United Nations peacekeepers fear that the Israeli Army intends to raze entire villages in south Lebanon after encountering stiffer resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas than initially expected.

With Israeli forces pulling back from a key Lebanese border town after several days of bloody fighting, UNIFIL’s top commander says that Hezbollah cannot be defeated militarily.

“A military victory will never be possible,” Major General Alain Pellegrini, the commander of UNIFIL, the acronym of the UN peacekeeping force deployed in south Lebanon, told The Times in an interview.

He said that only a political solution can resolve the fate of Hezbollah’s military wing, adding that after more than two weeks of heavy fighting, the Lebanese group is “still strong”.

Israeli troops have withdrawn from Bint Jbeil, the largest Shia town in the border district, after heavy street clashes against well-entrenched Hezbollah fighters caused high casualties.

The town was under heavy shellfire today in what UN officers suspect is a plan to force the last civilians to flee prior to destroying the town completely and killing any remaining Hezbollah fighters.

“I think the Israelis are contemplating flattening villages down to the last house,” Richard Morczynski, Unfil's political officer, said.

Unfil estimates there are between 800 to 1,000 Hezbollah combatants deployed throughout the south, operating in groups numbering as few as 12 to 15.

They have ready access to weapons and ammunition and have retained their channels of communication, speaking in code over walkie-talkies.

“Sometime they use radio frequencies that are the same as ours and we can hear them talk,” Mr Morczynski said.

“They say ‘This is brother 13. We are going to carry out operation seven. Hope you are all safe’.”

He said that Hezbollah is showing little sign of weakening despite the intensity of the Israeli onslaught.

“They are mobile, dedicated and willing to act. When there’s shelling, they’re not scared. They’re not sitting in bunkers,” he said.

The Israeli military estimates that as many as 100 Hezbollah fighters are holed up in Bint Jbeil, a straggly hill town of narrow streets suited to the Lebanese Shia group’s style of hit-and-run operations.

Eight Israeli soldiers were killed on Wednesday in a Hezbollah ambush in Bint Jbeil, the highest number of fatalities in a single day since the conflict began on July 12.

Other than the setback on the ground, the Israeli Air Force is still unable to halt the firing of rockets into Israel despite saturation air coverage over south Lebanon and a two-minute response time to the scene of a rocket launch.

Hezbollah announced today that it had fired a new rocket for the first time, the Khybar 1. Five of the new rockets were launched at Afula, 33 miles south of the border.

Trapped between the Israeli military and Hezbollah, Unfil has been reduced to little more than a helpless bystander.

Hezbollah fighters have launched rockets from close to UN positions and the Israeli army has not hesitated to return fire, endangering the peacekeepers. Four UN observers were killed on Tuesday when their position was completely destroyed in an Israeli air strike.

Bomb-cratered roads and lack of humanitarian supplies from Beirut have prevented UNIFIL from reaching isolated villages to rescue trapped residents or provide basic provisions for those choosing to remain in their homes.

“We are trying to do our best, but we are not built for such a level of confrontation,” General Pellegrini said.

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