Wednesday, 2 August 2006, 19:49 GMT 20:49 UK
By Lucy Williamson
BBC News, Gaza
The United Nations has called on world leaders not to forget the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying it is at least as serious as that in southern Lebanon.
More than 140 people have been killed during Israel's operations there over the past month, many of them civilians.
Delivery of food and other essential items has been reduced to a trickle.
Thirty aid agencies backed the appeal, and one charity spoke of a sense among aid agencies that Gaza's population was being terrorised.
Care International told the BBC that Western nations had failed to put pressure on Israel to rein in its actions and that attention was being focused on Lebanon at the expense of the situation in the Gaza Strip.
According to the UN, Israel fires around 150 shells into the tiny territory every day in a bid to stop Palestinian militants who fire an average of 10 rockets across the border.
Israel says it needs to target civilian areas because that is where militants base themselves but aid organisations say Gaza's population of 1.4 million is living in perpetual fear.
'Nowhere safe'
Several nights a week the noise of Israeli helicopters vibrates over Gaza followed by the sudden explosion of air strikes.
Israel has begun dropping leaflets and leaving telephone messages warning residents not to stay near militant homes but aid organisations say such measures leave people terrified and with nowhere safe to go.
The UN is currently sheltering 1,000 people in schools in Gaza.
Many others have moved in with relations.
Aid agencies are also calling on Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
One hundred and fifty trucks carrying food and essential supplies are currently crossing the border each day but according to Care International this is only just enough to stop the population from starving.
To keep people from being hungry and to restore food security, they say, Israel needs to increase this to 400.
Gaza's population is already living in the dark.
Since Israel bombed the power station homes are often without clean water or electricity and health officials say they are worried about the possible spread of disease.
CRISIS in the MIDDLE EAST
Moderators: Cell_Leader, ikaotiki, Julstar
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Israel hit by Hezbollah barrage
Wednesday, 2 August 2006, 20:35 GMT 21:35 UK
Hezbollah fighters have launched more than 230 rockets from Lebanon, the biggest single-day barrage since the conflict began, Israeli officials say.
One person was killed and dozens injured as some rockets landed up to 70km inside Israel, the deepest so far.
The upsurge came as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel had destroyed Hezbollah's infrastructure.
Israel renewed air strikes on the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, a Shia Muslim area, early on Thursday.
At least three explosions were reported in an area extensively bombed earlier in Israel's campaign, in the first air strikes on the Lebanese capital for several days.
The Israeli prime minister has insisted there would be no ceasefire until an international force was deployed in southern Lebanon.
"I said I'd be ready to enter a ceasefire when the international forces, not will be ready, but will be deployed," Mr Olmert said of the timetable for a halt to the violence.
The hail of Hezbollah rockets came after Israeli troops raided Baalbek, a Hezbollah stronghold in north-east Lebanon, seizing five people they said were Hezbollah fighters. Hezbollah said they were civilians.
An Israeli soldier was killed in heavy fighting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Four other Israeli soldiers were injured, when an anti-tank missile struck the house in which they were sheltering in the village of Aita al-Shaab.
One Hezbollah rocket killed a man near the Israeli town of Nahariya on the west coast, bringing the number of Israeli civilians killed since the conflict started to 19.
About three dozen Israeli soldiers have also died. Television channel al-Jazeera reported that another soldier had died on Wednesday, but there was no confirmation from Israeli authorities.
In Lebanon, about 750 people - mainly civilians - have been killed by Israeli action, according to the Lebanese health minister. This figure includes unrecovered bodies.
Clashes have been continuing in southern Lebanon between Hezbollah and a force of Israeli troops now said to number around 12,000.
The Israeli campaign began three weeks ago after Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers.
In other developments:
Britain's UN ambassador said agreement on an initial Security Council resolution to end the violence was close
World Food Programme officials said Israel had assured them emergency fuel supplies would be given safe passage into Lebanon
Iran's supreme leader urged the Muslim world to stand up to Israel and the US over their role in the conflict in Lebanon
'Unbroken'
The BBC's Richard Miron says that, before Wednesday's upsurge in Hezbollah rocket attacks, some northern Israeli residents had begun returning home, believing that the Israeli army had dealt with the threat.
Hezbollah militants have claimed they used a new type of rocket for the attack - a Khaibar-1, thought by the Israelis to be a modified Iranian Fajr-5, which has a longer range than the Katyusha rockets they usually fire into Israel.
One rocket fired on Wednesday landed near Jenin in the West Bank - believed to be the furthest any of the militants' rockets had reached since the conflict began.
A Hezbollah spokesman, Ghalib Abu Zeinab, said in an interview with the BBC Arabic Service that the latest attacks showed that Hezbollah was unbroken.
"The rockets that have been raining down since this morning... and the firing of a missile over a distance of 70km, all this proves that the Lebanese resistance still has a high capability, including a missile capability," he said.
Israeli Interior Minister Avi Dichter told the BBC that although Hezbollah remained active, he was confident Israel would achieve its aims in Lebanon.
"Hezbollah is still alive, but the mission of this operation is not to crack down Hezbollah totally," he said.
"We're trying to minimise the number of rockets launched towards Israel, and we know that all other targets that we have put right at the beginning of this special operation are going to be fulfilled."
Hezbollah fighters have launched more than 230 rockets from Lebanon, the biggest single-day barrage since the conflict began, Israeli officials say.
One person was killed and dozens injured as some rockets landed up to 70km inside Israel, the deepest so far.
The upsurge came as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel had destroyed Hezbollah's infrastructure.
Israel renewed air strikes on the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, a Shia Muslim area, early on Thursday.
At least three explosions were reported in an area extensively bombed earlier in Israel's campaign, in the first air strikes on the Lebanese capital for several days.
The Israeli prime minister has insisted there would be no ceasefire until an international force was deployed in southern Lebanon.
"I said I'd be ready to enter a ceasefire when the international forces, not will be ready, but will be deployed," Mr Olmert said of the timetable for a halt to the violence.
The hail of Hezbollah rockets came after Israeli troops raided Baalbek, a Hezbollah stronghold in north-east Lebanon, seizing five people they said were Hezbollah fighters. Hezbollah said they were civilians.
An Israeli soldier was killed in heavy fighting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Four other Israeli soldiers were injured, when an anti-tank missile struck the house in which they were sheltering in the village of Aita al-Shaab.
One Hezbollah rocket killed a man near the Israeli town of Nahariya on the west coast, bringing the number of Israeli civilians killed since the conflict started to 19.
About three dozen Israeli soldiers have also died. Television channel al-Jazeera reported that another soldier had died on Wednesday, but there was no confirmation from Israeli authorities.
In Lebanon, about 750 people - mainly civilians - have been killed by Israeli action, according to the Lebanese health minister. This figure includes unrecovered bodies.
Clashes have been continuing in southern Lebanon between Hezbollah and a force of Israeli troops now said to number around 12,000.
The Israeli campaign began three weeks ago after Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers.
In other developments:
Britain's UN ambassador said agreement on an initial Security Council resolution to end the violence was close
World Food Programme officials said Israel had assured them emergency fuel supplies would be given safe passage into Lebanon
Iran's supreme leader urged the Muslim world to stand up to Israel and the US over their role in the conflict in Lebanon
'Unbroken'
The BBC's Richard Miron says that, before Wednesday's upsurge in Hezbollah rocket attacks, some northern Israeli residents had begun returning home, believing that the Israeli army had dealt with the threat.
Hezbollah militants have claimed they used a new type of rocket for the attack - a Khaibar-1, thought by the Israelis to be a modified Iranian Fajr-5, which has a longer range than the Katyusha rockets they usually fire into Israel.
One rocket fired on Wednesday landed near Jenin in the West Bank - believed to be the furthest any of the militants' rockets had reached since the conflict began.
A Hezbollah spokesman, Ghalib Abu Zeinab, said in an interview with the BBC Arabic Service that the latest attacks showed that Hezbollah was unbroken.
"The rockets that have been raining down since this morning... and the firing of a missile over a distance of 70km, all this proves that the Lebanese resistance still has a high capability, including a missile capability," he said.
Israeli Interior Minister Avi Dichter told the BBC that although Hezbollah remained active, he was confident Israel would achieve its aims in Lebanon.
"Hezbollah is still alive, but the mission of this operation is not to crack down Hezbollah totally," he said.
"We're trying to minimise the number of rockets launched towards Israel, and we know that all other targets that we have put right at the beginning of this special operation are going to be fulfilled."
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Hezbollah Steps Up Rocket Attacks
By HAMZA HENDAWI, AP
BOURJ AL-MULOUK, Lebanon (Aug. 2) - Hezbollah fired its biggest and deepest volley of rockets into Israel on Wednesday as Israel pursued the guerrillas with 8,000 soldiers on the ground and heavy bombing. With fighting in its fourth week and diplomatic efforts stalled, the region braced for a bitter and long war.
In eastern Lebanon, villagers wept as heavy machinery carried off the bodies of those killed in an overnight raid against a Hezbollah stronghold. Across northern Israel, forests and fields lay scorched from rocket fire that killed a Massachusetts native fleeing on his bicycle after a warning siren went off.
Hopes for a cease-fire dimmed despite a plea from Pope Benedict XVI for a quick solution. U.N. diplomats debated a draft resolution that would lay down the conditions for an international force to go in; they claimed they were making progress but acknowledged no immediate deal was in sight.
The prospect of a longer war has raised tensions across the Mideast, where anti-Israeli and anti-American hostility is now sharp. Arab leaders have warned repeatedly in recent days that the fighting has hampered, or killed outright, any hope for a long-term Israeli peace deal.
But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said his country would stop its offensive only after a robust international peacekeeping force is in place in southern Lebanon - something likely to take weeks at minimum. He predicted the fighting would create "new momentum" for Israel's plan to separate from the Palestinians by pulling out of the West Bank.
Early Thursday, Israel renewed air strikes against Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut's outskirts. Witnesses said at least four explosions reverberated after missiles hit Dahieh, a Shiite Muslim suburb that has been repeatedly shelled by Israel.
On Wednesday, the first full day of its massive ground push, Israeli military officials said Hezbollah was putting up resistance as troops went from village to village in south Lebanon to clear them of guerrillas.
But the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said they were confident the resistance would not change their objective of reaching roughly four miles into Lebanon by Thursday. They said they could easily dash inland to the Litani River - their final objective about 18 miles from the border - but instead chose to move methodically so as not to leave pockets of resistance.
The Israeli forces were believed to be just two miles inside the Lebanese border in most spots.
The military said early Thursday that an Israeli soldier was killed and four others wounded in Ayt a-Shab, just across the border. Army Radio said the battle was still in progress early Thursday.
Hezbollah's retaliation was fierce - both on the ground and by air. It fired a record daily number of more than 230 rockets into Israel, pushing its three-week total over the 2,000 mark. The highest previous daily total was 166, on July 26.
One rocket on Wednesday hit near the town of Beit Shean, about 42 miles beyond the border, Hezbollah 's deepest rocket strike into Israel so far. Another stray missile hit the West Bank for the first time.
