood amongst Israelis is obviously one of anger and one of sorrow at seeing so many of their soldiers killed on this night by a Katyusha rocket strike. But there's also a great deal of frustration that more has not been done, or more cannot seem to be done to stop these rockets raining down on Israeli's towns and cities.

Remember, from where you are, even in Haifa, a few days ago Israeli defense officials were telling me that they'd produced the number of rockets falling on Haifa because they'd managed to take out the launching areas inside South Lebanon from which Hezbollah was targeting that coastal Israeli city. That now seems to be not the case, it seems that wherever Israel goes, to take out these launchers, because they're mobile, they can come back into the areas and fire off their salvos of rockets almost unhindered by the Israeli air force. That does seem to be the situation that we're witnessing here, certainly no matter how many missiles or explosives or artillery strikes these Israeli military fires at Southern Lebanon, even with the work of its 10,000 or more troops on the ground in Southern Lebanon, Hezbollah's ability to strike at Israel seems to be intact.

SWEENEY: Matthew Chance, thank you very much, indeed, reporting live there from the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Well, I'm joined here in Haifa by General Ruth Yaron of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

Thank you very much for joining us. I know you weren't able to hear that interview with Matthew, but he was talking about an increasing sense of frustration and anger among Israelis and what is perceived as the inability of the Israeli military to wipe out these rocket launchers. Why is it so difficult?

GEN. RUTH YARON, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTRY: Well, it is very difficult because most of those launchers, especially the shorter range launcher, are being hidden in houses, in farms, under a tree, or under a tent. And the need to hunt those launchers means that we need to go almost door-to-door and village-to-village.

This is unlike the longer range missile, which with good intelligence we were able to hit, especially in the first few days of the war, and even now we are able to continuously going on and hunting them.

SWEENEY: So...

YARON: The shorter range like this one need to be hunted, literally by foot. We need to go from village-to-village, from house- to-house, because this is exactly where they are hidden, sometimes among innocent civilians, as well.

SWEENEY: And you're meeting huge resistance there in those villages. Are they cleared of civilians, or is it purely Hezbollah fighters?

YARON: Unfortunately, they are not clear of civilians. Even though the IDF was very careful to send flyers and to send other means of communication to tell the villagers, "Go out of there, because we are about to come in and to continue and fight the Hezbollah," some of them have stayed. Some of them might have stayed there unwillingly. I'm not sure that they had the choice to run, that they would choose to stay. And we are afraid that some of them have stayed against their will and are being used as a human shield by the Hezbollah.

SWEENEY: But you raise a point here that, when it comes to aerial strikes, Israel can carry out those relatively effectively. I mean, obviously people in Lebanon would disagree, given the casualty tolls there. But it's when it comes to the ground-to-ground fighting, is the Israeli army up to the task of fighting Hezbollah on the ground?

YARON: Well, certainly. We could have finished with this very quickly if it were to use only our air power. This would mean less casualty for us, but scores of civilians, innocent civilians who might have been hurt.

Now, very mindful of that and in order to operate very carefully, not to hurt the civilian, we need these ground operation to have our forces move from one village to another very slowly. And, yes, it can be sometime very frustrated. But I've been traveling along all the cities here in the north, and I've been meeting with most of the one million Israelis who have been now for 26 days in shelters, and I can tell you, frustrated and angry as they are, they're still very resilient and very perseverant because we need to finish with this problem once and for all.

(CROSSTALK)

SWEENEY: Can you finish with this problem before a U.N. resolution comes into place?

YARON: It has to be dealt with two arms or two dimensions. One is the military dimension, and this is what our air power is doing and our ground forces are doing.

But there is another dimension to it, and the other dimension is the diplomatic and international effort. And those two combined together will need to put a virtual wall to this culture of death called the Hezbollah in telling them we are not going to stand for it and we are going to fight it until we dismantle you.

SWEENEY: But even Israeli military officials are telling us a couple of weeks ago that the objective here wasn't to defeat Hezbollah, to completely disarm them. It was merely to cripple them. Is crippling them enough, from your point of view, and can they indeed be crippled, when we're seeing over the last three days more rockets than at any other time of this conflict coming in, every single day to the northern part of this country?

