Israeli strike kills 2 U.N. peacekeepers

ROME — An Israeli artillery strike killed at least two United Nations peacekeepers yesterday in what U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called an “apparently deliberate strike” on the eve of a major peace conference here today.

Two more peacekeepers were feared dead in the attack on their post in southern Lebanon.

Hours earlier Israel began outlining its terms for the deployment of an international stabilization force of up to 20,000 troops along its border with Lebanon ahead of today’s conference to which the Jewish state is not invited.

The U.N. chief said the strike on a clearly marked U.N. border outpost was “apparently deliberate” and demanded Israel investigate. A bomb dropped by an Israeli warplane scored a direct hit on the post in the town of Khiyam, near the eastern sector of the border, U.N. officials said.

The victims were from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, U.N. and Lebanese military officials said. It was not immediately known which two were confirmed dead.

Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Dan Gillerman, expressed his “deep regret” for the deaths and denied Israel hit the post intentionally.

“I am shocked and deeply distressed by the hasty statement of the secretary-general, insinuating that Israel has deliberately targeted the U.N. post,” he said, calling the assertions “premature and erroneous.”

Although U.S., European and Arab officials here avoided discussing specific proposals and warned against high expectations from the Rome meeting, their Israeli counterparts were not shy about offering details of a plan they shared with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier in the day.

Most countries now see the proposed buffer force as the best hope for ending Israel’s two-week-old war with Hezbollah.

Mr. Annan said in New York that 15 strikes came close to the U.N. position during the day, and that Israeli forces continued their assault even during efforts to rescue the dead and wounded peacekeepers.

Ground fighting continued around Bint Jbail, a Lebanese town described by its residents as “the capital of the resistance,” where an estimated 200 Hezbollah militants held out against surrounding Israeli forces.

Israel resumed its shelling of Beirut’s southern suburbs after a one-day pause and continued air strikes across southern Lebanon, where about 300 Americans were thought to have become trapped while visiting family for the summer. Hezbollah again fired rockets into northern Israel, killing a girl.

Looking ahead to today’s meeting in Rome, Israeli officials said a border force of 10,000 to 20,000 troops could be deployed in stages, within a week or two after a decision is made. Its mission would be to keep Hezbollah about 13 miles from the border and prevent it from firing rockets. It also could help prevent weapons supplies coming in from Syria, they said.

Until such a force moves in, however, Israel intends to control a security zone in southern Lebanon and fire at anyone who enters it, Defense Minister Amir Peretz said yesterday.

“We have no other option,” he said. “We will have to build a new security strip … that will be a cover for our forces until international forces arrive.” The size of the zone would vary, Mr. Peretz said, and other officials estimated that it could be between 2 and 6 miles wide in various places.

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