David M. Lelchook, a 52-year-old Israeli-American, was killed as he fled for home by bicycle near a northern town, and 58 people were wounded elsewhere across Israel. Lelchook was originally from the Boston area and had been living in Israel for 20 years, said Yehuda Shavit, a local government official. He said the man's wife and two daughters had moved to southern Israel earlier in the fighting.
Another American immigrant was among three Israeli soldiers killed in fighting in Lebanon this week, the army said Wednesday. Michael Levin, 22, moved to Israel three years ago from Pennsylvania and enlisted in the paratroopers, Israeli media reported. Levin cut short a visit to his family four days ago and returned to his unit.
In Lebanon, the civilian death toll reached far higher: 16 killed overnight during an Israeli commando raid and accompanying airstrikes around the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek near the Syrian border.
The attack, the deepest strike north by Israel so far, was led by commandos who flew in by helicopter before dawn, capturing five Hezbollah guerrillas and killing at least 10, said Israel's army chief, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz.
Witnesses said the Israeli forces partially destroyed the Dar al-Hikma hospital in Baalbek, which residents said is financed by an Iranian charity close to Hezbollah .
A Hezbollah official in Beirut said the hospital had been evacuated several days earlier as a precaution after Israeli forces attempted an earlier, similar operation. No such assault was previously reported.
The Israel air force deputy commander, Col. Yochanan Loker, described the site as "a Hezbollah headquarters located inside the hospital. ... Weapons were found within the hospital - in offices, in drawers."
Israel has not released the identities of those captured. When asked by The Associated Press whether any were "big fish," Olmert said: "They are tasty fishes."
Another Hezbollah official, also speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements to the media, said Israeli troops captured "four or five" people, but not at the hospital, and denied they were Hezbollah fighters.
Commandos also took away computers, disks and documents for intelligence analysis, said army Col. Nitzan Alon, who led the Israeli ground forces on the mission. As they swept the building, they came under fire by anti-tank missiles from nearby buildings.
Israeli jets fired missiles at the surrounding guerrilla force as the fighting at the hospital raged, the military said.
One struck the nearby village of al-Jamaliyeh, hitting the house of the village's mayor, Hussein Jamaleddin, and killing his son, brother, and five other relatives.
Weeping as he walked in a funeral procession hours later, Jamaleddin pulled at the limbs of the dead, carried to a cemetery in the bucket of a yellow front-loader.
"This is the leg of my son. He was a sportsman, he did tae kwon do," Jamaleddin wailed.
At least 548 Lebanese have been killed since the fighting began three weeks ago, including 477 civilians and 25 Lebanese soldiers and at least 46 Hezbollah guerrillas. The health minister says the toll could be as high as 750, including those still buried in rubble or missing.
In all, 56 Israelis have died - 37 soldiers as well as 19 civilians killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks.
In other developments:
- The U.N. announced it would again postpone a meeting of nations that could contribute troops to help stabilize south Lebanon, saying it was premature to talk about deploying peacekeepers before imposing a plan for peace between Israel and Hezbollah .
- In Geneva, the U.N. World Food Program said Israel had agreed to permit two oil tankers to sail into Lebanon to ease a growing fuel crisis. Many gas stations have long lines or are shuttered, and aid officials fear fuel shortages could also hurt food production. Power and water outages also have become common, especially across the south.
---
Associated Press writers Hussein Dakroub in Beirut and Steven Gutkin in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
AP-NY-08-02-06 2018EDT
BOURJ AL-MULOUK, Lebanon (Aug. 2) - Hezbollah fired its biggest and deepest volley of rockets into Israel on Wednesday as Israel pursued the guerrillas with 8,000 soldiers on the ground and heavy bombing. With fighting in its fourth week and diplomatic efforts stalled, the region braced for a bitter and long war.
In eastern Lebanon, villagers wept as heavy machinery carried off the bodies of those killed in an overnight raid against a Hezbollah stronghold. Across northern Israel, forests and fields lay scorched from rocket fire that killed a Massachusetts native fleeing on his bicycle after a warning siren went off.
Hopes for a cease-fire dimmed despite a plea from Pope Benedict XVI for a quick solution. U.N. diplomats debated a draft resolution that would lay down the conditions for an international force to go in; they claimed they were making progress but acknowledged no immediate deal was in sight.
The prospect of a longer war has raised tensions across the Mideast, where anti-Israeli and anti-American hostility is now sharp. Arab leaders have warned repeatedly in recent days that the fighting has hampered, or killed outright, any hope for a long-term Israeli peace deal.
But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said his country would stop its offensive only after a robust international peacekeeping force is in place in southern Lebanon - something likely to take weeks at minimum. He predicted the fighting would create "new momentum" for Israel's plan to separate from the Palestinians by pulling out of the West Bank.
Early Thursday, Israel renewed air strikes against Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut's outskirts. Witnesses said at least four explosions reverberated after missiles hit Dahieh, a Shiite Muslim suburb that has been repeatedly shelled by Israel.
On Wednesday, the first full day of its massive ground push, Israeli military officials said Hezbollah was putting up resistance as troops went from village to village in south Lebanon to clear them of guerrillas.
But the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said they were confident the resistance would not change their objective of reaching roughly four miles into Lebanon by Thursday. They said they could easily dash inland to the Litani River - their final objective about 18 miles from the border - but instead chose to move methodically so as not to leave pockets of resistance.
The Israeli forces were believed to be just two miles inside the Lebanese border in most spots.
The military said early Thursday that an Israeli soldier was killed and four others wounded in Ayt a-Shab, just across the border. Army Radio said the battle was still in progress early Thursday.
Hezbollah's retaliation was fierce - both on the ground and by air. It fired a record daily number of more than 230 rockets into Israel, pushing its three-week total over the 2,000 mark. The highest previous daily total was 166, on July 26.
One rocket on Wednesday hit near the town of Beit Shean, about 42 miles beyond the border, Hezbollah 's deepest rocket strike into Israel so far. Another stray missile hit the West Bank for the first time.
David M. Lelchook, a 52-year-old Israeli-American, was killed as he fled for home by bicycle near a northern town, and 58 people were wounded elsewhere across Israel. Lelchook was originally from the Boston area and had been living in Israel for 20 years, said Yehuda Shavit, a local government official. He said the man's wife and two daughters had moved to southern Israel earlier in the fighting.
Another American immigrant was among three Israeli soldiers killed in fighting in Lebanon this week, the army said Wednesday. Michael Levin, 22, moved to Israel three years ago from Pennsylvania and enlisted in the paratroopers, Israeli media reported. Levin cut short a visit to his family four days ago and returned to his unit.
In Lebanon, the civilian death toll reached far higher: 16 killed overnight during an Israeli commando raid and accompanying airstrikes around the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek near the Syrian border.
The attack, the deepest strike north by Israel so far, was led by commandos who flew in by helicopter before dawn, capturing five Hezbollah guerrillas and killing at least 10, said Israel's army chief, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz.
Witnesses said the Israeli forces partially destroyed the Dar al-Hikma hospital in Baalbek, which residents said is financed by an Iranian charity close to Hezbollah .
A Hezbollah official in Beirut said the hospital had been evacuated several days earlier as a precaution after Israeli forces attempted an earlier, similar operation. No such assault was previously reported.
The Israel air force deputy commander, Col. Yochanan Loker, described the site as "a Hezbollah headquarters located inside the hospital. ... Weapons were found within the hospital - in offices, in drawers."
Israel has not released the identities of those captured. When asked by The Associated Press whether any were "big fish," Olmert said: "They are tasty fishes."
Another Hezbollah official, also speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements to the media, said Israeli troops captured "four or five" people, but not at the hospital, and denied they were Hezbollah fighters.
Commandos also took away computers, disks and documents for intelligence analysis, said army Col. Nitzan Alon, who led the Israeli ground forces on the mission. As they swept the building, they came under fire by anti-tank missiles from nearby buildings.
Israeli jets fired missiles at the surrounding guerrilla force as the fighting at the hospital raged, the military said.
One struck the nearby village of al-Jamaliyeh, hitting the house of the village's mayor, Hussein Jamaleddin, and killing his son, brother, and five other relatives.
Weeping as he walked in a funeral procession hours later, Jamaleddin pulled at the limbs of the dead, carried to a cemetery in the bucket of a yellow front-loader.
"This is the leg of my son. He was a sportsman, he did tae kwon do," Jamaleddin wailed.
At least 548 Lebanese have been killed since the fighting began three weeks ago, including 477 civilians and 25 Lebanese soldiers and at least 46 Hezbollah guerrillas. The health minister says the toll could be as high as 750, including those still buried in rubble or missing.
In all, 56 Israelis have died - 37 soldiers as well as 19 civilians killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks.
In other developments:
- The U.N. announced it would again postpone a meeting of nations that could contribute troops to help stabilize south Lebanon, saying it was premature to talk about deploying peacekeepers before imposing a plan for peace between Israel and Hezbollah .
- In Geneva, the U.N. World Food Program said Israel had agreed to permit two oil tankers to sail into Lebanon to ease a growing fuel crisis. Many gas stations have long lines or are shuttered, and aid officials fear fuel shortages could also hurt food production. Power and water outages also have become common, especially across the south.
---
Associated Press writers Hussein Dakroub in Beirut and Steven Gutkin in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
AP-NY-08-02-06 2018EDT
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theone666
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Israel mounts new Gaza incursion
Thursday, 3 August 2006, 02:05 GMT 03:05 UK
Israel has moved about 50 armoured vehicles into the south of the Gaza Strip and killed at least three people in air strikes, witnesses say.
Tanks, armoured personnel carriers and bulldozers took up positions near Gaza airport on Wednesday, witnesses said.
Two of the people killed by Israeli missiles were Palestinian militants, security sources said. The identity of the other was unclear.
Israel began its operations in Gaza after a soldier was seized on 25 June.
Witnesses said Israeli soldiers searched houses as the tanks advanced close to the Gaza Strip's airport - disused for several years - near the town of Rafah, about 1.5 km (one mile) from the border between Israel and Gaza.
Air strike
In one incident, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a group of militants, killing two of them, Palestinian security officials said.
The Israeli military confirmed that an operation in south Gaza was under way.
It said the missile was fired after militants targeted its troops with a rocket propelled grenade.
At least two militants were injured in the attack, witnesses said.
The dead and injured were members of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, the group was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying.
Another air strike killed one Palestinian and wounded another east of Rafah, witnesses said.
Rocket attacks
Earlier, an Israeli man in the coastal city of Ashkelon was injured by a Qassam rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
More than 140 Palestinians, many civilians, have been killed since Israel's operations began after militants captured one its soldiers and killed two others in a raid into Israel.
On Wednesday UN officials renewed warnings of a humanitarian crisis in the territory, which is suffering food, water and electricity shortages as well as repeated Israeli incursions, air strikes and shelling.
Israel says it needs to target civilian areas because that is where Palestinian militants, who regularly fire rockets into Israel, are based.
