From A strategic mistake by Ze'ev Schiff Ha'aretz 07/20/06:
The military difficulty involved in preventing the launching of short-range missiles gave rise to the idea of encouraging large numbers of civilians to flee northward, toward Beirut, to serve as a source of pressure. The problem was that in many places, the roads were impassable, because the Israel Air Force had bombed a large number of bridges to keep Hezbollah from transporting missiles and reinforcements. ...
The IDF has used this technique before, in Operation Accountability in 1993 and in Operation Grapes of Wrath in 1996. Both campaigns began in the wake of Katyusha attacks against Israeli communities. The large numbers of refugees from villages in the south put a great deal of pressure on the Lebanese government, which immediately appealed to Syria and Iran to tell Hezbollah to hold its fire. Both times, this tactic led to cease-fires, but they did not last long, because the Hezbollah leadership does not really care about the suffering masses and may even believe that such suffering helps their organization by increasing hatred of Israel.
More proof of the increasingly complicated situation in Lebanon can be found in the growing number of calls from various quarters, including right-wing politicians and former senior military officials, for launching a large-scale ground campaign. The senior ranks of the IDF oppose this idea. Even though it is clear that the Air Force alone cannot solve the problem of missiles being fired at Israel, there is no real support for a broad, lengthy ground operation in Lebanon.
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