The call was sponsored by the United Jewish Communities to launch its Israel Emergency Campaign.

"We have to win this war and we will win this war, but we have to rely on you" to rebuild cities and lives in Israel, Olmert said.

Olmert talked about the hundreds of thousands of Israelis the state has moved out of harm's way, and he named Israel's enemies.

"Let's face it," Olmert said. "The State of Israel is fighting against the Iranians and the Syrians."

At the end of the call, UJC's treasurer, Kathy Manning, asked listeners to give to "the very best of your ability" and to visit the Jewish state, noting a UJC solidarity mission later this month. The campaign aims to raise hundreds of millions of dollars

A close analysis of the American-French draft - the fingerprints of John Bolton, the US ambassador to the UN, were almost smudging the paragraphs - showed just who is running Washington's Middle East policy: Israel. And one wondered how even Tony Blair would want to associate himself with this nonsense. It made no reference to the obscenely disproportionate violence employed by Israel - just a sleek reference to "hundreds of deaths and injuries on both sides" - and it made only passing reference to Hizbollah's demand that it would only release the two Israeli soldiers it captured on 12 July in return for Lebanese and other Arab prisoners in Israeli jails.

The Security Council said it was "mindful of the sensitivity of the issue of prisoners and encouraging the efforts aimed at settling the issue [sic] of the Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel". I bet Hizbollah were impressed by the "mindful" bit, not to mention the "sensitivity" and the soft, slippery word "settle" - an issue which can be "settled" in maybe 20 years' time. Then came the real coup de grâce. A demand for the "total cessation by Hizbollah of all attacks" and the "immediate cessation" by Israel of "all offensive military operations". Bit of a problem there, as Hizbollah spotted at once. They have to lay down their arms.

Had the council demanded an immediate resolution on the future of the Shebaa farms, the Israeli-occupied territory which once belonged to mandate Lebanon - and for whose "liberation" the Hizbollah have fought - the whole fandango might have stood a chance. After all, Shebaa is the only raison d'être that the Hizbollah can produce for continuing their reckless, ruthless, illegal war across the UN blue line in southern Lebanon. But the UN document wished only to see a delineation of Lebanon's borders "including in the Shebaa farms area". There was even a wonderful paragraph - Number 9 for aficionados of UN bumf - which "calls on all parties to co-operate ... with the Security Council". So the Hizbollah are to co-operate, are they, with the austere diplomats of this august and wise body? Isn't that exalting a guerrilla army a little bit more upmarket than it deserves?

No one was fooled and few disagreed with Syria's Walid Moallem when he said the UN's draft resolution was "a recipe for continuing the war". As both the Hizbollah and the Israelis did yesterday, the former killing 13 Israelis and the latter bombing houses in Ansar - once an Israeli POW camp - which destroyed five more Lebanese civilian lives. Mohamed Fneish, a Hizbollah government minister - who scarcely represents all Lebanese but talks as if he does - thundered away about how "we" [presumably the Hizbollah, rather than the Lebanese] will abide by it [the resolution] on condition that no Israeli soldiers remains inside Lebanese land."

There were more Israeli air attacks on Beirut's southern suburbs yesterday - though heaven knows what is left there to destroy - ensuring that even more Shia Muslim civilians will remain refugees. Fearful that the Israelis will bomb their trucks and claim they were carrying missiles, the garbage collectors of this city have abandoned their vehicles and the familiar 1982 stench of burning rubbish now drifts through the evening streets. Petrol is now so scarce that a tank-full yesterday cost £250.

About the only gift to Lebanon in the UN resolution was the expressed need to provide the UN with remaining Israeli maps of landmines in Lebanon. But Israel has again dropped lethal ordnance all over southern Lebanon. Oh yes, and as usual, the UN draft on these ambitious, hopelessly conceived ideas "decides to remain actively seized of the matter". You bet it does. And so, as they say, the war goes on.

What the UN wants...