Israel has moved about 50 armoured vehicles into the south of the Gaza Strip and killed at least three people in air strikes, witnesses say.
Tanks, armoured personnel carriers and bulldozers took up positions near Gaza airport on Wednesday, witnesses said.
Two of the people killed by Israeli missiles were Palestinian militants, security sources said. The identity of the other was unclear.
Israel began its operations in Gaza after a soldier was seized on 25 June.
Witnesses said Israeli soldiers searched houses as the tanks advanced close to the Gaza Strip's airport - disused for several years - near the town of Rafah, about 1.5 km (one mile) from the border between Israel and Gaza.
Air strike
In one incident, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a group of militants, killing two of them, Palestinian security officials said.
The Israeli military confirmed that an operation in south Gaza was under way.
It said the missile was fired after militants targeted its troops with a rocket propelled grenade.
At least two militants were injured in the attack, witnesses said.
The dead and injured were members of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, the group was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying.
Another air strike killed one Palestinian and wounded another east of Rafah, witnesses said.
Rocket attacks
Earlier, an Israeli man in the coastal city of Ashkelon was injured by a Qassam rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
More than 140 Palestinians, many civilians, have been killed since Israel's operations began after militants captured one its soldiers and killed two others in a raid into Israel.
On Wednesday UN officials renewed warnings of a humanitarian crisis in the territory, which is suffering food, water and electricity shortages as well as repeated Israeli incursions, air strikes and shelling.
Israel says it needs to target civilian areas because that is where Palestinian militants, who regularly fire rockets into Israel, are based.
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Israel resumes Beirut air strikes
Thursday, 3 August 2006, 04:38 GMT 05:38 UK
Israeli aircraft have resumed attacks on the Lebanese capital, Beirut, after a lull of several days, with strikes early on Thursday on a Shia suburb.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops battle with Hezbollah guerrillas for control of several villages near the border.
Hezbollah launched more than 230 rockets from Lebanon on Wednesday, the biggest single-day barrage since the conflict began, Israeli officials said.
One person was killed as some rockets landed up to 70km inside Israel.
The attacks, which also injured dozens of Israelis, were the deepest into the country so far.
A Hezbollah spokesman, Ghalib Abu Zeinab, said in an interview with the BBC Arabic Service that the latest attacks showed that Hezbollah was unbroken.
"The rockets that have been raining down since this morning... and the firing of a missile over a distance of 70km, all this proves that the Lebanese resistance still has a high capability, including a missile capability," he said.
Back to Beirut
Four explosions were reported in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold, early on Thursday.
The area had been heavily bombed earlier in the Israeli campaign.
There were also air strikes on roads in the north of Lebanon, near border with Syria, and in the Bekaa Valley.
On Wednesday Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel had destroyed Hezbollah's infrastructure.
The Israeli prime minister has insisted there would be no ceasefire until an international force was deployed in southern Lebanon.
"I said I'd be ready to enter a ceasefire when the international forces, not will be ready, but will be deployed," Mr Olmert said of the timetable for a halt to the violence.
Diplomats at the United Nations say the UK, France and the United States are close to agreeing on a UN resolution calling for an immediate end to the fighting in Lebanon.
The three countries are hoping to present the first part of a two-stage peace plan to other members of the UN Security Council on Thursday.
Heavy fighting
Wednesday's Hezbollah rockets came after Israeli troops raided Baalbek, a Hezbollah stronghold in north-east Lebanon, seizing five people they said were Hezbollah fighters. Hezbollah said they were civilians.
An Israeli soldier was killed in heavy fighting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Four other Israeli soldiers were injured, when an anti-tank missile struck the house in which they were sheltering in the village of Aita al-Shaab.
One Hezbollah rocket killed a man near the Israeli town of Nahariya on the west coast, bringing the number of Israeli civilians killed since the conflict started to 19.
About three dozen more Israeli soldiers have also died.
In Lebanon, about 750 people - mainly civilians - have been killed by Israeli action, according to the Lebanese health minister. This figure includes unrecovered bodies.
Clashes have been continuing in southern Lebanon between Hezbollah and a force of Israeli troops now said to number around 12,000.
The Israeli campaign began three weeks ago after Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers.
The BBC's Richard Miron says that, before Wednesday's upsurge in Hezbollah rocket attacks, some northern Israeli residents had begun returning home, believing that the Israeli army had dealt with the threat.
Hezbollah militants have claimed they used a new type of rocket for the attack - a Khaibar-1, thought by the Israelis to be a modified Iranian Fajr-5, which has a longer range than the Katyusha rockets they usually fire into Israel.
One rocket fired on Wednesday landed near Jenin in the West Bank - believed to be the furthest any of the militants' rockets had reached since the conflict began.
Israeli Interior Minister Avi Dichter told the BBC that although Hezbollah remained active, he was confident Israel would achieve its aims in Lebanon.
"Hezbollah is still alive, but the mission of this operation is not to crack down Hezbollah totally," he said.
"We're trying to minimise the number of rockets launched towards Israel, and we know that all other targets that we have put right at the beginning of this special operation are going to be fulfilled."
Israeli aircraft have resumed attacks on the Lebanese capital, Beirut, after a lull of several days, with strikes early on Thursday on a Shia suburb.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops battle with Hezbollah guerrillas for control of several villages near the border.
Hezbollah launched more than 230 rockets from Lebanon on Wednesday, the biggest single-day barrage since the conflict began, Israeli officials said.
One person was killed as some rockets landed up to 70km inside Israel.
The attacks, which also injured dozens of Israelis, were the deepest into the country so far.
A Hezbollah spokesman, Ghalib Abu Zeinab, said in an interview with the BBC Arabic Service that the latest attacks showed that Hezbollah was unbroken.
"The rockets that have been raining down since this morning... and the firing of a missile over a distance of 70km, all this proves that the Lebanese resistance still has a high capability, including a missile capability," he said.
Back to Beirut
Four explosions were reported in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold, early on Thursday.
The area had been heavily bombed earlier in the Israeli campaign.
There were also air strikes on roads in the north of Lebanon, near border with Syria, and in the Bekaa Valley.
On Wednesday Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel had destroyed Hezbollah's infrastructure.
The Israeli prime minister has insisted there would be no ceasefire until an international force was deployed in southern Lebanon.
"I said I'd be ready to enter a ceasefire when the international forces, not will be ready, but will be deployed," Mr Olmert said of the timetable for a halt to the violence.
Diplomats at the United Nations say the UK, France and the United States are close to agreeing on a UN resolution calling for an immediate end to the fighting in Lebanon.
The three countries are hoping to present the first part of a two-stage peace plan to other members of the UN Security Council on Thursday.
Heavy fighting
Wednesday's Hezbollah rockets came after Israeli troops raided Baalbek, a Hezbollah stronghold in north-east Lebanon, seizing five people they said were Hezbollah fighters. Hezbollah said they were civilians.
An Israeli soldier was killed in heavy fighting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Four other Israeli soldiers were injured, when an anti-tank missile struck the house in which they were sheltering in the village of Aita al-Shaab.
One Hezbollah rocket killed a man near the Israeli town of Nahariya on the west coast, bringing the number of Israeli civilians killed since the conflict started to 19.
About three dozen more Israeli soldiers have also died.
In Lebanon, about 750 people - mainly civilians - have been killed by Israeli action, according to the Lebanese health minister. This figure includes unrecovered bodies.
Clashes have been continuing in southern Lebanon between Hezbollah and a force of Israeli troops now said to number around 12,000.
The Israeli campaign began three weeks ago after Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers.
The BBC's Richard Miron says that, before Wednesday's upsurge in Hezbollah rocket attacks, some northern Israeli residents had begun returning home, believing that the Israeli army had dealt with the threat.
Hezbollah militants have claimed they used a new type of rocket for the attack - a Khaibar-1, thought by the Israelis to be a modified Iranian Fajr-5, which has a longer range than the Katyusha rockets they usually fire into Israel.
One rocket fired on Wednesday landed near Jenin in the West Bank - believed to be the furthest any of the militants' rockets had reached since the conflict began.
Israeli Interior Minister Avi Dichter told the BBC that although Hezbollah remained active, he was confident Israel would achieve its aims in Lebanon.
"Hezbollah is still alive, but the mission of this operation is not to crack down Hezbollah totally," he said.
"We're trying to minimise the number of rockets launched towards Israel, and we know that all other targets that we have put right at the beginning of this special operation are going to be fulfilled."
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theone666
- Major [O-4]
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- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:00 am
Islamic leaders warn on Lebanon
Thursday, 3 August 2006, 04:55 GMT 05:55 UK
The UN Security Council lacks the courage to condemn Israeli attacks on Lebanon, Malaysia's PM has said, as Islamic states hold crisis talks.
He and other leaders from the world's Muslim nations warned of the effects of the violence in the Middle East as they met to discuss the crisis.
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is expected to call for an immediate ceasefire. The leaders are also likely to back an international force for Lebanon.
The presidents of Iran and Indonesia and the prime ministers of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey and Azerbaijan are among the representatives of 18 Islamic countries at the emergency one-day summit, which was called last week.
'Outrage'
"Until now, unfortunately, the international community is in paralysis," said Malaysian premier Abdullah Badawi, the current OIC chairman, in a speech opening the talks.
"The Security Council could not even muster the moral courage to condemn Israel for the attack on Qana or the killing of UN observers at Khiam," he said.
He also urged Muslim nations to offer troops for a multinational stabilisation force for Lebanon.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the failure to halt the violence was "adding to popular anger" and could have "incalculable consequences for long-term peace" in the Middle East.
He also called for all prisoners in the conflict - Lebanese, Palestinian and Israeli - to be returned.
The OIC's Secretary General, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, said the Islamic world is "outraged" over international "double standards" on the Israeli offensive in Lebanon.
"I am afraid that the anger of the Muslim masses is being transformed into permanent hatred against the aggressors and their implicit and explicit protectors," he said.
Malaysia is also seeking support for an international commission to investigate what it describes as Israeli "war crimes".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-p ... 240844.stm
The UN Security Council lacks the courage to condemn Israeli attacks on Lebanon, Malaysia's PM has said, as Islamic states hold crisis talks.
He and other leaders from the world's Muslim nations warned of the effects of the violence in the Middle East as they met to discuss the crisis.
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is expected to call for an immediate ceasefire. The leaders are also likely to back an international force for Lebanon.
The presidents of Iran and Indonesia and the prime ministers of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey and Azerbaijan are among the representatives of 18 Islamic countries at the emergency one-day summit, which was called last week.
'Outrage'
"Until now, unfortunately, the international community is in paralysis," said Malaysian premier Abdullah Badawi, the current OIC chairman, in a speech opening the talks.
"The Security Council could not even muster the moral courage to condemn Israel for the attack on Qana or the killing of UN observers at Khiam," he said.
He also urged Muslim nations to offer troops for a multinational stabilisation force for Lebanon.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the failure to halt the violence was "adding to popular anger" and could have "incalculable consequences for long-term peace" in the Middle East.
He also called for all prisoners in the conflict - Lebanese, Palestinian and Israeli - to be returned.
