LEBANON - July 24 - Fierce Fghting Rages In Lebanon.

In some of the most intense ground clashes so far, Israeli troops and Hizbullah militants fight fiercely in and around two hilltop towns in southern Lebanon where the Israeli military is seeking to drive the Islamic faction away from the border. The fighting comes as State Sec Rice arrived in the region, making an unannounced stop in Beirut, where she met with PM Fouad Siniora of Lebanon. She told Sinoria: Thank you for your courage and steadfastness", though few details emerged from their meeting. As Rice visited Beirut and then later flew on to Israel, the White House announced that Pres Bush had ordered helicopters and ships to Lebanon to provide humanitarian aid. Officials said the president still opposed an immediate cease-fire. Bush's press secretary, Tony Snow, said there was no reason to believe a cease-fire would stop violence in the Middle East. He said the world should confront the destabilizing force of Hizbullah and its practice of using the Lebanese people as "human shields". Rice met with Siniora at the government's Grand Serail building in Beirut's downtown district. He greeted her at the door of her car and gave her three kisses on the cheek, a traditional welcoming gesture. The meeting lasted more than an hour but neither Rice nor Siniora commented on it. Rice's long convoy of tinted-glass armored SUVs then headed into West Beirut to the palatial home of Nabih Berri, who is the influential head of the Lebanese Parliament and a political ally of Hizbullah. The meeting took place about 1.5km, from where the Israeli Air Force has heavily pounded a Hizbullah stronghold, Haret Hreik. Once more, both Rice and her host were silent about their meeting. Berri, a Shi'ite political leader, has been one of the few Lebanese leaders in touch with Hizbullah's boss, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, since the bombing began. Siniora has said that neither he nor his government has had any direct contacts with Hizbullah's leader. Siniora has repeatedly called for an immediate cease-fire and the release of the two Israeli prisoners held by Hizbullah. The PM also said the international community needed to empower Lebanon to establish its authority over South Lebanon. While Rice's visit lasted, the Israelis did not bomb Beirut. A few demonstrators were on hand - no more than 30 - and followed Rice in the city. One of them, Shereen Sadeq, said, "This is not a war against Hizbullah that is being waged, this is a war against Lebanon and its people". Many demonstrators carried signs. One of them read, "500,000 refugees: America's tax dollars at work". In the fighting on July 24, the main battle was on the outskirts of Bint Jbeil, about three kilometers from the border. The town, whose name means "daughter of the mountain" in Arabic, is considered an important Hizbullah stronghold. It is the largest population center in that corner of Lebanon. Israeli military officers said the offensive against the town began July 23. "We're definitely in there", said Captain Mitch Pilcer of the Israeli Army's Northern Command. "We control it, though there are still pockets of resistance". Other Israeli military officials were more cautious, saying the Israeli troops were still fighting their way into the town on July 24 evening. Soldiers in a staging area near the Israeli border town of Avivim said they had encountered sustained fighting and faced land mines, artillery fire and antitank rockets. The Israeli Army said two Israeli soldiers had been killed in the fighting July 24, though it did not release details. AFP quoted an Israeli military spokeswoman as saying that two servicemen had been killed after their Apache attack helicopter crashed near the border with Lebanon. At least 20 Israeli soldiers were wounded on July 24 in Bint Jbeil and surrounding areas, according to the Israeli military. The most dramatic events of the day turned on efforts to rescue the crew of a disabled tank, which had come under heavy fire. Some if not all of the four crew members inside were wounded, according to soldiers who would not give their names because of Israeli Army policy that prohibits them from talking to the media without authorization. They said one of the wounded was a battalion commander and others said one crew member had been killed. They were eventually recovered and the wounded were sent to hospitals in Israel, the soldiers said. When asked what it was like in Lebanon, one member of an armed bulldozer crew who gave his first name as Naom said there had been an enormous amount of antitank missile fire. He said the monstrous olive drab bulldozers that the Israeli Army uses to clear roads and demolish buildings had drawn heavy fire. "It's not Lebanon, it's Afghanistan", he said. At the Menara Kibbutz on a high ridge overlooking Lebanon, streaof smoke drifted from the town of Mes e Jbail from apparent Israeli shelling. Fires burned elsewhere across the gentle landscape. Bint Jbeil, also smoking, could be glimpsed in the distance. Below the kibbutz, on an outcropping, was a UN observer outpost with concrete blast walls. The UN observers, meant to monitor the border after Israel's withdrawal, could do nothing but watch. The push for Bint Jbeil comes after the Israeli forces moved into Maroun al-Ras, a smaller town closer to the border. It too is on a hilltop and Hizbullah has used it as a major base, according to the military. While the Israeli forces were in Maroun al-Ras, they continued to come under fire from Hizbullah forces, beginning early in the morning, the military said. Maroun al-Ras is just a short distance across the border, and there have been clashes between Israeli and Hizbullah ground forces in the area for the past six days. The Israeli Air Force bombarded both towns throughout the day. In another development, an Israeli helicopter returning from a mission to Lebanon crashed on the Israeli side of the border, killing both crew members, the military said. Hizbullah said it had shot down the helicopter, but the Israeli military said it was believed that the crash had been caused by a technical problem and said it was investigating. Though Israel's military and political leaders say they do not want to undertake a major ground offensive in south Lebanon, but want only to clear Hizbullah fighters and weapons from the border region, the past several days of fighting have demonstrated that doing so will take time. One Israeli officer, who asked not to be named, noted that in a full- scale war, the military would simply bypass these small villages and push north, coming back later to mop up when the main objective had been reached. "We're doing the opposite here", he said. Hizbullah has put up fierce resistance, even in towns just a short distance across the frontier. The Israeli military has found a well-protected network of bunkers and tunnels, with large stocks of Katyusha rockets and other weaponry, indicating that Hizbullah was prepared for a major battle. Avi Dichter, Israel's public security minister, said the military objective in southern Lebanon was to weaken Hizbullah to the point where it could not seriously threaten Israel from the border area. "From an Israeli perspective, the target is not to totally dismantle Hizbullah", said Dichter, who was formerly the head of the Shin Bet security agency. Israel, he said, was "hoping that somehow we'll succeed in setting up a new situation between Israel and Hizbullah". Responding to criticism over the large number of civilian deaths in Lebanon, Dichter said: A war is not a surgical operation, and air war is not a surgical operation. You identify the targets, bombs are sophisticated and accurate. But you see a cement truck and from the air it looks just like a Katyusha truck. Sometimes from the air you hit the wrong target". In southern Lebanon, at least seven civilians were killed, including two children, in a renewed wave of Israeli airstrikes that hit several homes around Tyre, AFP reported. About 380 Lebanese have been killed in 13 days of fighting, the vast majority of them civilians, according to the Lebanese. Israeli military officials say they believe they have killed around 100 Hizbullah militants. The Israeli operation has not slowed the Hizbullah rocket fire. More than 80 rockets crashed into northern Israel as of July 24 evening, wounding about 20 people, the military said.