An aid worker plays with displaced Lebanese children at a temporary shelter in Beirut. (AP)

Marjayoun (Lebanon), Aug 10 (Reuters): Hizbollah guerrillas fought Israeli troops pushing deeper into southeast Lebanon today, though an Israeli cabinet minister said plans for a deeper ground assault were on hold to give diplomacy a chance.

Hizbollah fired nearly 70 rockets into Israel, killing a woman and a toddler in an Israeli Arab village, medics said.

An Israeli force headed towards the southeastern town of Khiam amid heavy artillery shelling and air strikes on Hizbollah positions, residents said. Infantry moved through the Christian towns of Marjayoun and Qlaiah overnight and imposed a curfew.

The fighting intensified even though Israel’s tourism minister said plans for an expanded ground offensive, approved yesterday, had been put on hold to allow more time for US-led diplomatic efforts to bear fruit. The UN Security Council has been divided over a resolution aimed at stabilising the area by deploying an international force to back the Lebanese army. No vote seems imminent.

“We can allow a little more time to see if there’s a possibility for a diplomatic process,” said minister Yitzhak Herzog, a member of Israel’s security cabinet.

Israel’s well-flagged plans for a bigger offensive are intended partly to ratchet up pressure on the Beirut government to accept the Jewish state’s terms for halting hostilities. It dropped leaflets on Beirut that told people in the teeming Shiyah, Burj al-Barajneh and Hay al-Sulloum districts to leave or be bombed.

The conflict, now in its fifth week, has created an acute humanitarian crisis, especially for an estimated 10,000 people trapped in south Lebanon, where aid agencies said hospitals were running out of food, fuel and other supplies. The UN World Food Programme urged both sides to stop fighting, saying relief efforts were now facing paralysis.

“Above all, we require a cessation of hostilities by both sides to allow humanitarian aid through,” Zlatan Milisic, WFP emergency coordinator in Lebanon, said.

The Israeli infantry advance towards Khiam was followed by tanks that drew intense Hizbollah fire.“I can see two tanks burning some 500 metres from Marjayoun,” one resident said. A third tank arrived later and removed several casualties, he said.