* A full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the cessation by Hizbollah of all attacks and the cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations;

* Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution based on the following principles and elements:

* Strict respect by all parties for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Israel and Lebanon;

* Full respect for the Blue Line by both parties;

* Delineation of the international borders of Lebanon, especially in those areas where the border is disputed or uncertain, including in the Shebaa farms area;

* Security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, including the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Lebanese armed and security forces, and of UN-mandated international forces;

* Full implementation of the relevant provisions ... that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon;

* Deployment of an international force in Lebanon;

* The Secretary General to develop, in liaison with key international actors and the concerned parties, proposals to implement the relevant provisions ... and to present those proposals to the Security Council within 30 days;

* The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), upon cessation of hostilities, to monitor its implementation and extend assistance to ensure humanitarian access to civilians and the safe return of displaced persons;

* The government of Lebanon to ensure arms or related material are not imported into Lebanon without its consent and requests UNIFIL, conditions permitting, to assist the government of Lebanon at its request;

* The Secretary-General to report to the Council within one week on the implementation and provide any relevant information in light of the Council's intention to adopt a further resolution.

© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited

"The current assessment is that it was headed further south we do not know exactly for what purpose," the spokesman said.

An Israeli military source added that it was an Iranian made drone with a range of around 150 km (93 miles).

The spokesman said it appeared that the drone was not armed, but added further checks were being made of its remains.

It was the third time in the past two years that Hizbollah had tried to fly a drone over Israel. The most recent incident was in April 2005, when an unmanned plane flew over the Western Galilee region before returning to Lebanon.

Attempts to draw a ceasefire blueprint came down to a test between a step-by-step proposal backed by Washington and Lebanon's insistence - supported by Arab countries - that nothing can happen before Israeli soldiers leave the country. In New York, Arab envoys and UN Security Council members tried to hammer out a compromise.

Lebanon put its offer on the table: pledging up to 15,000 troops to a peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon after Israel pulls back. The plan had added significance since it was backed by the two Hezbollah members on Lebanon's cabinet - apparently showing a willingness for a pact by the Islamic militants and their main sponsors, Iran and Syria.

Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, called the proposed Lebanese troop deployment "interesting" and said Israel would favour leaving southern Lebanon once it considers that Hezbollah is no longer a direct threat.

But the rocky hills of southern Lebanon gave a different picture. Ground fighting continued to control key villages and strategic ridges near the Israeli border, including sites used by Hezbollah for rocket barrages that have reached deep into Israel during the heaviest Arab-Israeli battles in 24 years.

Fierce skirmishes broke out around the village of Bint Jbail, a Hezbollah stronghold that Israeli has tried to control for weeks. An Israeli soldier and 15 Hezbollah guerrillas were killed in the fighting, the Israeli military said. The militant group was not immediately available for comment.

Hezbollah TV also reported pre-dawn attacks on Israeli forces near the Mediterranean city Naqoura, about four kilometres north of the border. The report claimed Israeli soldiers were killed and injured.

The Israeli army confirmed clashes and casualties in western Lebanon, but did not say whether it or Hezbollah had suffered losses. It also did it give the location of the fighting.

Israel, meanwhile, expanded air strikes around Lebanon, including the Hezbollah heartland in the Bekka Valley.

The clashes followed one of the bloodiest days of the four-week conflict. At least three Israeli soldiers and 49 Lebanese died Monday on both sides - including 10 in a rocket attack in a Beirut suburb just hours after Arab League foreign ministers wrapped up a crisis meeting that threw its full diplomatic weight behind Lebanon.

It set the baseline demand for the Security Council: a full Israeli withdrawal or no peace deal is possible. The message was given in a tearful address by Lebanon's prime minister, Fuad Saniora, and carried to the United Nations by Arab League envoys.

Saniora's government, which includes two Hezbollah ministers, voted unanimously to send 15,000 troops to stand between Israel and Hezbollah should a ceasefire take hold and Israeli forces withdraw.

The government said it was studying Lebanon's pledge to contribute troops to a potential peacekeeping force.

But just hours earlier, Defence Minister Amir Peretz outlined plans to drive deeper into Lebanon to try to destroy Hezbollah rocket batteries - which have kept up a near relentless barrage on northern Israel and forced people in some areas to only venture out of bomb shelters for supplies and fresh air.

A senior government official on Tuesday offered to pay for move up to 17,000 Israelis living in border towns.

Peretz said a new Israeli push - expected to be approved by Israel's Security Cabinet on Wednesday - would extend as far as the Litani River, about 30 kilometres north of the Israel-Lebanon border.

"This war has involved fatalities...but at the moment we have to cope with it, both on the battlefield and the home front," the prime minister said. "I will give you every strength and support, we are not stopping (the fight)."

Earlier in the day, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said that he had instructed the army to expand offensives against Hezbollah rocket launching sites.