YARON: Well, first of all, I believe that as they feel pushed and more pushed, then they are about to use whatever they have left as rocket and to launch them. And this is what we have been witnessing in the last couple of days.

If at all, I would argue that, since the military operation is more and more successful, they are more and more pressured and they launch even further than they did before. But the idea is to cripple them as much as possible, but the dismantling of the Hezbollah will have to be done in diplomatic means, not only by military means.

SWEENEY: General Ruth Yaron of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, thank you very much indeed for joining us on an evening where, just less than three hours ago, a barrage of rockets hit this port city of Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, six rockets hitting inside the city itself. Three people dead, and more than 100 wounded.

Fredricka, back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right, Fionnuala, thank you so much. And we're going to take a short break right now. When we come back, we'll be hearing from the mayor of Haifa, Israel.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: It's 3:30 on the U.S. East Coast, 10:30 at night in both Beirut and Jerusalem, and here's what we know this hour.

Day 26 of the Middle East conflict, which turns out to be the deadliest for Israel thus far. Twelve Israelis were killed earlier today in a Hezbollah rocket attack on Kfar Giladi, a small northern Israeli town.

In Haifa, a rescue effort is now under way after a building is leveled by rocket fire. At least three people are confirmed dead, another 100 hurt, some critically.

And Israel says it has captured one of the Hezbollah militants responsible for kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and has broached the prospect of a possible prisoner exchange with Hezbollah.

Let's go straight to Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, which finds itself again the target of Hezbollah rocket fire. Three confirmed Israeli casualties. Fionnuala Sweeney is there.

SWEENEY: Thank you very much, Fredricka. Indeed, we understand that those people who have been trapped in one of the collapsed buildings by this rocket barrage have now been evacuated. Three people dead, as you said. More than 100 injured, when, less than three hours ago, a series of six rockets hit this city, right across the spectrum of the city, as one viewed it from our viewpoint here in Haifa.

Now, I'm joined by the mayor of Haifa, Yona Yahav.

We have talked a number of times over the last couple of weeks. How long can Haifa sustain this kind of barrage?

MAYOR YONA YAHAV, HAIFA, ISRAEL: I told you before that this is a very strong society in Haifa, and we can overcome and prevail over very many difficulties even though we are not used to a war. The last war we faced in Haifa was in 1948, the independence war.

But you see how the people are reacting. And now this evening, which was a very sad evening, the rockets hit our big residential area of the city. And unfortunately, three people were killed and more than 100 people injured.

But nothing can jeopardize the harmonal life between Jews and Arabs, which is lasting already more than 100 years in this city. And this is only place in the world where Jews and Arabs are living in peace, and even Hassan Nasrallah can't jeopardize it.

And you must see the reaction. I have been all over the place. I spoke with people. I got their reactions. And they are very deadly mad at the person, at what he represents and what he's doing. And hopefully the Lebanese will be strong enough in order to kick him out.

SWEENEY: Now, we were in (INAUDIBLE) earlier today before these rocket attacks, and people telling us that they're getting increasingly angry and frustrated at the government's apparent inability to stop these rockets being launched.

YAHAV: Look, I knew that it will take more than a month, and I said it right in the beginning. This is a war against guerrilla. A war against guerrilla is not easy, and we see it in Afghanistan. Big America is not able to prevail over this Taliban, but eventually it will happen, and eventually the end of Nasrallah will come.

SWEENEY: How long do you think Haifa will have to endure these rocket barrages then?

YAHAV: It will take at least week or two more. It depends on what's going on in the U.N. and if the U.N. is going to impose the settlement here up north. But even if U.N. will impose, it doesn't necessarily will bring tranquility to the area. We have enough power, and we are strong enough to stay and see what's going to happen.

SWEENEY: And yet we're seeing 200 rockets-plus being fired across from Lebanon into Israel every single day. Do you think that this city itself can sustain that kind of barrage, and what is it doing to the economy of this town?

YAHAV: First of all, the question is not if this city can sustain. The question is whether the Western world can sustain, because we have to see that it starts in Tehran, and the (INAUDIBLE) of the Iran is Hezbollah. And if this will penetrate in the minds of the Western world, we can sustain. We are doing the work now; we are doing the dirty work of the Western world. And the Western world has to conceive it.