The OIC's Secretary General, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, said the Islamic world is "outraged" over international "double standards" on the Israeli offensive in Lebanon.
"I am afraid that the anger of the Muslim masses is being transformed into permanent hatred against the aggressors and their implicit and explicit protectors," he said.
Malaysia is also seeking support for an international commission to investigate what it describes as Israeli "war crimes".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-p ... 240844.stm
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theone666
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Israeli regret over Qana bombing
Thursday, 3 August 2006, 11:43 GMT 12:43 UK
Israel would not have bombed a building in the Lebanese village of Qana on Sunday had it known civilians were inside, a military statement says.
Following an inquiry into the attack, the army said it believed the building housed militants, and accused Hezbollah of using civilians as human shields.
The initial death toll was put at 54, with many of the victims children.
But Human Rights Watch has revised that figure downwards, saying 28 people are known to have died and 13 are missing.
The air strike, in the early hours of Sunday on a building where civilians were sheltering, drew international condemnation and renewed calls for a ceasefire.
The Israeli army said it targeted the building with two missiles, one of which exploded, because it was believed to be a "hiding place for terrorists".
"Had the information indicated that civilians were present in the building the attack would not have been carried out," the army said in a statement following its inquiry.
Escape
Lt Gen Dan Halutz, the chief of staff, apologised for the deaths, and has ordered the military to update its intelligence regarding bombing targets in Lebanon.
But he accused Hezbollah of placing "Lebanese civilians as a defensive shield between itself and us".
Meanwhile, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), citing local Red Cross and hospital records, said the 28 people confirmed to have died included 16 children.
"It now appears that at least 22 people escaped the basement," the group added in a statement.
According to its investigation, most of the victims belonged to the Shalhub and Hashim families.
Thirteen people remain unaccounted for, and some Qana residents fear they are buried in the rubble, although recovery efforts have stopped, HRW says.
Israel would not have bombed a building in the Lebanese village of Qana on Sunday had it known civilians were inside, a military statement says.
Following an inquiry into the attack, the army said it believed the building housed militants, and accused Hezbollah of using civilians as human shields.
The initial death toll was put at 54, with many of the victims children.
But Human Rights Watch has revised that figure downwards, saying 28 people are known to have died and 13 are missing.
The air strike, in the early hours of Sunday on a building where civilians were sheltering, drew international condemnation and renewed calls for a ceasefire.
The Israeli army said it targeted the building with two missiles, one of which exploded, because it was believed to be a "hiding place for terrorists".
"Had the information indicated that civilians were present in the building the attack would not have been carried out," the army said in a statement following its inquiry.
Escape
Lt Gen Dan Halutz, the chief of staff, apologised for the deaths, and has ordered the military to update its intelligence regarding bombing targets in Lebanon.
But he accused Hezbollah of placing "Lebanese civilians as a defensive shield between itself and us".
Meanwhile, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), citing local Red Cross and hospital records, said the 28 people confirmed to have died included 16 children.
"It now appears that at least 22 people escaped the basement," the group added in a statement.
According to its investigation, most of the victims belonged to the Shalhub and Hashim families.
Thirteen people remain unaccounted for, and some Qana residents fear they are buried in the rubble, although recovery efforts have stopped, HRW says.
-
theone666
- Major [O-4]
- Posts: 1438
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:00 am
Israel Hits Beirut; Hezbollah Rockets Israel
By HAMZA HENDAWI, AP
BOURJ AL-MULOUK, Lebanon (Aug. 3) -- Israeli war planes renewed strikes against Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday for the first time in nearly a week and an Israeli missile killed three in a border village, a day after Hezbollah launched its biggest rocket attacks yet against Israel.
Three weeks into the conflict, six Israeli brigades -- or roughly 10,000 troops -- were locked in fighting with hundreds of Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon, and the battle looked likely to be bitter and long.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said more than 900 people had been killed and 3,000 injured in the fighting, though did not say whether the new figure -- up from 548 confirmed dead -- included those missing.
More than 1 million people -- a quarter of Lebanon's population -- had been displaced, he said, adding the fighting "is taking an enormous toll on human life and infrastructure, and has totally ravaged our country and shattered our economy."
Although diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting have thus far faltered, diplomats said the United States and France were working on two U.N. resolutions to overcome the impasse.
The first resolution would call for an immediate cease-fire and lay out political principles for a long-term settlement of the dispute, while the second would deal with deploying an international force to secure the border between Lebanon and Israel and other long-term issues.
Diplomats said the key elements in that framework include halting the fighting, disarming Hezbollah, deploying peacekeepers and creating a buffer zone in south Lebanon free of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops.
Up to this point, the U.S. has opposed an immediate cease-fire without simultaneous steps to deploy peacekeepers and tackle Hezbollah's disarmament. France, on the other hand, has insisted that the fighting be halted first to pave the way for a wider peace.
The Israeli army said its soldiers had taken up positions in or near 11 towns and villages across south Lebanon as they try to carve out a 5-mile-wide Hezbollah-free zone ahead of what it hopes will be a speedy deployment of a multinational force there.
Most of the villages are close to the Israel-Lebanon border; the one deepest inside Lebanon, Majdel Zoun, is about four miles from the frontier. However, many tanks pushed even further north, controlling open areas from higher ground, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the operation.
In heavy ground fighting, one Israeli soldier was killed and four wounded around the south Lebanon village of Ayt a-Shab, the Israeli military said. It claimed four Hezbollah fighters were killed and two wounded in the region, but Hezbollah did not immediately confirm the report.
Lebanese security officials said a missile crashed into a two-story house in the border village of Taibeh, killing a couple and their daughter.
Hezbollah's Al-Manar television reported that guerrillas also clashed with Israeli troops in the village, less than three miles from the border, destroying a tank and two bulldozers and injuring its crew members. The Israeli army said a tank had been lightly hit in clashes but that there were no casualties or serious damage.
In the first air raids on the Lebanese capital in almost a week, witnesses said at least four missiles hit the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, a Shiite Muslim sector that has been repeatedly shelled by Israel since fighting began three weeks ago.
Lebanese television said the attacks targeted several buildings in a Hezbollah compound of Dahieh's al-Ruweis neighborhood. The compound, which includes a center for religious teaching, has been attacked in earlier raids and sustained seizable damage.
In the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh, fighter jets struck an ambulance working for a local Muslim group, Lebanese security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk with the press.
Israeli warplanes also fired more than a dozen missiles at roads and suspected guerrilla hideouts in the southeastern town of Rashaya, Lebanese security officials said. They said the attacks were part of Israel's strategy to destroy Lebanese infrastructure so that people would not travel from one village to the other.
Other strikes hit targets near Lebanon's northern border with Syria overnight, Lebanese radio said. It was the second attack in the area in 24 hours, after a bridge linking the zone to the northern port of Tripoli was destroyed Wednesday.
The new strikes came after Hezbollah scored its deepest hits on Israel yet with missiles landing Wednesday in the West Bank and Beit Shean, Israel, about 42 miles from the border.
An Israeli-American man was killed near a northern town, and another 21 were injured elsewhere across Israel as Hezbollah fired a record 210 rockets into the country. Across northern Israel, forests and fields lay scorched from rocket fire.
Meanwhile, an Israeli military inquiry on the bombing Sunday of a building in the south Lebanese village of Qana, which killed mostly women and children, admitted a mistake but charged that Hezbollah guerrillas used civilians as shields for their rocket attacks.
"Had the information indicated that civilians were present ... the attack would not have been carried out," a statement from the inquiry said.
While officials had put the death toll at 56 in the attack, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday there were 28 known dead and 13 others missing.
The prospect of a longer war already has raised tensions across the Mideast, where anti-Israeli and anti-American hostility is now sharp. Arab leaders have warned repeatedly in recent days that the fighting has hampered, or killed outright, any hope for a long-term peace deal.
On Thursday, Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi condemned the U.N. Security Council for not having the "moral courage to condemn Israel" as he opened an emergency session of the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference in Kuala Lumpur.
"The United Nations has not been able to do much except to try organizing the distribution of humanitarian aid," Abdullah said, adding that "no end seems in sight" to the conflict.
Muslim leaders gathered at the meeting demanded the U.N. implement an immediate cease-fire and launch a special investigation into what it called flagrant human rights violations by Israel.
In Amman, Jordan, King Abdullah II lashed out at his U.S. and Israeli allies, saying in newspaper interviews Thursday that he was "enraged" by the war on Lebanon and that prolonged fighting has "weakened" moderates in the Mideast.
Abdullah proposed an immediate cease-fire followed by diplomacy to "deal with the crisis from its roots."
But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his country would stop its offensive only after a robust international peacekeeping force was in place in southern Lebanon to protect Israel from border raids and rocket attack.
At least 548 Lebanese have been killed since the fighting began three weeks ago, including 477 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 25 Lebanese soldiers and at least 46 Hezbollah guerrillas. The health minister says the toll could be as high as 750, including those still buried in rubble or missing.
In all, 56 Israelis have died -- 37 soldiers as well as 19 civilians killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks.
Associated Press writer Hussein Dakroub and Lauren Frayer in Beirut, Edie Lederer at the United Nations and Sean Yoong in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.
08-03-06 07:40 EDT
BOURJ AL-MULOUK, Lebanon (Aug. 3) -- Israeli war planes renewed strikes against Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday for the first time in nearly a week and an Israeli missile killed three in a border village, a day after Hezbollah launched its biggest rocket attacks yet against Israel.
Three weeks into the conflict, six Israeli brigades -- or roughly 10,000 troops -- were locked in fighting with hundreds of Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon, and the battle looked likely to be bitter and long.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said more than 900 people had been killed and 3,000 injured in the fighting, though did not say whether the new figure -- up from 548 confirmed dead -- included those missing.
More than 1 million people -- a quarter of Lebanon's population -- had been displaced, he said, adding the fighting "is taking an enormous toll on human life and infrastructure, and has totally ravaged our country and shattered our economy."
Although diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting have thus far faltered, diplomats said the United States and France were working on two U.N. resolutions to overcome the impasse.
The first resolution would call for an immediate cease-fire and lay out political principles for a long-term settlement of the dispute, while the second would deal with deploying an international force to secure the border between Lebanon and Israel and other long-term issues.
Diplomats said the key elements in that framework include halting the fighting, disarming Hezbollah, deploying peacekeepers and creating a buffer zone in south Lebanon free of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops.
Up to this point, the U.S. has opposed an immediate cease-fire without simultaneous steps to deploy peacekeepers and tackle Hezbollah's disarmament. France, on the other hand, has insisted that the fighting be halted first to pave the way for a wider peace.
The Israeli army said its soldiers had taken up positions in or near 11 towns and villages across south Lebanon as they try to carve out a 5-mile-wide Hezbollah-free zone ahead of what it hopes will be a speedy deployment of a multinational force there.
Most of the villages are close to the Israel-Lebanon border; the one deepest inside Lebanon, Majdel Zoun, is about four miles from the frontier. However, many tanks pushed even further north, controlling open areas from higher ground, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the operation.
