Breaking news....

Irish radio and various online news sources are saying that Israeli forces have been dropped into southern Lebanon, engaging Hezbollah forces in what is being described as the most serious breach of the five-day old ceasefire to date.

Hezbollah said its fighters clashed early Saturday with an Israel Defense Forces commando unit that landed near their stronghold of Baalbek deep inside Lebanon.

Lebanese security officials later said that three Hezbollah guerillas were killed in the fighting.

Earlier Saturday, Israeli aircraft fired several rockets at a target in a Hezbollah stronghold in eastern Lebanon early on Saturday morning, a Lebanese security source said.

Complete story here.

In combination with the following Guardian story, prospects for peace in the region seem fragile indeed.

An internal Lebanese army statement, circulated among forces in the past week, has called for troops to stand "alongside your resistance and your people who astonished the world with its steadfastness and destroyed the prestige of the so-called invincible army after it was defeated".
The circular has alarmed ministers in the Lebanese cabinet who had been calling for the army to disarm Hizbullah.

It will also fuel the concerns of Israel, the US and the UN security council that the Lebanese army is incapable of securing the south of the country, adding increased urgency to the calls for a multinational force to be swiftly deployed.

Why, if the Israeli army could not disarm or defeat Hezbollah, would the much less powerful Lebanese army be able to do so?! Especially considering it is composed, in no small part, of southern Lebanese recruits who would tend to sympathize with Hezbollah?

Seems more like wishful thinking than useful diplomacy to me.

Guardian story here.