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International News Title: At the border, Israelis face `serious' adversary ROSH HANIKRA, Israel - Bleary-eyed and caked with dust after more than a week inside Lebanon, two Israeli tank crews wolfed down a quick lunch Sunday at this commanding point on Israel's northern border. Beneath them stretched the northern Israeli coastline and in the distance, the cities of Nahariya, Acco and Haifa, which have been hit daily by rockets fired by Hezbollah militants in Lebanon during a 12-day-old Israeli offensive there. The muffled booms of Israeli artillery pounding southern Lebanon could be heard over the ridge, and overhead, the whistle of an incoming rocket or mortar round fired by militants across the border, followed by a thunderous crash. The tank crews had just completed one of the army's ongoing incursions into southern Lebanon: armored forays and raids by elite units to destroy Hezbollah's bunkers, positions and rocket depots and launchers. Seven Israeli soldiers and an undetermined number of guerrillas have been killed in combat in recent days, a possible prelude to a deeper Israeli ground thrust into areas from which Hezbollah has been firing rockets at Israel. The Israeli army has taken control of at least one Lebanese village near the border and warned residents of other villages in the area to vacate their homes in expectation of a likely assault. Sitting on the Merkava tank he commands, Assaf, 22, who gave only his first name, said his force had destroyed two abandoned Hezbollah positions across the border and was facing a "serious" adversary, which has used mines and anti-tank rockets to battle the Israeli armor. Dudi Mizrahi, 21, the tank driver, said Hezbollah had been pushed back from the border but was capable of putting up a determined fight. "They're very small, but very, very stubborn," he said. "If there is a deeper incursion, there will definitely be resistance. They're hiding in bunkers, and they come out, fire a Katyusha rocket and go back in. They're holding up." More than 90 rockets were fired at cities and towns across northern Israel on Sunday, killing two people and wounding several others in the port city of Haifa and a neighboring suburb. One of the dead was a motorist, killed in his car by shrapnel; another was a worker in a carpentry shop wrecked by the rocket blast. A couple in another suburb were saved when they took shelter in a bombproof room before a rocket slammed into their home. The rocket fire has continued throughout the Israeli campaign in Lebanon, despite the army's expanding presence on the ground, estimated at a few thousand troops rotating in and out. Lt. Col. Yishai Efroni, the deputy brigade commander for Israel's western Galilee region, said in an interview at the border that because ground forces were not using their full firepower in an effort to spare civilians in the villages where Hezbollah was dug in, "the mission will take time." "The soldiers are moving door-to-door to clear the area," Efroni said, adding that the army was fighting the guerrillas with mobile raids on several fronts. "Units are moving in and out quickly, stinging them each time someplace else," he said. Efroni said the raids had uncovered rockets stored in basements, a rocket launcher in a vehicle parked near a mosque, and a truck carrying a battery of 12 rocket launchers. Hezbollah scoffed Sunday at the Israeli army's announcement that it was in control of the Lebanese border village of Maroun al-Ras. "An army fighting with elite forces and tanks, backed by an air force, that was unable to enter a village right on the border except after days of fighting and extensive losses facing a number of resistance fighters, is a defeated and failed army," the group said in a statement. The Israelis are waging their own battle for the hearts and minds of Lebanese living in areas that have been controlled by Hezbollah. An Israeli radio broadcast beamed Sunday into southern Lebanon carried a stern warning and ridiculed Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah. "The terrorist actions of Hezbollah against the territory of the state of Israel have brought you to the situation you are in," the broadcast said. "Remember that Israel has the ability to strike a painful blow against the Lebanese terrorist elements, as it has proven in recent days. Where is Hassan Nasrallah? He has fled to his cave, just as other terrorists like him fled the battle as soon as they heard the first shot." South of the border with Lebanon, sirens wailed repeatedly Sunday as rockets fell on Haifa and communities to the north. Motorists got out of their cars and took cover beside walls; others stopped under an overpass for protection. In Nahariya, a seaside town that has been battered by rockets, residents living in bomb shelters for nearly two weeks seemed unbowed, saying they were ready to stick it out for as long as it took for the army to crush Hezbollah. At midday people emerged above ground when loudspeakers announced that residents had an hour to go out and stock up on supplies. Hot lunches, snacks, diapers, games and toys have been sent to the shelters by the municipality and private donors, and soldiers and volunteers have made the rounds to organize activities for children. Orly Ben-Azaria, 39, an insurance agent, made a quick visit to her apartment, where she goes in the early morning hours to prepare meals. Her three children, she said, were frightened and anxious, reluctant to leave the shelter. During lulls in the rocket attacks, people often venture home to shower before the next barrage. Felix Hajaj, 63, said he had been through several of Israel's wars, but this one was different. "Those wars were fought on enemy territory," he said. "This one is on the home front."
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