United Nation helicopters circle in the cloudless sky above South Lebanon. The bumpy road below them is dotted with Lebanese army checkpoints.
Past them lies what is known here as the land of resistance – the villages where the Shia militant group Hezbollah controls hearts and minds.
From here, its fighters battled Israel in a fierce conflict in 2006 and now the portraits of Hezbollah fighters killed in that war look down from the roadside billboards.
Some look straight at Israel, which stretches just a couple of hundred of yards away beyond the …

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel announced late Saturday night that the Israeli military would begin a unilateral cease-fire in Gaza within hours while negotiations continued on how to stop the resupply of Hamas through smuggling from Egypt.
Mr. Olmert, who said all Israeli objectives for the war had been reached, said Israel was responding positively to a call by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt earlier in the day for an immediate cease-fire, in a clearly orchestrated move by two countries that both see the Hamas movement in …

In July 2006, Israeli troops were two weeks into their unsuccessful campaign to rescue captured soldier Gilad Shalit when the Shia Muslim political and militant movement attacked from the north.
Its fighters launched dozens of Katyusha rockets and mortars at Israel and seized two more soldiers and killed eight others in cross-border raids.
It was seen as a dramatic gesture of solidarity with the Palestinians, but Israel’s response was far more dramatic and devastating to Lebanon.

Hassan Nasrallah, is the current and third Secretary General of the Lebanese Islamist party and paramilitary organization Hezbollah.

The head of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said Sunday that he had asked his fighters to be on alert for any possible Israeli attack on Lebanon following raids on Gaza that killed nearly 300 Palestinians.
In a televised address at a religious gathering marking the Shiite Day of Ashura south of Beirut, Nasrallah said “I have asked the brothers in the resistance in the south specifically to be present, on alert and cautious because we are facing a criminal enemy and we don’t know the magnitude of the conspiracies.”
“What …

Thousands of people have demonstrated in the Lebanese cities and villages in a show of solidarity with Gazans against the Israeli siege.
Lebanese cities and villages witnessed massive protests on Sunday in solidarity with the residents of the besieged Gaza Strip and in protest to the ongoing Israeli attacks and invasions into the impoverished region, International Middle East Media Center reported.
The protests were organized by Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah. Earlier the Hezbollah leader urged the Arab world to be united against Israel to defend Gaza residents who are suffering …

Two brothers seized in Lebanon are accused of a role in the death of a Hezbollah chief. Two brothers held in Lebanon as Israeli spies are linked to a team responsible for the assassination of a notorious terrorist leader, Lebanese security sources have claimed.
Ali Jarrah, 50, a Lebanese citizen, and his brother Youssef, from Marj in the Bekaa valley, were arrested last week by the Lebanese army, which charged them with espionage. A third suspect has also been held, sources close to the investigation said. All three face the death …

Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, has held talks with his political rival Saad al-Hariri, leader of Lebanon’s parliamentary majority, a statement issued by both sides has said.
The meeting on Sunday was the first between the two leaders since Israel’s 2006 war in Lebanon and comes five months after Qatar mediated an end to an 18-month political conflict in Lebanon which had escalated into street battles.