Informant38

many explosions in the middle distance:

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has told the Security Council that Israel will carry out its own investigation into the events that led to the deaths of four United Nations observers in southern Lebanon last week, but he would have preferred a joint UN-Israeli probe.
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Tens of thousands of Lebanese civilians trapped by war stumbled out of their hiding places to seek medical care, food and escape on Monday as a suspension of Israel's aerial bombardment of southern Lebanon opened a brief window of calm after 20 days of conflict.
Israeli officials warned, however, that the fighting was far from over. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the brief pause in Israel's air assault didn't signal a coming cease-fire, and he remained unapologetic about civilians hurt in the three weeks of fighting. The Israeli Cabinet approved expanding ground attacks.
In southern Lebanon, reporters reaching the outskirts of Bint Jbail could hear the sounds of fighting, and Hezbollah fighters and Katyusha rocket launchers were visible in many villages.
"The fighting continues," Olmert said. "There is no cease-fire, and there will be no cease-fire."

Schofield-Allam/McClatchy 31.Jul.06
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Rice hopeful of cease-fire 'this week'

"As I head back to Washington, I take with me an emerging consensus on what is necessary for both a cease-fire and a lasting settlement," Rice said. "I am convinced we can achieve both this week."

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Olmert Rejects Calls for Cease-Fire in Lebanon
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On way to the hospital an Israeli Apache helicopter hit his ambulance with a rocket, severely injuring him and the four people in the back of the vehicle, he said.
"So then another ambulance tried to reach us to rescue us, but it too was bombed by an Apache, killing everyone inside it," he said.
"...it was a third ambulance which finally managed to rescue us..."