"We are at one of the most decisive stages of this war ... We will occupy Katyusha launching pads in order to quell the fire, "Peretz told the Knesset (parliament) Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

The decision was made after Hezbollah rocket attacks killed 15 Israelis including 12 reservist soldiers in northern Israel on Sunday, the deadliest day for Israel since the violence began on July 12.

A senior source in the IDF General Staff disclosed that Israeli army is planning an escalation of action in Lebanon after Lebanese Hezbollah's rocket attacks killed 15 Israelis in northern Israel on Sunday, the deadliest day of rocket attacks since the violence between the two sides began on July 12.

"We will continue hitting everything that moves in Hezbollah, but we will also hit strategic civilian infrastructure," Haaretz quoted the source as saying.

Early on Monday, Israeli warplanes bombarded the eastern Bekaa Valley, including the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek, Lebanese security sources said.

Israeli warplanes also carried out air raids on the village of Hula in southern Lebanon, trapping 45 people under the rubble, said media reports.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora also denounced that more than 40 people were killed by an Israeli "deliberate massacre" in village Hula on Monday.

"One hour ago there was a horrible massacre in the village of Hula, a deliberate massacre, in which there were more than 40 martyrs," Siniora told the Arab ministers who met in Beirut on Monday over the escalating Israel-Hezbollah conflict. Arab countries should support an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, he urged.

As night fell, Israel declared a curfew in southern Lebanon, warning that all vehicles apart from humanitarian traffic would be at risk. Ground forces continued to run into fierce resistance in southern Lebanon. Hizbullah militants fired more than 100 rockets into northern Israel, wounding at least one.

But the Beirut attack was the day's bloodiest episode. Last night, local residents and rescue workers scrambled through the rubble and debris in the dark as the insides of an eight-storey building spilled out into a narrow street. Water from a burst pipe in a building opposite sprayed out a fine mist across the wreckage. Neighbouring residents, now stuck in teetering buildings, peered out of the back half of their sitting rooms as splintered furniture dangled out on the street below. A women in her nightdress on the sixth floor tried to retrieve something on what was left of her balcony as a chunk of her front room crashed down on to the street. An ambulance worker said he had counted 10 bodies so far. At least two were children.

Lebanese officials said there were many reports of other casualties throughout southern Lebanon but rescue workers were not able to reach the sites because of continued Israeli airstrikes. Israel also threatened to attack UN peacekeepers if they attempted to repair bomb-damaged bridges in southern Lebanon. UN officials contacted the Israeli army to inform them that a team of Chinese military engineers attached to the UN force in Lebanon intended to repair the bridge on the Beirut to Tyre road to enable the transport of humanitarian supplies.

According to the UN, Israeli officials said the engineers would become a target if they attempted to repair the bridge.

Senior UN officials reacted angrily to the destruction of a temporary causeway over the Litani river overnight. "We must be able to have movement throughout the country to deliver supplies. At this point we can't do that," said David Shearer, the humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon. "The deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure is a violation of international law."

International aid groups have blamed Israel for not providing security guarantees, thereby paralysing the delivery of aid to the south. Even when aid reaches Tyre, convoys have to apply on a case by case basis for permission to take it out to the villages. Most applications are refused.

A convoy run from Beirut to Tyre by Médecins sans Frontières yesterday was forced to stop at the ruins of the causeway. Boxes of medicine were carried over a footbridge by hand and loaded up into separate vehicles on the other side.

Car passengers had to do the same, driving to the footbridge and waiting for transport on the other side.

Israel's army warned residents in southern Lebanon to remain indoors after 10pm yesterday and said anyone moving after that would be at risk. "Anyone who does travel is taking a high risk. There is no end period," an Israeli military source said. "This will allow us to track anyone potentially trying to launch rockets."

The source said the restriction on movement applied anywhere south of the Litani river, which is roughly 13 miles from Israel's northern border. He did not specify how the warning had been delivered.

Israel also said it shot down a Hizbullah drone."We located it over Lebanon and tracked it over the Mediterranean where we shot it down. Naval vessels picked up the debris for investigation," an Israeli military spokesman said. The Israeli army said it could not immediately say if it was carrying explosives.

Tyre was rocked yesterday by fresh Israeli airstrikes. Four buildings on the northern outskirts were crushed in pinpoint strikes which left adjacent buildings standing. The four destroyed buildings included the flat where the Israeli commandos had killed the two alleged Hizbullah leaders on Saturday.

