Israels Occupation

The decision, made at a six-hour security cabinet meeting, approved a plan drawn up by the military and Defense Minister Amir Peretz to move farther and faster into Lebanon.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Mr. Peretz will decide when the new operation begins, and they are expected to wait a bit so a diplomatic solution, currently being negotiated at the United Nations, can be found.

But they are not expected to wait very long, said a senior cabinet minister who was in the meeting. “The army is in full motion,” he said.

He said the decision on the new offensive was intended in part to press diplomats to move faster to establish a robust international force to monitor the border and help the Lebanese government exercise full control over the country.

The decision is also meant to push Prime Minister Fouad Siniora of Lebanon to accept such a force, despite the objections of Hezbollah, to deploy in southern Lebanon alongside the weak Lebanese Army, said the Israeli cabinet minister said, who spoke on the condition that he not be named because he was not authorized to speak about secret proceedings. “We have to stop the launchers,” the minister added. “That was the message to the army.”

Giora Eiland, a former national security adviser, said the expansion of the offensive was aimed at achieving goals that had so far proved elusive. “We have to move forward to where the launchers are,” he said. “The Israeli military operation so far is not effective. We’re not doing the important things we need to do.”

Late Wednesday night, columns of Israeli armor and troops moved into Lebanon toward Al Khiam, north of Kiryat Shmona and Metulla, which have been hit hard by rockets. The Israelis said the new operation was intended to cut rocket launchings but remained within four miles of the border.

The United States urged Israel “to take the utmost care in avoiding civilian casualties,” the State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to Mr. Olmert for half an hour in a break during the meeting, but no details were released about their conversation. C. David Welch, an assistant secretary of state, has been shuttling between Beirut and Jerusalem to try to work out a deal on a United Nations resolution.

The White House spokesman, Tony Snow, said Wednesday: “Our primary goal is to have an end of violence, but an end that will also ensure that there are not conditions for future violence, because we’ve seen this recur many times in Lebanon. That would mean creating a credible force that would allow the government of Lebanon to seize effective control and authority over southern Lebanon, and also would not lead to a situation where Hezbollah once again could arise as an independent militia, a state within a state, and to work while independent of the government, and also to destabilize Lebanon.’’

He went on to say, “We want an end to violence and we do not want escalations.”