SWEENEY: Yona Yahav, the mayor of Haifa, thank you very much indeed for joining us. The mayor coming from the scenes where he visited earlier on this evening when six rockets hit this city less than three hours ago.

We were told by the IDF that they have taken out the rocket launcher that was in Qana in southern Lebanon that was targeting Haifa this evening, not just once, but twice, because an hour before these six rockets hit here, seven rockets landed in open areas. However, the Israeli military say one of their biggest challenges is that, once a rocket launcher is taken out, it almost immediately replaced by another. So it seems that Haifa is going to have to brace itself, as indeed many towns and communities across northern Israel, for more rocket barrages in the coming days, at least until a U.N. cease-fire is imposed.

Back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right, Fionnuala Sweeney, thanks so much, in Haifa.

Well, as the violence flares, there are stumbles in the steps toward a possible peace in the region. Lebanon says the U.N.-backed cease-fire plan is not acceptable in their view. Earlier today, CNN's Wolf Blitzer spoke to Israel's vice prime minister, Shimon Peres, and Lebanon's economic minister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIMON PERES, ISRAELI VICE PREMIER: It's more, in my judgment, a resolution about the future of Lebanon, because we understand perfectly well where the Lebanese government stands, and we understand that many of their declarations are a result of being frightened by the Hezbollah.

SAMI HADAD, LEBANESE ECONOMIC MINISTER: This draft resolution is disappointing because we need to see an immediate end to this war, so we are urgently asking for an immediate cease-fire. And more importantly, we are also asking that, shortly after the cease-fire is in place, the Israeli army should withdraw from the territory it has reoccupied and to be followed immediately by a redeployment of the Lebanese army to the south, with the help of the U.N. security forces, which need to obviously be beefed up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And more of our coverage on the crisis in the Middle East. When we come back, we'll be going to Crawford, Texas, to get reaction from the White House.

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WHITFIELD: And this information just now coming in.

Israeli army is now indicating that it has attacked the Lebanese town of Qana and it has destroyed the launchers that have fired rockets on Haifa. As you know, all day we have been reporting on at least six rockets that have been fired into Haifa, leading to the deaths of three people and injuries of 100. And now the Israeli army is now saying its retaliatory strike is that it has attacked the launch point of many of those rockets that took place on Haifa, striking the Lebanese town of Qana.

Now, meantime, President Bush is keeping track of the fast-moving developments in the Middle East from his ranch in Crawford, Texas. CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is joining us now from Crawford.

And there's a lot to react to from the western White House there. Where are they?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, it certainly is a very, very busy weekend at the Crawford ranch, of course, even during this -- it's become really a working vacation for the president, high-stakes diplomacy.

President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley all at the Crawford ranch working the phones with their counterparts. Earlier today, President Bush holding a conference call with his closest ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, all of them, of course, trying to get this U.N. Security Council resolution that calls for an end to the violence from both sides, perhaps passed, voted on in the U.N. Security Council in the next 24 hours.

This is a critical time. They really want to get this through, but already there has been quite a bit of negative reaction from Hezbollah, from the Lebanese government, from some key Arab allies, all of them expressing a sense of frustration with this resolution. They say that, for any real cease-fire to mean something here, it has got to require that the Israeli troops pull out of Lebanese territory immediately.

Now, both of the leaders, Rice, as well as Hadley, today emphasized, telling me that this is just the beginning of a process. It is one of two resolutions they hope to set the political stage here for a lasting peace.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN HADLEY, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We want to get that resolution adopted as a first step towards bringing down the violence, moving very quickly to a second resolution, which would involve a multinational force and call for the Lebanese army to move into southern Lebanon, backed by that multinational force. And at that point, the Israelis could withdraw from southern Lebanon.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I would hope that you would see very early on an end to the kind of large-scale violence, large-scale military operations, firing of rockets, that we've been seeing. That needs to stop so that the situation can clear for the next phase in the bringing of international forces to help.

But I can't say that you should rule out that there could be skirmishes of some kind for some time to come. This isn't meant to be a permanent condition; it's meant to create conditions on which a more permanent, enduring cease-fire can be built.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So, Fred, the way they're explaining this, it is really a one-two step process here. The first, immediate resolution to try to get both sides to agree. After it goes to the U.N. Security Council, a vote there, perhaps as early as tomorrow afternoon to get the Lebanese and Israelis to agree to this secession of violence.

