Beirut: Israeli forces thrust deeper into Lebanon against fierce Hezbollah resistance on Saturday and air strikes killed up to 20 people, hours after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to end the month-old war.
After the unanimous council vote on Friday night, Israel launched an expanded ground offensive in the south, even though Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he backed the resolution.
Relief officials said Israel was still denying permission for aid convoys to reach distressed civilians in the south. Israeli troops pushed west to Ghandouriyeh, a village 11 km (7 miles) inside Lebanon, their furthest penetration yet, security sources said.
Hezbollah said it ambushed them there. Its statement was a tacit acknowledgement that the Israelis had forced their way through Hezbollah resistance at the village of Qantara, east of Ghandouriyeh.
The guerrilla group said it had destroyed seven tanks. The Israeli army said one was hit. Air strikes in the south killed up to 15 people in the village of Rshaf, security sources said, and four civilians were killed when a pickup truck was hit in Kharayeb.
One civilian was killed in air raids in the eastern Bekaa Valley. Israeli bombs also hit Beirut's suburbs, roads in the north, electricity pylons near Sidon, the Beirut-Damascus highway and the southern city of Tyre, witnesses and security sources said.
The UN resolution called for an "immediate cessation of hostilities" and authorised up to 15,000 UN troops to move in to enforce a ceasefire.
It said Hezbollah must halt all attacks and Israel must stop "all offensive military operations". Lebanon accepted the resolution and officials said the cabinet, which contains two Hezbollah loyalists, would confirm this at a meeting later in the day.
The Shi'ite Muslim group has made no comment on the UN vote. Olmert told US President George W Bush he supported it and "thanked him for his assistance in keeping Israeli interests in mind at the Security Council", an Israeli official said.
Olmert will urge his cabinet to approve the resolution at a meeting on Sunday, but an Israeli official said the army would not stop its Lebanon offensive before Sunday's cabinet session.
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Rocket attack:
Hours before the UN vote, Israeli aircraft fired rockets at a convoy of hundreds of civilian cars fleeing the south, killing at least seven people and wounding 36, the Lebanese Red Cross said.
Israel said the attack was a mistake. At least 1,061 people in Lebanon and 124 Israelis have been killed in the war that began after Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said the UN resolution "vindicates Israel all the way through and says that Hezbollah was the aggressor and that they need to return the abducted soldiers. We achieved all we could from the UN"
The planned UN force will monitor the withdrawal of Israeli troops and help the Lebanese army maintain a ceasefire. The resolution stipulates that after fighting stops, Israel must withdraw all its forces from Lebanon at the earliest opportunity, in tandem with a UN-Lebanese troop deployment.
The text added that to ensure a lasting peace, south Lebanon must be "free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons" other than those of the UN-Lebanese forces, implying a Hezbollah withdrawal or disarmament.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan chastised the council for not acting sooner to halt the conflict and stop civilian suffering, saying this had "badly shaken the world's faith in its authority and integrity".
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