In heavy ground fighting, one Israeli soldier was killed and four wounded around the south Lebanon village of Ayt a-Shab, the Israeli military said. It claimed four Hezbollah fighters were killed and two wounded in the region, but Hezbollah did not immediately confirm the report.
Lebanese security officials said a missile crashed into a two-story house in the border village of Taibeh, killing a couple and their daughter.
Hezbollah's Al-Manar television reported that guerrillas also clashed with Israeli troops in the village, less than three miles from the border, destroying a tank and two bulldozers and injuring its crew members. The Israeli army said a tank had been lightly hit in clashes but that there were no casualties or serious damage.
In the first air raids on the Lebanese capital in almost a week, witnesses said at least four missiles hit the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, a Shiite Muslim sector that has been repeatedly shelled by Israel since fighting began three weeks ago.
Lebanese television said the attacks targeted several buildings in a Hezbollah compound of Dahieh's al-Ruweis neighborhood. The compound, which includes a center for religious teaching, has been attacked in earlier raids and sustained seizable damage.
In the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh, fighter jets struck an ambulance working for a local Muslim group, Lebanese security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk with the press.
Israeli warplanes also fired more than a dozen missiles at roads and suspected guerrilla hideouts in the southeastern town of Rashaya, Lebanese security officials said. They said the attacks were part of Israel's strategy to destroy Lebanese infrastructure so that people would not travel from one village to the other.
Other strikes hit targets near Lebanon's northern border with Syria overnight, Lebanese radio said. It was the second attack in the area in 24 hours, after a bridge linking the zone to the northern port of Tripoli was destroyed Wednesday.
The new strikes came after Hezbollah scored its deepest hits on Israel yet with missiles landing Wednesday in the West Bank and Beit Shean, Israel, about 42 miles from the border.
An Israeli-American man was killed near a northern town, and another 21 were injured elsewhere across Israel as Hezbollah fired a record 210 rockets into the country. Across northern Israel, forests and fields lay scorched from rocket fire.
Meanwhile, an Israeli military inquiry on the bombing Sunday of a building in the south Lebanese village of Qana, which killed mostly women and children, admitted a mistake but charged that Hezbollah guerrillas used civilians as shields for their rocket attacks.
"Had the information indicated that civilians were present ... the attack would not have been carried out," a statement from the inquiry said.
While officials had put the death toll at 56 in the attack, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday there were 28 known dead and 13 others missing.
The prospect of a longer war already has raised tensions across the Mideast, where anti-Israeli and anti-American hostility is now sharp. Arab leaders have warned repeatedly in recent days that the fighting has hampered, or killed outright, any hope for a long-term peace deal.
On Thursday, Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi condemned the U.N. Security Council for not having the "moral courage to condemn Israel" as he opened an emergency session of the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference in Kuala Lumpur.
"The United Nations has not been able to do much except to try organizing the distribution of humanitarian aid," Abdullah said, adding that "no end seems in sight" to the conflict.
Muslim leaders gathered at the meeting demanded the U.N. implement an immediate cease-fire and launch a special investigation into what it called flagrant human rights violations by Israel.
In Amman, Jordan, King Abdullah II lashed out at his U.S. and Israeli allies, saying in newspaper interviews Thursday that he was "enraged" by the war on Lebanon and that prolonged fighting has "weakened" moderates in the Mideast.
Abdullah proposed an immediate cease-fire followed by diplomacy to "deal with the crisis from its roots."
But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his country would stop its offensive only after a robust international peacekeeping force was in place in southern Lebanon to protect Israel from border raids and rocket attack.
At least 548 Lebanese have been killed since the fighting began three weeks ago, including 477 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 25 Lebanese soldiers and at least 46 Hezbollah guerrillas. The health minister says the toll could be as high as 750, including those still buried in rubble or missing.
In all, 56 Israelis have died -- 37 soldiers as well as 19 civilians killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks.
Associated Press writer Hussein Dakroub and Lauren Frayer in Beirut, Edie Lederer at the United Nations and Sean Yoong in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.
08-03-06 07:40 EDT
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theone666
- Major [O-4]
- Posts: 1438
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:00 am
Hezbollah Rockets Kill Six Israelis
(Aug. 3) -- Hezbollah rocket attacks killed six people in northern Israel Thursday and injured many others, Israeli police said. Meanwhile, Hezbollah's chief spokesman said that his group will not agree to a cease-fire until all Israeli troops leave Lebanon.
The six rocket fatalities were the most in a single day since eight people were killed July 16 when a rocket struck a train maintenance depot in Haifa.
At least 100 rockets hit northern Israel within several minutes, killing at least two people in Acre and three in Maalot.
In Acre, some people came out of their shelters after an initial rocket barrage to see where the missiles fell. A new round of rockets struck the town, killing two people who were standing on their balcony, Mayor Shimon Lankry told Israel's Channel 2 Television.
Five other people were injured, one critically and four seriously, he said.
At least three people were killed in Maalot when rockets hit an open area, Mayor Shlomo Buhbut told Channel 10 television. Two were killed immediately and a third died on the way to the hospital, he said.
"It is a black day for our community," he said.
It was not immediately clear where the sixth fatality occurred.
Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Rahal made his demands about the cease-fire during a live interview with Al-Jazeera television.
"Declaring a cease-fire is not the concern of the people of Lebanon as long as there is one Israeli soldier on Lebanese soil -- even one meter (into Lebanon)," he said. "We will not accept any (Israeli) soldier staying on Lebanese territory, and it is the right of every Lebanese to fight until liberation."
Also Thursday, Israel renewed airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs. Three weeks into the conflict, six Israeli brigades -- roughly 10,000 troops -- were locked in fighting with hundreds of Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon, and the battle looked likely to be long and bitter.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said more than 900 people had been killed and 3,000 wounded, but he did not say whether the new figure -- up from 548 confirmed dead -- included the missing.
More than 1 million people, a quarter of Lebanon's population, have been displaced, he said, adding the fighting "is taking an enormous toll on human life and infrastructure, and has totally ravaged our country and shattered our economy."
Although diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting have thus far faltered, diplomats said the United States and France were working on two U.N. resolutions to overcome the impasse.
One would call for an immediate cease-fire and lay out political principles for a long-term settlement, while the second would deal with deploying an international force to secure the border between Lebanon and Israel and other issues.
Diplomats said the key elements in that framework include halting the fighting, disarming Hezbollah, deploying peacekeepers and creating a buffer zone in south Lebanon free of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops.
The U.S. has opposed an immediate cease-fire without simultaneous steps to deploy peacekeepers and tackle Hezbollah's disarmament. France has insisted that the fighting be halted first to pave the way for a wider peace.
The Israeli army said its soldiers had taken up positions in or near 11 towns and villages across south Lebanon as they try to carve out a five-mile-wide Hezbollah-free zone ahead of deployment of a multinational force there.
Most of the villages are near the Israel-Lebanon border; the one deepest inside Lebanon, Majdel Zoun, is about four miles from the frontier. However, many tanks pushed farther north, controlling open areas from higher ground, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the operation.
In heavy ground fighting, one Israeli soldier was killed and four wounded around the southern village of Ayt a-Shab, the Israeli military said. It said four Hezbollah fighters were killed and two wounded in the region; there was no confirmation from Hezbollah.
Lebanese security officials said a missile crashed into a two-story house in the border village of Taibeh, killing a couple and their daughter.
Hezbollah's Al-Manar television reported that guerrillas also clashed with Israeli troops in the village, less than three miles from the border, destroying a tank and two bulldozers and wounding its crew members. The Israeli army said a tank had been lightly hit in clashes but that there were no casualties or serious damage.
In the first air raids on the Lebanese capital in almost a week, witnesses said at least four missiles hit the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, a Shiite Muslim area that has been repeatedly shelled by Israel since the current fighting began.
Lebanese television said the attacks targeted several buildings in a Hezbollah compound. The compound, which includes a center for religious teaching, was damaged by earlier raids.
In the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh, fighter jets struck an ambulance working for a local Muslim group, Lebanese security officials said.
Israeli warplanes also fired more than a dozen missiles at roads and suspected guerrilla hideouts in the southeastern town of Rashaya, the security officials said. They said the attacks were part of Israel's strategy to destroy Lebanese infrastructure.
Other strikes hit targets near Lebanon's northern border with Syria overnight, Lebanese radio said. It was the second attack in the area in 24 hours, after a bridge linking the zone to the northern port of Tripoli was destroyed Wednesday.
The strikes came after Hezbollah scored its deepest hits on Israel yet with missiles landing Wednesday in the West Bank and Beit Shean, Israel, about 42 miles from the border.
An Israeli-American man was killed near a northern town, and 21 others were wounded elsewhere across Israel as Hezbollah fired a record 230 rockets into the country. The rocket attacks kept up on Thursday, with 33 rockets landing in Israel early in the day.
Meanwhile, an Israeli military inquiry on the bombing Sunday of a building in the south Lebanese village of Qana, which killed mostly women and children, admitted a mistake but charged that Hezbollah guerrillas used civilians as shields for their rocket attacks.
"Had the information indicated that civilians were present ... the attack would not have been carried out," a statement from the inquiry said.
While officials had put the death toll at 56 in the attack, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday there were 28 known dead and 13 missing.
The prospect of a longer war already has raised tensions across the Mideast, where anti-Israeli and anti-American hostility is now sharp. Arab leaders have warned repeatedly in recent days that the fighting has hampered, or killed outright, any hope for a long-term peace deal.
On Thursday, Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi condemned the U.N. Security Council for not having the "moral courage to condemn Israel" as he opened an emergency session of the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference in Kuala Lumpur.
"The United Nations has not been able to do much except to try organizing the distribution of humanitarian aid," Abdullah said, adding that "no end seems in sight" to the conflict.
Muslim leaders at the meeting demanded the U.N. implement an immediate cease-fire and launch an investigation into what it called flagrant human rights violations by Israel.
In Jordan, King Abdullah II lashed out at his U.S. and Israeli allies, saying in newspaper interviews Thursday that he was "enraged" by the war on Lebanon and that prolonged fighting has weakened moderates in the Mideast.
Abdullah proposed an immediate cease-fire followed by diplomacy to "deal with the crisis from its roots."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his country would stop its offensive only after a robust international peacekeeping force was in place in southern Lebanon to protect Israel from border raids and rocket attack.
At least 548 Lebanese have been killed since the fighting began, including 477 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 25 Lebanese soldiers and at least 46 Hezbollah guerrillas. The health minister says the toll could be as high as 750, including those still buried in rubble or missing.
In all, 56 Israelis have died -- 37 soldiers as well as 19 civilians killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks.
Associated Press writer Hussein Dakroub and Lauren Frayer in Beirut, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Sean Yoong in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.
08-03-06 10:34 EDT
The six rocket fatalities were the most in a single day since eight people were killed July 16 when a rocket struck a train maintenance depot in Haifa.
At least 100 rockets hit northern Israel within several minutes, killing at least two people in Acre and three in Maalot.