And then on to this second resolution, which they hope will happen, say, within days, not weeks, to try to get that multinational force together to figure out the logistics of how that would happen, how it would work, what their mandate would be. But, Fred, we are talking realistically weeks before any kind of multinational, international force would be in place.

They are certainly hoping that Lebanon, as well as Israel, can come together at least and back this first resolution to end the major violence. But even officials today conceding you are going to see some of that violence continue in the weeks ahead -- Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right. Suzanne Malveaux, thanks so much.

And when we come back, we'll take you back to Haifa, the place of six rocket attacks today, leading to the deaths of three people, the injuries of 100.

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WHITFIELD: In our continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, almost three hours now after a deadly strike on Haifa, Israel. Now the Israeli army is saying it has struck back to the town of Qana, Lebanon, which is where they believe a number of those missiles that hit Haifa were launched from Qana. Qana also happens to be a place of last weekend where the number of casualties were very high from Israeli air strikes there in the town of Qana in southern Lebanon.

Meantime, let's go to Haifa, where we find our Fionnuala Sweeney there. The death toll right now: at least three, 100 wounded from those six rocket attacks striking earlier this evening -- Fionnuala?

SWEENEY: Yes, indeed, Fredricka. We spoke to the mayor of Haifa, Yona Yahav, just a few minutes ago that said that the three dead were all Arabs. This is quite a mixed Arab-Jewish community here in Haifa. And one woman died when a rocket directly hit her house. Several people had been trapped in buildings that had partially collapsed for some time, but they have now been all evacuated.

This is a scene in Haifa that the hospitals here and the emergency services are getting quite accustomed to. I'm joined now on the phone by Dr. Ehud Kuhmreich. He is deputy director of the B'nai Zion Medical Center here in Haifa.

Thank you very much for joining us. Can you give us an update on the casualty figures at your hospital, please?

DR. ELI KUHMREICH, B'NAI ZION HOSPITAL: Yes, we have treated 61 injured people, one in a very bad condition who has been operated now. We have four severe casualties, and the rest are mild casualties from pellets, bruise (ph), falls, panic and so on.

SWEENEY: You mentioned these pellets. And we know that the warheads of these rockets are filled with thousands of pellets. What kind of damage do they do if they make impact on the ground and hit people?

KUHMREICH: Well, we have many penetrating wounds to the lungs. The one today is penetrating to the heart. His leg was amputated from the pellets. And we can see people hit at 500 meters away from the place of the fall of the rocket. They are very dangerous indeed for those who are in open spaces.

SWEENEY: How well is your hospital able to cope with the kind of injuries that you've been seeing over the last 25, 26 days of this conflict?

KUHMREICH: Well, we are well-trained and well-equipped, and we will training all the year long for this crisis. Our problem is, is that the hospital is not a good shield against these rockets. We stay in the middle of sitting in a normal house with no -- this is the most dangerous thing, the hospital, that we are open to the rockets that can hit later on. Otherwise, we are well-equipped and well-trained.

SWEENEY: So talk us through, if you can, what happens when an air-raid siren goes off at your hospital in Haifa?

KUHMREICH: Excuse me?

SWEENEY: Can you explain for us what happens in the hospital when an air-raid siren goes off? Do people go to shelters?

KUHMREICH: Yes. We go to the inner rooms in the hospital. We don't have shelters in the floors, and most people can't get down to the shelter. So we go to the inner rooms hoping that the rocket won't hit the hospital, because we can't evacuate the hospital. We have to be ready.

SWEENEY: Dr. Eli Kuhmreich, there -- very difficult to hear you, sir. I know that it is a rather bad line there on the line from Haifa, the B'nai Zion Hospital in Haifa of which he's deputy director general (OFF-MIKE) trying to treat people who have been injured by these pellets that are filled -- thousands of them in these warheads when they land, these rockets here in Haifa, as they did earlier in the evening.

Fredricka, back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Fionnuala Sweeney in Haifa, Israel. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta. Stay with CNN for continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

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