BEIRUT, 10 August 2006 — Israel’s Security Cabinet overwhelmingly decided yesterday to send troops deeper into Lebanon in a major expansion of Israel’s ground war — an attempt to further damage Hezbollah and score quick battlefield victories before a Mideast cease-fire is imposed.

Hours later, a defiant Hezbollah chief vowed to turn south Lebanon into a “graveyard” for invading Israeli troops. “You won’t be able to stay in our land, and if you come in, we’ll force you out,” said Hassan Nasrallah in a televised speech shown on most Arab TV stations.

“We will turn our precious southern land into a graveyard for the invading Zionists.” Nasrallah said four weeks of Israeli bombardment had not weakened the group’s rocket capabilities and called on the Arab residents of Haifa to quit the Israeli city to avoid being hurt by its barrages. Nasrallah said that the United States was trying to impose Israeli demands on Lebanon through the draft UN resolution.

“The least you can say about this resolution is that it is unjust and oppressive and gives the Israelis more than they wanted and demanded,” Nasrallah said. “The response to the Lebanese consensus and seven-point plan was this draft ... to give the Israelis politically and through diplomatic pressure what they were unable to gain by fighting.”

The Israeli decision — approved 9-0, with three abstentions — was fraught with risk. Israel could set itself up for new criticism that it is sabotaging diplomatic efforts, particularly after Lebanon offered to deploy its own troops along the border.

Late last night, Israeli ground troops push 5 kilometers into southern Lebanon, o Israeli Late last night, Israeli ground troops pushed five kilometers into southern Lebanon opening a new front, witnesses said. New explosions were also heard. However, the Israeli Army said the new push into Lebanon was not planned to exceed the current area of operations.

A wider ground offensive also might do little to stop Hezbollah rocket fire on Israel, while sharply increasing the already high number of casualties among Israeli troops. Arab satellite TV stations reported that 11 Israeli soldiers were killed yesterday, in what would be the deadliest day for Israeli troops in Lebanon. Hezbollah fired more than 160 rockets at Israel by mid-afternoon.

The Security Cabinet met a day after the commander of Israeli forces in Lebanon was sidelined in an unusual mid-war shake-up — another sign of the growing dissatisfaction with the military, which has been unable to stop daily rocket barrages.

In attacks yesterday, Israel’s military struck Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, killing at least two people. In the eastern Bekaa Valley five people were killed and two feared dead in an Israeli raid. Israeli airstrikes leveled a two-story building in Mashghara early yesterday, trapping seven people from the same family under debris, security officials said.

Five bodies were pulled out and the remaining two relatives were feared dead.