posted August 12, 2006 11:30 AM              

U.N. Adopts Israel/Hezbollah Resolution
Plan Authorizes 15,000 U.N. Peacekeepers

POSTED: 12:48 pm EDT August 11, 2006
UPDATED: 9:06 pm EDT August 11, 2006

JERUSALEM -- The U.N. Security Council has adopted a resolution that calls for an end to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

The vote was 15-0. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cast the vote for the United States.

The resolution authorizes the deployment of 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers to help Lebanese troops take control of south Lebanon as Israel withdraws.

The draft is the first significant council response to the crisis and offers the best chance yet for peace after more than four weeks of war in the Middle East that has left more than 800 people dead.

Before the vote, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said hundreds of millions of people around the world shared his frustration that the council had taken so long to act. That inaction, said Annan, has "badly shaken the world's faith in its authority and integrity."

The Israeli offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon is expected to continue at least until Sunday, when Israel's Cabinet will meet to discuss an emerging Middle East cease-fire agreement.

Israeli officials said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has accepted the deal and will recommend that his government approve it.

Poll: Israelis Unsure About Victory

A poll in Israel's Yediot Aharonot newspaper on Friday showed a drop in the number of people who think Israel can cripple Hezbollah and an increase in the number who now think Israel will lose the war.

The same poll showed fewer people now support an expanded ground offensive in southern Lebanon. It also showed a five-point drop in Olmert's approval rating: 66 percent, down from 73.

Only one in five Israelis responding to a poll in a different paper, Haaretz, thinks it would be considered a win for Israel if the war ended today. About one-third think Israel is losing the war. More than 40 percent think neither side will win.

Convoy Attacked

Witnesses and hospital officials say an unmanned Israeli aircraft fired on a convoy of vehicles fleeing south Lebanon.

An Associated Press photographer with the convoy reported seeing one man dead and many others wounded.

The convoy included 100 civilian vehicles and vehicles carrying a detachment of 350 Lebanese soldiers and police.

Two U.N. vehicles led the convoy out of the Israeli-occupied town. But it was not clear whether they were still with the convoy when the Israeli drone struck.