The air force attacked scores of buildings it said Hezbollah used for rocket launching and "other terror activity." Israeli aircraft provided fire cover for ground forces, and hit roads, bridges and rocket launching sites.

Locker said that some the launchers were hit about a minute after they were spotted. The heavier rockets leave a trail a smoke once they are launched and that makes it easier to locate the launchers and attack them.

The most dramatic development was an Israeli commando raid in the Baalbeck area, some 35 miles north of the Beirut-Damascus highway.

Commando units raided a hospital the operation's commander, Col. Nitsan Alon, said was used as a Hezbollah headquarters. Others searched several homes while some soldiers with air cover secured the area.

Film footage the army released showed soldiers in full battle gear leaving helicopters, searching drawers and testing a gun they picked up to make sure it is not loaded. They returned to Israel after several hours with five Hezbollah men in whose homes they found arms.

The Israelis apparently hoped to find high-ranking Hezbollah men but did not find them. They nevertheless returned with computers, documents and other data that the intelligence was checking. According to Israel Radio, commandoes have already carried out 15 such raids in which they gathered intelligence.

"It's not the only operation (of this kind) and not the last one," Locker said.

Such an operation, deep behind enemy lines, is expected to frighten Hezbollah by proving elite units can get there, fight Hezbollah, gather intelligence, kidnap people and return safely. It was the first time the military provided filmed footage of such a raid and presented its commander. That suggests the army intended to boost also local moral that was concerned at the slowness if its progress across the border.

Israelis have gotten used to expect quick victories. The most outstanding was in June 1967 when in six days it occupied the Sinai, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip , the Golan Heights and captured the Arab east Jerusalem. This time, three weeks after the fighting began, its ground troops were still fighting in a few villages and a town close to the border.

This fighting, which began with dispatching Special Forces to Maroun e-Ras and then to Bint Jbail, has now spread to some 20 villages. Regular infantry, paratroop and tank brigades were beefed up with a reserve brigade and an estimated 10,000 soldiers are now across the border.

Part of their task is to destroy all Hezbollah border posts that were sometimes built right on the border, and to create a one to two kilometer deep "Special Security Zone" in which no Hezbollah man would enter.

Housing Minister Meir Sheetrit, who attends the meetings of the inner Political-Security Cabinet as "an observer," referred to that area as a future "fire zone" that the army could control by shooting at those who enter it without having to cross into Lebanon.

Some of the troops, backed by combat engineering units, were deeper inside southern Lebanon to create what military Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Dani Halutz called "reshaping the line," seizing controlling positions deep in the area, and trying to hit Hezbollah guerrillas. They were trying to push Katyusha rockets launchers away from the border area.

Israel has had difficulties stopping the smaller short-range rockets that are more difficult to track and of which Hezbollah has thousands.

Controlling Lebanese territory could strengthen Israel's hands when the diplomatic political process gathers steam. It wants Hezbollah out of the area replaced by a powerful, determined a multinational force that would chaperon the Lebanese army. With Lebanese territory under its control Israel will be more than an outside interested party.

In the meantime, however, it is paying a heavy price for that. More than 2,000 rockets have hit Israel during the past three weeks killing 52 Israelis and paralyzing part of its economy. Some two million people live in northern Israel. Many have left their homes to stay with relatives, friends, and hotels south of Haifa. Some Israelis opened their doors to strangers from the north. Others remained in shelters and the low casualty rate is partly a result of the fact so many rockets hit houses whose occupants are away.

Wednesday Hezbollah set a new record having fired 210 rockets by 7.15 p.m., police said. The average is about 100 attacks a day.

These rockets sometimes need about a minute to reach their targets and Israelis have learnt to wait for a while in a safe place and then leave. However Wednesday sirens kept wailing in quick succession and radio broadcast alerts every few minutes.

One of the rockets flew across northern Israel and crashed between two Palestinian villages in the northern West Bank.

Haifa has been spared in the last few days possibly because of a Hezbollah attempt to create new understandings. A Hezbollah official threatened to bomb it if Beirut is hit and Halutz said Israel would "reconsider" attacks deep in Lebanon "especially in the Beirut area."

Meanwhile diplomats at the United Nations headquarters in New York and in other capitals are trying to work out a cease-fire and dispatch a multinational force to ensure quiet and help the Lebanese government assert its sovereignty over the entire country including southern Lebanon. That's the goal of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559.

The multinational force's scope, mandate and composition are among the elements being discussed. Israel wants it to be an effective combat force of 10,000 to 20,000 soldiers from countries that would not let guerrillas push them around. It would like to see French, British and Italian troops there.

Australian soldiers won a good reputation in East Timor and Turkey is a strong Middle Eastern country that deters Syria, Hezbollah's backer. There has been talk of including Egyptian and Jordanian soldiers -- two countries that are at peace with Israel, oppose Hezbollah, and their presence would give Arab legitimacy to such a force.

However many issues must be resolved before the soldiers arrive. No country is likely to agree to contribute troops if Lebanon opposes their participation, or for that matter if a powerful Hezbollah says no. Hezbollah does not want a strong foreign force that would restrict it.

Olmert seems concerned that if the Israeli army withdraws before an effective force takes over, Hezbollah will move in.

"If there is a vacuum, Hezbollah will move into the vacuum and we will move away from 1559." the Foreign Ministry's spokesman Mark Regev said.

The chances a foreign force would then fight to get Hezbollah out seem slim. That seems to be the reason why Olmert seeks to maintain an Israeli presence in the area until the foreign troops arrive.

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