Israeli Minister for Public Security, Avi Dichter, on how Israel is fighting the war. From the Times ...

Avi Dichter, the Israeli minister for public security and until recently the director of the Shin Bet counterterrorism service, said: "I don't think we were surprised by Hezbollah. If there are surprises, they're local surprises, not strategic surprises."

By that, he meant the depth and quality of Hezbollah underground bunkers and storehouses, Israeli officials said. Dichter said Israel's deliberate pace was an effort to minimize casualties, both to Israeli forces and to Lebanese civilians.

"You can do it in a short time," he said. "You can flood southern Lebanon with ground troops and you can bomb villages without warning anyone and it will be faster. But you'll kill a lot more innocent people and suffer a lot more casualties, and we don't intend to do either."