Middle Orient

BEIRUT (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Lebanon on Monday and insisted Hizbollah must release two Israeli soldiers and pull back from the border before any ceasefire, Lebanese politicians said.

 Rice told Fouad Siniora that there could no ceasefire until Hezbollah released two Israeli soldiers captured during a raid and pull back from the border with Israel, a Lebanese source said.

 “Army chief of staff Dan Halutz has given the order to the air force to destroy 10 multi-storey buildings in the Dahaya district (of Beirut) in response to every rocket fired on Haifa,”

 “Any Israeli incursion will have no political results if it does not achieve its declared goals, primarily an end to the rocketing of Zionist settlements in northern occupied Palestine,” Nasrallah said in remarks published on Monday.

The fighting took place in the Bint Jubeil area, north of Maroun al-Ras, and involved aerial and ground forces.

HASBAYA, Lebanon (Reuters) – Caught between Hizbollah rocket fire and Israeli air strikes, some residents of southern Lebanon are losing patience with the guerrilla group they blame for a war that is costing them lives.

GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli shells killed five people and wounded several others in the Gaza Strip on Monday, including two members of the same family who were riding a donkey cart when they were hit, Palestinian witnesses said.

PARIS (Reuters) – France and the United States worked together to oust Syria from Lebanon and, despite tactical differences due to divergent agendas in the region, they agree who is to blame for the current crisis — Hizbollah.

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil slipped below $74 a barrel on Monday due to diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict in the Middle East, a region that pumps almost a third of the world’s oil.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon will need billions of dollars in aid to recover from Israel’s war with Hizbollah, which has ruined many civil installations, hit tourism, forced businesses to close and forced hundreds of thousands to flee.