On Tuesday night, the Israeli Army pushed further into Lebanon in a ground invasion than it had in more than a decade. An Israeli special forces operation in Baalbek, a hotbed of Hezbollah activity in northeast Lebanon, led to the capture of several militants. The Israeli force returned to their base by helicopter following the raid. Lebanese police are reporting that Israel captured five people.

Lebanese eyewitnesses have reported the deaths of at least seven people as a result of the heavy aerial bombardment of the Baalbek region prior to and during the raid. Residents told Agence France Presse that the soldiers began shooting as soon as they exited the helicopters, leaving numerous people dead or wounded near the landing zone, which is not far from a Hezbollah-run hospital.

So far, no official reason has been given for the commando operation. The Lebanese media is reporting that the Israeli unit was searching the area because they suspected that the radical Islamist Hezbollah might be hiding two kidnapped Israeli soldiers there. But Israeli media are reporting that the purpose of the raid was to capture Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek, a high-ranking Hezbollah leader, who was thought to be at the hospital. Hezbollah denied that any of its leaders had been there.

Hezbollah's main spokesman, Hussein Rahal, said fighting around the Dar-al-Hikma hospital had been intense. The hospital is funded by Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and operated by Hezbollah.

Israeli fighter jets conducted more than ten bombing runs in the area surrounding the hospital. In a second wave of attacks, targets were hit in neighborhoods in the northern and eastern parts of Baalbek where Hezbollah supporters live, eyewitnesses reported. They said the strikes ended at 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

The landing of the commando troop marked the deepest incursion by Israeli troops in Lebanon in 12 years. Baalbek is located about 120 kilometers north of the border, and the last time Israeli troops pushed this far into Lebanese territory was in 1994, when they abducted Mustafa Dirani. Ten years later, the Israelis released the Lebanese guerrilla leader as part of a prisoner exchange.

Baalbek is the provincial capital and is home to around 80,000 people. The city's history traces back to the Roman settlement of Heliopolis, which was established in 15 BC. The city is famous for its ancient temples, including the largest single temple ever built during the days of the Roman Empire. The city also served as the headquarters of the Syrian Army until Damascus withdrew from Lebanon last year. And it was the site in the 1980s where Iran's Revolutionary Guard first trained the Hezbollah fighters.

Further south, three soldiers were killed in an Israeli air strike on a military base in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning. Fighter jets fired at least one rocket at the base in Sarba, Lebanese security sources reported. The area around Sarba is believed to be the location of a number of Hezbollah positions.

Hezbollah fighters also claim to have destroyed two Israeli tanks during combat in a border village in southern Lebanon. The Shiite group claimed in a statement that the crews of the tanks had either been killed or injured. The fight began when an armored unit attempted to advance on the Rub Thalatheen hill in Adaisseh, a border village.

Given the intensity of fighting on Tuesday and early Wednesday morning and the lack of any diplomatic progress, observers said they feared the situation would escalate. The 48-hour semi-cease-fire -- imposed by Israel after a devastating strike on the southern Lebanese city of Qana left 56 dead -- was also slated to be lifted on Wednesday.

Rice believes cease-fire possible soon

Paying little mind to the current heavy fighting, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she believed a cease-fire could be possible within several days. "This week is entirely possible," Rice told PBS Newshour. "Certainly we are talking about days not weeks." But before a cease-fire could be reached, certain conditions had to be in place, she said, specifically strengthening Lebanese control over the southern part of the country to prevent more Hezbollah attacks on Israel.

However, Israeli officials seemed less optimistic. Earlier Tuesday, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said the war could last several weeks and Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer suggested it could take two weeks.

Meanwhile, Mark Malloch Brown, the deputy secretary general of the United Nations called on the US and Britain to take a secondary role in brokering peace, claiming the crisis could not be resolved by the "team that led on Iraq." He said prominent participation in brokering a deal would be "not helpful" and that attempts at reaching a cease-fire agreement "cannot be perceived as a US-UK deal with Israel." Brown added that the world needs "Chirac and Bush or Bush and (Egypt's Hosni) Mubarak and (Jordan's King) Abdullah on the podium, not Bush and Blair." He added that Syria and Iran also need to be brought into the process, even if it isn't the US that invites them in.