Berro is providing the legal team, led by the Glasgow-based human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar, with detailed information about alleged Israel war crimes, and also forwarding information on the casualty rates of Lebanese civilians and the type of weapons being deployed by the Israeli army. In total, some 30 lawyers, including QCs, in Scotland and England are helping prepare the case against the government.

Along with his briefing, Berro sent Anwar and his clients this message: "We are laying before you all these facts and we count on you to use all possible means of pressure to put an end to the destruction targeting civilians. We are counting on you and thank you."

The team is accusing Blair of assisting Israel in carrying out war crimes against civilians, citing various pieces of international legislation, including the Geneva Conventions, which say that it is a war crime to aid and abet a nation carrying out attacks targetted against civilians.

Berro has said he is "angry and astonished" that the UK is "assisting" Israel, claiming the UK can no longer be seen as an "honest broker" in the Middle East.

Anwar said: "The Lebanese government have made it clear that they want this conflict to stop. Both they and us are aware that every time more weapons are supplied to Israel, more Lebanese civilians will die. We wish to indict Tony Blair for war crimes as he is complicit in the war crimes of Israel by allowing the passage of arms through Scotland. This will take time, and that is why the Lebanese government is helping to catalogue information."

Berro has also supplied a legal briefing to Anwar and his clients outlining which pieces of international law have been violated. Berro said: "Since July 12, 2006, the Israeli army, which has the largest and most advanced military machinery in the region, has committed all kinds of crimes: crimes against humanity, war crimes and mass killings."

Some 750 Lebanese civilians have died in the attacks - many women and children. Berro said: "Human shreds are scattered amid the destruction." He also outlined Israeli attacks on petrol stations, warehouses, electricity companies, places of worship, bridges, hospitals and ambulances.

Berro said the Israelis were using phosphorous bombs, and "sending ultimatums to the inhabitants of villages, waiting for them to get out and then hunting them on their way to safety".

International legislation, which Berro said was breached by Israel, included The Hague Convention, The 1948 Convention Against Mass Killings and The Geneva Conventions.

Azam Mohamad, one of the Scottish-based Lebanese nationals taking the case against the Scottish Executive and the UK government, said: "We took this action as US aircraft are going through Prestwick airport with bombs bound for Israel that will be used to shell our families. We want to stop those bombs."

Mohamad, the director of Glasgow's Middle East Society, added: "We are shocked that Tony Blair has allowed aircraft carrying bombs bound for Israel to come through this country. These weapons are illegal as they are used to kill civilians. I cannot find words to explain my unhappiness at Blair's decision. If we get a chance to take Tony Blair to court, we will do so.

"The Lebanese government will help our cause by giving us as much information as they can. Even the prime minister of Lebanon will help us in our attempt to stop these bombs being sent through Britain to destroy Lebanon. The government in Lebanon appreciates what we are doing to help protect the freedom and democracy of Lebanon."

The Lebanese community in Scotland and England is now collectively raising the money needed to fund the legal challenge. Members of the 20-strong group of Lebanese, who have put their names to the suit against the government, have lost loved ones in the conflict, had property destroyed and seen their relatives and friends turned into refugees.

Another Lebanese national living in Scotland who is taking the case against the government, Mohamad Saadi, lost his aunt, 55-year-old Khadija, last Friday. She died of a heart attack when her area came under heavy Israeli bombing.

"It is very hard for us," Saadi said. "Every family is suffering. This is not just about my family - everyone in Lebanon is now my family. We are calling our relatives every hour. While I am talking now something could be happening to my family back in Lebanon. A humanitarian disaster is happening.

"Blair is helping terrorism because what Israel is doing to Lebanon is terrorism - they are attacking and killing civilians. He is utterly in the wrong."

Both Mohamad and Saadi have raised their children in Scotland and started thriving businesses in Glasgow. They say they have been overwhelmed by support from the people of Scotland towards the people of Lebanon, and on Friday launched a Scottish-Lebanese friendship society. They said that many in the large Christian community in Lebanon were now supporting Hezbollah as the Islamic militia were "the only ones fighting for us and the country".

Zouheir Swade, another member of Glasgow's Lebanese community backing the legal action, told how he lost nine members of his extended family just over a week ago when his brother-in-law's house was hit by an Israeli shell.