In Acre, some people came out of their shelters after an initial rocket barrage to see where the missiles fell. A new round of rockets struck the town, killing two people who were standing on their balcony, Mayor Shimon Lankry told Israel's Channel 2 Television.
Five other people were injured, one critically and four seriously, he said.
At least three people were killed in Maalot when rockets hit an open area, Mayor Shlomo Buhbut told Channel 10 television. Two were killed immediately and a third died on the way to the hospital, he said.
"It is a black day for our community," he said.
It was not immediately clear where the sixth fatality occurred.
Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Rahal made his demands about the cease-fire during a live interview with Al-Jazeera television.
"Declaring a cease-fire is not the concern of the people of Lebanon as long as there is one Israeli soldier on Lebanese soil -- even one meter (into Lebanon)," he said. "We will not accept any (Israeli) soldier staying on Lebanese territory, and it is the right of every Lebanese to fight until liberation."
Also Thursday, Israel renewed airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs. Three weeks into the conflict, six Israeli brigades -- roughly 10,000 troops -- were locked in fighting with hundreds of Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon, and the battle looked likely to be long and bitter.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said more than 900 people had been killed and 3,000 wounded, but he did not say whether the new figure -- up from 548 confirmed dead -- included the missing.
More than 1 million people, a quarter of Lebanon's population, have been displaced, he said, adding the fighting "is taking an enormous toll on human life and infrastructure, and has totally ravaged our country and shattered our economy."
Although diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting have thus far faltered, diplomats said the United States and France were working on two U.N. resolutions to overcome the impasse.
One would call for an immediate cease-fire and lay out political principles for a long-term settlement, while the second would deal with deploying an international force to secure the border between Lebanon and Israel and other issues.
Diplomats said the key elements in that framework include halting the fighting, disarming Hezbollah, deploying peacekeepers and creating a buffer zone in south Lebanon free of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops.
The U.S. has opposed an immediate cease-fire without simultaneous steps to deploy peacekeepers and tackle Hezbollah's disarmament. France has insisted that the fighting be halted first to pave the way for a wider peace.
The Israeli army said its soldiers had taken up positions in or near 11 towns and villages across south Lebanon as they try to carve out a five-mile-wide Hezbollah-free zone ahead of deployment of a multinational force there.
Most of the villages are near the Israel-Lebanon border; the one deepest inside Lebanon, Majdel Zoun, is about four miles from the frontier. However, many tanks pushed farther north, controlling open areas from higher ground, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the operation.
In heavy ground fighting, one Israeli soldier was killed and four wounded around the southern village of Ayt a-Shab, the Israeli military said. It said four Hezbollah fighters were killed and two wounded in the region; there was no confirmation from Hezbollah.
Lebanese security officials said a missile crashed into a two-story house in the border village of Taibeh, killing a couple and their daughter.
Hezbollah's Al-Manar television reported that guerrillas also clashed with Israeli troops in the village, less than three miles from the border, destroying a tank and two bulldozers and wounding its crew members. The Israeli army said a tank had been lightly hit in clashes but that there were no casualties or serious damage.
In the first air raids on the Lebanese capital in almost a week, witnesses said at least four missiles hit the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, a Shiite Muslim area that has been repeatedly shelled by Israel since the current fighting began.
Lebanese television said the attacks targeted several buildings in a Hezbollah compound. The compound, which includes a center for religious teaching, was damaged by earlier raids.
In the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh, fighter jets struck an ambulance working for a local Muslim group, Lebanese security officials said.
Israeli warplanes also fired more than a dozen missiles at roads and suspected guerrilla hideouts in the southeastern town of Rashaya, the security officials said. They said the attacks were part of Israel's strategy to destroy Lebanese infrastructure.
Other strikes hit targets near Lebanon's northern border with Syria overnight, Lebanese radio said. It was the second attack in the area in 24 hours, after a bridge linking the zone to the northern port of Tripoli was destroyed Wednesday.
The strikes came after Hezbollah scored its deepest hits on Israel yet with missiles landing Wednesday in the West Bank and Beit Shean, Israel, about 42 miles from the border.
An Israeli-American man was killed near a northern town, and 21 others were wounded elsewhere across Israel as Hezbollah fired a record 230 rockets into the country. The rocket attacks kept up on Thursday, with 33 rockets landing in Israel early in the day.
Meanwhile, an Israeli military inquiry on the bombing Sunday of a building in the south Lebanese village of Qana, which killed mostly women and children, admitted a mistake but charged that Hezbollah guerrillas used civilians as shields for their rocket attacks.
"Had the information indicated that civilians were present ... the attack would not have been carried out," a statement from the inquiry said.
While officials had put the death toll at 56 in the attack, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday there were 28 known dead and 13 missing.
The prospect of a longer war already has raised tensions across the Mideast, where anti-Israeli and anti-American hostility is now sharp. Arab leaders have warned repeatedly in recent days that the fighting has hampered, or killed outright, any hope for a long-term peace deal.
On Thursday, Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi condemned the U.N. Security Council for not having the "moral courage to condemn Israel" as he opened an emergency session of the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference in Kuala Lumpur.
"The United Nations has not been able to do much except to try organizing the distribution of humanitarian aid," Abdullah said, adding that "no end seems in sight" to the conflict.
Muslim leaders at the meeting demanded the U.N. implement an immediate cease-fire and launch an investigation into what it called flagrant human rights violations by Israel.
In Jordan, King Abdullah II lashed out at his U.S. and Israeli allies, saying in newspaper interviews Thursday that he was "enraged" by the war on Lebanon and that prolonged fighting has weakened moderates in the Mideast.
Abdullah proposed an immediate cease-fire followed by diplomacy to "deal with the crisis from its roots."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his country would stop its offensive only after a robust international peacekeeping force was in place in southern Lebanon to protect Israel from border raids and rocket attack.
At least 548 Lebanese have been killed since the fighting began, including 477 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 25 Lebanese soldiers and at least 46 Hezbollah guerrillas. The health minister says the toll could be as high as 750, including those still buried in rubble or missing.
In all, 56 Israelis have died -- 37 soldiers as well as 19 civilians killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks.
Associated Press writer Hussein Dakroub and Lauren Frayer in Beirut, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Sean Yoong in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.
08-03-06 10:34 EDT
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Jordanian king 'enraged by war'
Thursday, 3 August 2006, 14:39 GMT 15:39 UK
By Dale Gavlak
BBC News, Amman
King Abdullah of Jordan has publicly criticised the United States and Israel over the fighting in Lebanon.
He told Jordanian newspapers he was enraged by the war, and that continued fighting only weakened the voice of Middle East moderates such as himself.
He argued Israel's attempt to destroy the militant Hezbollah group would not solve problems in the region.
He stressed the only way to achieve peace was to end the Israeli occupation of Arab lands.
Core issue
The king's condemnation of peace partner Israel and his American ally was firm.
He told Jordan's Arabic mass circulation Al-Rai and independent Al-Ghad dailies that the US and Israel should acknowledge that war would not bring anything but more problems, violence and extremism to the Middle East.
King Abdullah said that even if Israel destroyed Hezbollah, other groups would emerge in the Arab world to take its place, unless Israel ended its occupation of Palestinian lands and made peace with other Arab neighbours.
He called this the core issue that needed to be resolved.
He also said there would be no solution in Lebanon without an agreement with the Lebanese government. He repeated his call for an immediate ceasefire, saying Israel's aggression exceeded all limits.
Popular support
The Jordanian monarch blamed Israel's harsh military campaign in Lebanon for undermining the voice of moderation in the Arab world, saying the Arab people now saw Hezbollah as the hero because it was fighting Israel's aggression.
He argued that the US and Israel had to realise that as long as there was aggression, there would be resistance and popular support for this resistance.
He said moderation had to accomplish something for people to believe in - otherwise, they would have no other choice but to reject it and embrace other means to defend their rights.
Although the king initially voiced criticism over Hezbollah's abduction of two Israeli soldiers last month, he refused to comment as to whether he still blamed the Iranian-backed group for dragging Lebanon into the conflict.
King Abdullah added Jordan would not participate in a proposed stabilisation force to be deployed in southern Lebanon as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah militants.
By Dale Gavlak
BBC News, Amman
King Abdullah of Jordan has publicly criticised the United States and Israel over the fighting in Lebanon.
He told Jordanian newspapers he was enraged by the war, and that continued fighting only weakened the voice of Middle East moderates such as himself.
He argued Israel's attempt to destroy the militant Hezbollah group would not solve problems in the region.
He stressed the only way to achieve peace was to end the Israeli occupation of Arab lands.
Core issue
The king's condemnation of peace partner Israel and his American ally was firm.
He told Jordan's Arabic mass circulation Al-Rai and independent Al-Ghad dailies that the US and Israel should acknowledge that war would not bring anything but more problems, violence and extremism to the Middle East.
King Abdullah said that even if Israel destroyed Hezbollah, other groups would emerge in the Arab world to take its place, unless Israel ended its occupation of Palestinian lands and made peace with other Arab neighbours.
He called this the core issue that needed to be resolved.
He also said there would be no solution in Lebanon without an agreement with the Lebanese government. He repeated his call for an immediate ceasefire, saying Israel's aggression exceeded all limits.
Popular support
The Jordanian monarch blamed Israel's harsh military campaign in Lebanon for undermining the voice of moderation in the Arab world, saying the Arab people now saw Hezbollah as the hero because it was fighting Israel's aggression.
He argued that the US and Israel had to realise that as long as there was aggression, there would be resistance and popular support for this resistance.
He said moderation had to accomplish something for people to believe in - otherwise, they would have no other choice but to reject it and embrace other means to defend their rights.
Although the king initially voiced criticism over Hezbollah's abduction of two Israeli soldiers last month, he refused to comment as to whether he still blamed the Iranian-backed group for dragging Lebanon into the conflict.
King Abdullah added Jordan would not participate in a proposed stabilisation force to be deployed in southern Lebanon as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah militants.
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theone666
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Lebanon death toll 'reaches 900'
Thursday, 3 August 2006, 15:37 GMT 16:37 UK
More than 900 Lebanese people have been killed in three weeks of fighting with Israel, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has said.
More than 3,000 have been wounded and 1m - or a quarter of the total population - had been displaced, he told a Muslim summit in a message.
Previous estimates have put Lebanon's death toll between 500 and 700.
Israel's death toll in the conflict rose to 62, including 24 civilians, after new Hezbollah attacks.
Thursday saw at least three Lebanese civilian deaths from Israeli air attacks.
Child deaths
Speaking from Beirut in a video address to a summit in Malaysia, Mr Siniora said a third of the casualties in the conflict had been children under 12.
The United Nations' emergency relief co-ordinator, Jan Egeland, said last month that nearly a third of the dead or wounded in Lebanon were children.
Latest UN estimates for displaced people in Lebanon put the figure at between 700,000 and 800,000.
Reporting the death toll given by the prime minister, Reuters news agency said its own count was at least 683.
The Associated Press noted a previous toll of 548 people confirmed dead and AFP news agency said earlier this week that its own Lebanese death count was 530.
