Lebanese Told to Leave the South

BEIRUT — Israel ordered civilians out of a nearly 20-mile-deep swath of southern Lebanon as the already bloody fighting there threatened to intensify.

International pressure for a cease-fire mounted, but with little sign of progress. A senior United Nations official said privately that he expected Israel's bombardment of Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon to continue for weeks.

Since the fighting began last week, Israel has pounded border villages where it says Hezbollah fighters have been hiding with missiles and rocket launchers. Thursday's effort to push out the civilian population went deeper into Lebanese territory, reaching north to the port city of Tyre and the Litani River.

It was not known how many residents had already fled the region, which is believed to have a population of more than 300,000.

Israel's offensive has been carried out largely from the air, but fighting on the ground has been expanding. The Israeli military said two soldiers and several guerrillas died Thursday in southern Lebanon during clashes near where two Israeli soldiers were killed a day earlier. Officials said one pilot died and three were injured early today when two Apache attack helicopters crashed in Israel near the border.

Small groups of Israeli soldiers have crossed into Lebanon over the last several days, searching for weapons and Hezbollah outposts. Increasingly, militants have met these forays with fierce resistance, indicating that they have been able to avoid the airstrikes and artillery fire.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Shiite Muslim militant group, boasted Thursday that it was able to withstand the Israeli assault. He appeared in an interview on Al Jazeera television a day after Israeli officials said they had dropped 23 tons of explosives on a southern Beirut bunker believed to house Hezbollah leaders.

"All this Israeli talk that they hit 50% of our rocket capabilities and warehouses, this talk is all wrong and nonsense," Nasrallah said.

Hezbollah denied that the site targeted in southern Beirut was a bunker. In the interview, Nasrallah said, "I can confirm without exaggerating or using psychological warfare that we have not been harmed."

Lebanese officials have said they are unable to provide any information about the neighborhood that was bombed because it contains a Hezbollah base and is off-limits to the government.