Hezbollah chief vows to fire rockets into heart of Israel

Hassan Nasrallah

"We are entering a new phase in the confrontation, the phase of (striking) beyond Haifa," Nasrallah said in a televised speech referring to Israel's main northern city.

A senior Israeli official said the threat of rockets being fired further into the country's heart was real, but added that Israel was prepared for the eventuality.

"The Hezbollah threats are not new .. we know they have longer-range missiles, we are aware of this strategic threat and we're ready," government secretary Israel Maimon told public radio.

Israel has repeatedly said it believes Hezbollah has longer-range rockets capable of reaching beyond Israel's third city, as far as the commercial capital Tel Aviv, or even the southern city of Beersheva.

The radio quoted Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres as saying: "You have to prepare yourselves for Nasrallah's threats as if they're real even if they're lies."

But it also cited another official as casting doubt on Hezbollah's ability to deliver on the threat because of what he said was a continued reliance on advisors from sponsors Iran and Syria.

"Firing these longer-range missiles depends on those who sponsor them," the official was quoted as saying.

The Hezbollah chief denied that the border town of Bint Jbeil had fallen. A UN spokesman had said Tuesday that Israeli troops had entered the town, a stronghold of the Shiite militant group.

"They do not control Bint Jbeil. All the city of Bint Jbeil is still in the hands of the resistance," Nasrallah said.

After he spoke, Israel acknowledged that it was still meeting resistance in the town. Public radio said there had been "six casualties" on the Israeli side.

Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera said they comprised one dead, and five wounded who were still awaiting evacuation from the border area amid the clashes.

The Hezbollah leader, who has survived at least two Israeli attempts to kill him in air strikes since the conflict erupted on July 12, called for "further steadfastness and unity on these decisive days."

He said all the foreign delegations which flocked to Lebanon in the past week "only brought American-Zionist diktats ... they did not bring solutions or settlements".

"We do not accept humiliating conditions but we are open to political discussions," he said.

After UN and European Union delegations, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit in Beirut on Monday where she reportedly presented a ceasefire plan stipulating the deployment of an international force in a buffer zone inside Lebanon for 60 to 90 days.

But Rice's ceasefire plan was rejected by Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a key Hezbollah ally, because it did not include a prisoner swap with Israel.

Israel launched its massive onslaught on Lebanon after Hezbollah captured two soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid on July 12.

Nasrallah said the Israeli offensive was not triggered by the capture of the soldiers, but had been planned to take place in September or October.

He said the offensive was meant to crush Hezbollah and put Lebanon under the control of the United States and Israel who want to "impose a new Middle East" in which they would control the region and its resources.

During a visit in Israel on Tuesday, Rice said it was "time for a new Middle East". "A durable solution will be one that strengthens the forces of peace and democracy in the region," she said.

Nasrallah said: "Our fate is to confront this plan ... we are waging a war for the liberation of the remaining occupied lands and the liberation of our detainees."

Hezbollah says it is fighting for the liberation of the Shebaa Farms district, a territory captured by Israel from Syria in 1967 and unilaterally annexed with the rest of the Golan Heights in 1981.

The district is now claimed by Lebanon with Syrian blessing in an arrangement not recognized by the international community.