"This is just one of many massacres in Lebanon," Swade said. "A friend and his wife and two children were also killed in their car by an Israeli bomb. I sleep for no more than two hours before I get up and turn on the news. I'm phoning my family all the time. When I hear my mother's voice I cry."

Mark Regev, a spokesperson for Israel's foreign ministry, said: "No one wants to see an expansion of the conflict. But there is no doubt that Hezbollah is the long arm of Iran, that the missiles landing in Israel are not Lebanese missiles, that the fortifications we are dealing with in Lebanon were built with somebody else's money not Lebanese. The idea that Hezbollah is a tool of Iranian foreign policy is correct."

Asked what Israel's reaction would be to a rocket strike on Tel Aviv, he said: "There is nothing I can say about that."

Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's Foreign Minister, in an interview with The Guardian, described Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as "codefendants" in war crimes and claimed they had foreknowledge of Israeli plans to launch a "campaign of aggression" in Lebanon which he claimed was part of a "war on the whole Middle East". But Iran did not fear an American attack, he said.

Syria, which also backs Hezbollah, rejected the draft resolution. Its Foreign Minister, Walid Moallem, normally one of the more moderate voices in Damascus said on a visit to Beirut that he personally was prepared to volunteer to fight with Hezbollah and described the draft as a "recipe for continuation of the war".

All three of Lebanon's airports and all four of its ports have been bombed. Damage done to houses and businesses is estimated at above a billion dollars. At least 22 fuel and gas stations have been bombed. Scores of factories have been damaged or destroyed.

Red Cross ambulances, government emergency centres, UN peacekeeping forces and observers, media outlets and mobile phone towers have been bombed -- all in violation of international law.

Mosques and churches have been bombed, and illegal weapons such as cluster bombs and white phosphorous used. More than 90 percent of those killed, close to 1,000 according to official estimates, are civilians.

The result is that rather than pressuring Hezbollah by destroying Lebanon, Israel has increased popular support for the group, and brought the wishes of most Lebanese more in line with the stated goals of Hezbollah to keep Israel at bay.

With Hezbollah engaged in at least 60 percent of the relief efforts in Lebanon, the kind of work that gave it power in the first place is now only increasing its popularity.

Israel could also have fallen for the military strategy of Hezbollah. Hezbollah would like nothing more than to engage the Israeli military in a guerrilla war in southern Lebanon - and this has begun already now that Israeli troops are in the south, and suffering casualties.

Hamade says Hezbollah's stated demands for a ceasefire are simple and have remained unchanged since the beginning of the conflict.

"There can only be ceasefire if Israel stops firing as soon as possible, accepts an exchange of prisoners and leaves Lebanon." But more than 10,000 Israeli troops now occupy parts of southern Lebanon, widespread air strikes continue, and Israel refuses a prisoner exchange.

IPS recently interviewed a Hezbollah fighter who asked to be called "Ahmed". The Israeli aggression has only made him a more determined fighter.

"I care about my people, my country, and I'm defending them from the aggression," he said. "My home now in Dahaya (southern Beirut) is in ruins. Everything in my life is destroyed now, so I will fight them."

Like most followers of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Ahmed said: "We are all with him. He has given us belief and hope that we can push the Zionists out of Lebanon, and keep them out forever. He has given me purpose."

He added: "We are like the French resistance against the Nazis."

Mohamed Slaibi, a 21-year-old business student at the American University of Beirut (AUB), said that he has never supported Hezbollah, but he now feels it is their right to defend Lebanon.

"And now I feel betrayed by America," Slaibi said. "The U.S. supports Israel 100 percent in everything they do. Even though my dream was to go to the U.S., and I study at AUB, now I hate the Americans for supporting Israel."

This is just the kind of sentiment that Israel did not want to provoke. And it has been caused by the extent of the Israeli aggression. In the past Israeli attacks were aimed primarily at Hezbollah, but now all Lebanese people are suffering.

It is well known that Hezbollah enjoys strong political support from Syria and Iran, and likely receives arms and munitions from those countries, but more than ever it is enjoying the support of the Lebanese people.

And it certainly seems to have resources. "Some of it is donations from the Lebanese people," Hamade said. "Some of it is revenues from companies established by Hezbollah. In addition, Muslims pay 'Zaqaat' (a voluntary donation for the cause of religion). The arms we can buy on the market. There is an endless supply of arms."

Hezbollah can of course not match Israel in weaponry. "We might not be as powerful as the Israeli army but we will fight until we die," Hamade said.