For the past three hours missiles and flares had blazed back and forth over the Lebanon border we had crossed in a converted Israeli tank nicknamed Akzarit — Vicious Woman. “Yours?” we asked one paratrooper about a rocket. “Ours? Theirs? No idea,” came the reply.

Here, everyone feared the Hezbollah arsenal of anti-tank weapons, capable of punching through armour as they hiss down from hills that Israeli troops have sought in vain to clear of guerrilla bunkers for weeks.

And so it was — a bright flash perhaps half a mile from our position, a silence from the otherwise talkative reserve paratroopers, and an hour later another tank arrived with a growl to confirm more casualties on a night when twenty-four Israelis were killed, as well as at least sixty Hezbollah fighters, according to Israeli claims.

What may prove to be the endgame of this conflict was waged on a battlefield still bearing the imprint of previous historic battles: Crusader castles and First World War fortifications.

The unit we accompanied planned to bring water to the Israeli headquarters near Taibeh, not far from the Litani River. We would be staying with the area commander, one officer said, insisting that the area — although prone to missile attacks — was surrounded by Israeli soldiers and “relatively safe”.

Light was fading and the outside world was visible only through slits in the armour and the tank driver’s night-vision scope.

The soldiers were nervous. “It is protective but it doesn’t do too good against missiles,” Bentzi Alexander, a teacher in his civilian life, said as he nodded at Vicious Woman’s ageing armour. The most pressing question all night was directed at the journalists by nearly every soldier we met: “What news of the ceasefire?”

But the reservists all believed strongly in their cause, to the point where they were baffled at international criticism of their country. They were keen to make the point that nearly all Israelis see themselves as living on the front line in a world war on Islamic fundamentalism, and as misunderstood by everyone except the United States.

“Do you think people in Britain will see the connection between this (the fighting) and the kind of terrorist attack on the aeroplanes?” Bentzi asked. Yoram Doctori, an Israeli counter-intelligence expert who lives in Los Angeles but flew home to fight as a volunteer, said: “For me it’s a war about cultures. For them the big battle is against America, and the small battle is against us.

“If you negotiate with them they see it as weakness; if you fight it is a reason for revenge. It is lose-lose.”

Soon after crossing the border we stopped at an old Israeli position where the shattered Caterpillar stood.

Something was wrong. The armoured personnel carriers left hurriedly, without explanation, everyone wincing at the noise of their tracks — a magnet for missiles. Reports began to circulate about deaths. Then uncertainty turned to panic. There were flashes close by and everyone dived for cover, fearing the dreaded anti-tank missiles. Those turned out not to be aimed at us, but the heavy machinegun fire and artillery increased noticeably.

“Everything is going wrong,” a medic whispered. Three deaths were soon confirmed. Within minutes a giant of an officer called Yossi materialised and told us that we could not, after all, go to the headquarters. “I am afraid it is too dangerous.”

We asked him how Israel could reach the Litani River if its own headquarters in the Taibeh area, barely three miles from the border, were insecure. “That’s a very good question,” he said, but added: “It doesn’t mean if the headquarters here is in danger that we aren’t in control of the battle . . . Now we have almost all of southern Lebanon in our hands.”

We returned to the armoured cars, to go back with the undelivered water and the walking wounded. Some were upbeat, others glum.

Would they be returning to the front? “If it depended on us no one will come back,” Yaron, 30, said in confessional tones. “My injury is not physical. I got a little bit too scared inside.”

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