More than 900 Lebanese people have been killed in three weeks of fighting with Israel, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has said.
More than 3,000 have been wounded and 1m - or a quarter of the total population - had been displaced, he told a Muslim summit in a message.
Previous estimates have put Lebanon's death toll between 500 and 700.
Israel's death toll in the conflict rose to 62, including 24 civilians, after new Hezbollah attacks.
Thursday saw at least three Lebanese civilian deaths from Israeli air attacks.
Child deaths
Speaking from Beirut in a video address to a summit in Malaysia, Mr Siniora said a third of the casualties in the conflict had been children under 12.
The United Nations' emergency relief co-ordinator, Jan Egeland, said last month that nearly a third of the dead or wounded in Lebanon were children.
Latest UN estimates for displaced people in Lebanon put the figure at between 700,000 and 800,000.
Reporting the death toll given by the prime minister, Reuters news agency said its own count was at least 683.
The Associated Press noted a previous toll of 548 people confirmed dead and AFP news agency said earlier this week that its own Lebanese death count was 530.
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theone666
- Major [O-4]
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Lebanon damage 'holding up' aid
Thursday, 3 August 2006, 15:24 GMT 16:24 UK
Aid agencies in Lebanon say the severe damage to roads and bridges by Israeli air strikes is having a drastic effect on distribution of badly needed aid.
Goods can only be transported in small trucks for fears that larger vehicles will be targeted, they say.
More than 900 Lebanese have now been killed, says Lebanese PM Fouad Siniora.
Israeli aircraft have resumed attacks on Beirut after a lull of several days, while Hezbollah has continued firing rockets into Israel, killing five.
Two Israeli soldiers also died fighting Hezbollah militants along the border.
A United Nations resolution calling for a truce appears near to completion.
Diplomats at the United Nations say the UK, France and the US are close to agreeing on wording calling for an immediate end to the fighting.
The three countries are hoping to present the first part of a two-stage peace plan to the other 12 members of the UN Security Council later on Thursday.
The BBC's James Robbins, at UN headquarters in New York, says a second resolution would be proposed at a later stage, focusing on a long-term settlement, including authorisation for an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.
The BBC's world affairs correspondent Frank Gardner says that since such a force could take weeks or months to arrive, there are reports that a smaller, more rapidly deployed force of French soldiers may be sent in first.
In other developments:
An Israeli military report into the deaths of at least 41 civilians in Qana said the attack would not have been launched if civilians had been known to be there
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at the Organisation of the Islamic Conference meeting, said the answer to the crisis was the elimination of Israel
King Abdullah of Jordan publicly criticised the US and Israel over the fighting in Lebanon
As fighting continues in Lebanon, aid workers are warning of worsening conditions among refugees in the southern border region.
The agencies told a news conference in Beirut that damage to the main roads meant that aid convoys had to take the more perilous mountain route to the south.
"Roads into these towns are demolished, they're bombed, bridges are destroyed. They've got no way of getting out. It's increasingly difficult to get in. They're trapped, and the situation is just terrible," Jamsheed Din from the British charity Islamic Relief told the BBC.
The agencies say they are also using small vehicles for fear that larger ones will be hit by Israeli aircraft searching for Hezbollah fighters.
'Million displaced'
In a video message to Muslim leaders meeting in Malaysia, Lebanon's prime minister said more than 3,000 people had been wounded, and that one million people - a quarter of the country's population - had been displaced.
The latest Israeli casualties bring its death toll to 62, including 24 civilians.
The Israeli air force said it carried out 70 raids on Lebanon overnight.
Four large explosions hit the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold, early in the morning as Israeli war planes attacked the area for the first time in more than a week.
Dahieh was heavily bombed earlier in the Israeli campaign.
Three members of the same family were killed when an Israeli missile hit their home in a southern village of Taibe, Lebanese security officials said.
There were also air strikes in the southern town of Nabatiyeh, on a bridge in the northern region of Akkar and roads near the border with Syria, and in the Bekaa Valley.
In southern Lebanon the fighting rages on in at least five areas along the border where Israel has launched ground incursions with more than 10,000 ground troops.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said there will be no ceasefire until an international force is deployed in southern Lebanon.
Mr Olmert has said that about 15,000 foreign troops would be needed for such a UN peacekeeping force and that their arrival in the area had to overlap with Israel's withdrawal from Lebanese territory.
The Israeli campaign began three weeks ago after Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers.
Aid agencies in Lebanon say the severe damage to roads and bridges by Israeli air strikes is having a drastic effect on distribution of badly needed aid.
Goods can only be transported in small trucks for fears that larger vehicles will be targeted, they say.
More than 900 Lebanese have now been killed, says Lebanese PM Fouad Siniora.
Israeli aircraft have resumed attacks on Beirut after a lull of several days, while Hezbollah has continued firing rockets into Israel, killing five.
Two Israeli soldiers also died fighting Hezbollah militants along the border.
A United Nations resolution calling for a truce appears near to completion.
Diplomats at the United Nations say the UK, France and the US are close to agreeing on wording calling for an immediate end to the fighting.
The three countries are hoping to present the first part of a two-stage peace plan to the other 12 members of the UN Security Council later on Thursday.
The BBC's James Robbins, at UN headquarters in New York, says a second resolution would be proposed at a later stage, focusing on a long-term settlement, including authorisation for an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.
The BBC's world affairs correspondent Frank Gardner says that since such a force could take weeks or months to arrive, there are reports that a smaller, more rapidly deployed force of French soldiers may be sent in first.
In other developments:
An Israeli military report into the deaths of at least 41 civilians in Qana said the attack would not have been launched if civilians had been known to be there
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at the Organisation of the Islamic Conference meeting, said the answer to the crisis was the elimination of Israel
King Abdullah of Jordan publicly criticised the US and Israel over the fighting in Lebanon
As fighting continues in Lebanon, aid workers are warning of worsening conditions among refugees in the southern border region.
The agencies told a news conference in Beirut that damage to the main roads meant that aid convoys had to take the more perilous mountain route to the south.
"Roads into these towns are demolished, they're bombed, bridges are destroyed. They've got no way of getting out. It's increasingly difficult to get in. They're trapped, and the situation is just terrible," Jamsheed Din from the British charity Islamic Relief told the BBC.
The agencies say they are also using small vehicles for fear that larger ones will be hit by Israeli aircraft searching for Hezbollah fighters.
'Million displaced'
In a video message to Muslim leaders meeting in Malaysia, Lebanon's prime minister said more than 3,000 people had been wounded, and that one million people - a quarter of the country's population - had been displaced.
The latest Israeli casualties bring its death toll to 62, including 24 civilians.
The Israeli air force said it carried out 70 raids on Lebanon overnight.
Four large explosions hit the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold, early in the morning as Israeli war planes attacked the area for the first time in more than a week.
Dahieh was heavily bombed earlier in the Israeli campaign.
Three members of the same family were killed when an Israeli missile hit their home in a southern village of Taibe, Lebanese security officials said.
There were also air strikes in the southern town of Nabatiyeh, on a bridge in the northern region of Akkar and roads near the border with Syria, and in the Bekaa Valley.
In southern Lebanon the fighting rages on in at least five areas along the border where Israel has launched ground incursions with more than 10,000 ground troops.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said there will be no ceasefire until an international force is deployed in southern Lebanon.
Mr Olmert has said that about 15,000 foreign troops would be needed for such a UN peacekeeping force and that their arrival in the area had to overlap with Israel's withdrawal from Lebanese territory.
The Israeli campaign began three weeks ago after Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers.
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theone666
- Major [O-4]
- Posts: 1438
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:00 am
Israel 'renews attacks on Beirut'
Thursday, 3 August 2006, 22:52 GMT 23:52 UK
Israeli jets have renewed strikes on southern Beirut, Lebanese sources say, despite a Hezbollah threat to bomb Tel Aviv in retaliation.
Israel's army has also reportedly been told to plan a push into Lebanon as far as the Litani river, which is up to 30km (19 miles) north of the border.
The threat of escalation comes despite UN moves towards a truce resolution.
Lebanon says more than 900 people have died, most of them civilians. Israel has lost 27 civilians and 40 soldiers.
Israel's campaign began three weeks ago after Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers.
Two huge explosions were heard in southern Beirut early on Friday local time. There are no reports yet of casualties and Israel's military has not yet commented.
Israel earlier dropped leaflets in the Lebanese capital saying: "After the continued launching of Hezbollah terrorist rockets... the IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] intend to widen their offensive in Beirut."
The suburbs of Haret Hreik, Bir Abed, Hay Madi and Roweiss were named in the Arabic-language warning.
Israeli aircraft had resumed bombing of the city on Wednesday night after a lull of several days.
That had sparked a response from Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, who said in a televised speech: "If you bomb our capital Beirut, we will bomb... Tel Aviv."
But he added that Hezbollah would end its rocket attacks if Israel stopped attacking what he called civilian areas in Lebanon.
Fighting raged on the ground in south Lebanon on Thursday with four Israeli soldiers killed and Hezbollah again targeted northern Israel, killing at least eight civilians.
Landmines
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has called for a lasting solution to the conflict.
Speaking on the BBC's Newsnight programme, he said Israel had to withdraw from the disputed border territory known as the Shebaa Farms, which the United Nations says is part of Syria.
Mr Siniora said he wanted international leaders to pressure Israel to return detainees, provide maps of landmines and withdraw from "occupied territory".
Then, he said, "we will arrange that they will get back the abducted soldiers" and ensure that "there won't be any weapons in Lebanon other than those of the Lebanese authorities".
Mr Siniora also said Lebanon would run out of fuel in a week.
In other developments:
The UN's refugee agency (UNHCR) warned that fuel shortages were increasingly hampering humanitarian relief operations in Lebanon
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez recalls his ambassador from Israel, calling the attacks on Lebanon "genocide"
King Abdullah of Jordan publicly criticised the US and Israel over the fighting in Lebanon
Three members of a Lebanese family were killed in an Israeli attack on a village
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the answer to the crisis was the elimination of Israel.
Resolution takes shape
According to Israeli officials, Defense Minister Amir Peretz has told top army officers to begin preparing for a push to the Litani, seen by some as a possible boundary for a "buffer zone".
Any such operation would require approval by Israel's seven-member security cabinet.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said there will be no ceasefire until an international force is deployed in southern Lebanon.
A United Nations resolution calling for a truce appears close in New York.
But the BBC's UN correspondent says there are still differences over details of the sequence of events.
The French Ambassador to the UN, Jean Marc de la Sabliere, said it would take time to get from 95% agreement to 100%.
A second resolution including authorisation for an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon may be proposed later.
Since such a force could take weeks or months to arrive, a smaller force of French soldiers may be sent in first, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner notes.
Israeli jets have renewed strikes on southern Beirut, Lebanese sources say, despite a Hezbollah threat to bomb Tel Aviv in retaliation.
Israel's army has also reportedly been told to plan a push into Lebanon as far as the Litani river, which is up to 30km (19 miles) north of the border.
The threat of escalation comes despite UN moves towards a truce resolution.
