●Security cabinet: no wider ground push, tens of thousands of reservists called up

On 27 July 2006 the Israeli security cabinet decided not to widen the ground operation and to confine itself to intensifying the raids, and approved the call-up of tens of thousands of reservists in preparation for a later widening; aircraft began targeting civilian cars and motorcycles on the side roads, and Rice said Siniora, with Abbas and Maliki, represented "the future of the Middle East".