Lebanon says more than 900 people have died, most of them civilians. Israel has lost 27 civilians and 40 soldiers.
Israel's campaign began three weeks ago after Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers.
Two huge explosions were heard in southern Beirut early on Friday local time. There are no reports yet of casualties and Israel's military has not yet commented.
Israel earlier dropped leaflets in the Lebanese capital saying: "After the continued launching of Hezbollah terrorist rockets... the IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] intend to widen their offensive in Beirut."
The suburbs of Haret Hreik, Bir Abed, Hay Madi and Roweiss were named in the Arabic-language warning.
Israeli aircraft had resumed bombing of the city on Wednesday night after a lull of several days.
That had sparked a response from Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, who said in a televised speech: "If you bomb our capital Beirut, we will bomb... Tel Aviv."
But he added that Hezbollah would end its rocket attacks if Israel stopped attacking what he called civilian areas in Lebanon.
Fighting raged on the ground in south Lebanon on Thursday with four Israeli soldiers killed and Hezbollah again targeted northern Israel, killing at least eight civilians.
Landmines
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has called for a lasting solution to the conflict.
Speaking on the BBC's Newsnight programme, he said Israel had to withdraw from the disputed border territory known as the Shebaa Farms, which the United Nations says is part of Syria.
Mr Siniora said he wanted international leaders to pressure Israel to return detainees, provide maps of landmines and withdraw from "occupied territory".
Then, he said, "we will arrange that they will get back the abducted soldiers" and ensure that "there won't be any weapons in Lebanon other than those of the Lebanese authorities".
Mr Siniora also said Lebanon would run out of fuel in a week.
In other developments:
The UN's refugee agency (UNHCR) warned that fuel shortages were increasingly hampering humanitarian relief operations in Lebanon
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez recalls his ambassador from Israel, calling the attacks on Lebanon "genocide"
King Abdullah of Jordan publicly criticised the US and Israel over the fighting in Lebanon
Three members of a Lebanese family were killed in an Israeli attack on a village
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the answer to the crisis was the elimination of Israel.
Resolution takes shape
According to Israeli officials, Defense Minister Amir Peretz has told top army officers to begin preparing for a push to the Litani, seen by some as a possible boundary for a "buffer zone".
Any such operation would require approval by Israel's seven-member security cabinet.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said there will be no ceasefire until an international force is deployed in southern Lebanon.
A United Nations resolution calling for a truce appears close in New York.
But the BBC's UN correspondent says there are still differences over details of the sequence of events.
The French Ambassador to the UN, Jean Marc de la Sabliere, said it would take time to get from 95% agreement to 100%.
A second resolution including authorisation for an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon may be proposed later.
Since such a force could take weeks or months to arrive, a smaller force of French soldiers may be sent in first, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner notes.
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theone666
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New Israeli Strikes; Guerrilla Rockets Kill 8
By RAVI NESSMAN, AP
JERUSALEM (Aug. 3) - A massive wave of guerrilla rockets pounded northern Israel in a matter of minutes Thursday, killing eight people hours before Hezbollah 's leader offered to stop the attacks if Israel ends its airstrikes. With four soldiers killed in Lebanon, it was the deadliest day for Israel in its two-front war.
Two huge explosions rocked Beirut early Friday, in what local media said were new Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds south of the city. Israeli artillery shells earlier soared into the hills of southern Lebanon, sometimes as many as 15 per minute.
To Israel's south, in the second front of its offensive against Islamic militants, Israel sent dozens of tanks into the Gaza Strip as aircraft fired at clusters of militants. The heavy clashes killed eight Palestinians, including an 8-year-old boy.
Despite Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah's offer and continuing diplomatic efforts to broker a cease-fire, the Israeli army prepared to push up to Lebanon's Litani River as part of its campaign to force the guerrillas away from the border and make room for a planned international force to patrol the area.
In the 23rd day of Israel's punishing onslaught both on the ground and from the air, Hezbollah has shown surprising strength and has found its support in Lebanon - and among the larger Arab world - vastly bolstered. With calls for a cease-fire growing more intense, the prospect that Hezbollah would emerge damaged but far from destroyed by the fighting appeared likely.
Jordan's King Abdullah II warned that the fighting was causing a backlash against moderate Arab leaders and was strengthening the very radicals it was intended to destroy. "The Arab people see Hezbollah as a hero because it's fighting Israel's aggression," he said.
The fighting in Gaza, which began June 25 after Hamas-linked militants captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid, has killed a total of 175 Palestinians, the U.N. reported Thursday, adding that it was concerned that "with international attention focusing on Lebanon, the tragedy in Gaza is being forgotten."
The offensive in Lebanon began after another cross-border raid by militants, in this case Hezbollah guerrillas, captured two Israeli soldiers. More than three weeks into the fighting, six Israeli brigades - or roughly 10,000 troops - were locked in battle with hundreds of Hezbollah guerrillas in south Lebanon.
Israel said three of its soldiers were killed when an anti-tank rocket hit their tank, seriously damaging the vehicle, and a fourth during fighting in the southern Lebanese town of Taibeh.
Since the fighting started, 68 Israelis have been killed, 41 soldiers and 27 civilians. More than 300,000 Israelis have fled their homes in the north, Israeli officials said.
An Associated Press count shows at least 525 Lebanese have been killed, including 450 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 25 Lebanese soldiers and at least 50 Hezbollah guerrillas. Five of the civilians were reported dead Thursday in airstrikes. Hezbollah also reported four deaths but did not say when the fighters were killed.
Despite Israel's efforts to crush Hezbollah , the guerrillas launched at least 200 rockets into northern Israel on Thursday.
At least 100 of them rained down within a half-hour period Thursday afternoon, setting cars on fire, sending Israelis fleeing into shelters and killing eight people. The barrage, which came a day after the guerrillas fired more than 230 rockets into Israel, underscored Hezbollah 's continued ability to carry out unrelenting strikes.
In Maalot, three Israeli Arabs from the village of Tarshiha were riding in a car when rockets started falling. They ran out of the vehicle in search of shelter and were killed by a rocket, police said.
" Hezbollah fires missiles and they don't think about anyone," Naim Naim, who was friends with one of those killed, said as he stood near a large hole stained with blood that scarred the ground.
In Acre, people came out of their shelters after an initial barrage to see where the rockets fell, when a new batch of Katyusha rockets suddenly struck the town, killing three people as they stood in their garden. A fourth person was killed when a car was blown off the road onto the palm-tree lined sidewalk.
In response, Defense Minister Amir Peretz told top army officers to begin preparing for the next stage of the offensive in south Lebanon, a push to the Litani River, about 20 miles from the border, senior military officials said. Such a push would require further approval by Israel's Security Cabinet and could lead to far more casualties.
The Israeli army said Thursday it had taken up positions in or near 11 towns and villages across south Lebanon as part of an effort to carve out a smaller 5-mile-deep Hezbollah -free zone.
Israeli airstrikes throughout the day also hit a two-story house in Taibeh, killing a man, his wife and daughter, Lebanese security officials said.
Witnesses said at least four missiles hit the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, a Shiite area that has been repeatedly targeted. Israeli jets also dropped leaflets over southern Beirut warning residents to evacuate three Shiite neighborhoods, a possible prelude to more attacks.
In a televised speech broadcast Thursday night, Nasrallah, for the first time, offered to stop firing rockets into Israel if it stops its airstrikes. However, he threatened to launch missiles into Israel's commercial center of Tel Aviv if Israel hit Beirut. Israel has not struck Beirut proper since the start of the war.
"Anytime you decide to stop your campaign against our cities, villages, civilians and infrastructure, we will not fire rockets on any Israeli settlement or city," he said in a taped statement broadcast on Hezbollah 's Al-Manar TV.
Speaking directly to Israelis, Nasrallah said, "The only choice before you is to stop your aggression and turn to negotiations to end this folly."
Israeli officials shrugged off the offer, saying Hezbollah was on the defensive and was looking for a breather.
"We have no doubt the Hezbollah leadership would want nothing more than a cease-fire that would allow them to rearm, regroup and once again be in a position of strength where they can dominate Lebanese politics and initiate the kind of crisis we've seen over the past few weeks," Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.
At the United Nations, France circulated a revised resolution calling for an immediate end to hostilities and spelling out the conditions for a permanent cease-fire and lasting solution to the crisis.
Israel, backed by the United States, has brushed off calls for an immediate cease-fire, saying it wants an international force or the Lebanese army to deploy in southern Lebanon to prevent future Hezbollah attacks on Israel.
In an effort to bolster the Lebanese army, the United States announced plans to train the Lebanese army so it can take control of the south after the fighting ends. Other nations in the international community will help out as well, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday.
Meanwhile, in a report on the devastating Israeli attack Sunday on the village of Qana, New York-based Human Rights Watch said its reexamination of the incident showed 28 people had died, half the number initially reported by Lebanese organizations. Thirteen were still missing.
The AP re-questioned officials in the Lebanese Red Cross and Civil Defense Corps and reached the same conclusion - that only 28 people died. George Kitane, head of Lebanese Red Cross paramedics, said 19 children were among the dead.
An Israeli military inquiry into the Qana bombing, admitted a mistake but charged that Hezbollah guerrillas used civilians as shields for their rocket attacks.
"Had the information indicated that civilians were present ... the attack would not have been carried out," a statement from the inquiry said.
AP reporters Hamza Hendawi in Bourj al-Mulouk, Lebanon, Hussein Dakroub in Beirut and Matti Friedman in Maalot, Israel, contributed to this report.
AP-NY-08-03-06 1606EDT
JERUSALEM (Aug. 3) - A massive wave of guerrilla rockets pounded northern Israel in a matter of minutes Thursday, killing eight people hours before Hezbollah 's leader offered to stop the attacks if Israel ends its airstrikes. With four soldiers killed in Lebanon, it was the deadliest day for Israel in its two-front war.
Two huge explosions rocked Beirut early Friday, in what local media said were new Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds south of the city. Israeli artillery shells earlier soared into the hills of southern Lebanon, sometimes as many as 15 per minute.
To Israel's south, in the second front of its offensive against Islamic militants, Israel sent dozens of tanks into the Gaza Strip as aircraft fired at clusters of militants. The heavy clashes killed eight Palestinians, including an 8-year-old boy.
Despite Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah's offer and continuing diplomatic efforts to broker a cease-fire, the Israeli army prepared to push up to Lebanon's Litani River as part of its campaign to force the guerrillas away from the border and make room for a planned international force to patrol the area.
In the 23rd day of Israel's punishing onslaught both on the ground and from the air, Hezbollah has shown surprising strength and has found its support in Lebanon - and among the larger Arab world - vastly bolstered. With calls for a cease-fire growing more intense, the prospect that Hezbollah would emerge damaged but far from destroyed by the fighting appeared likely.
Jordan's King Abdullah II warned that the fighting was causing a backlash against moderate Arab leaders and was strengthening the very radicals it was intended to destroy. "The Arab people see Hezbollah as a hero because it's fighting Israel's aggression," he said.
The fighting in Gaza, which began June 25 after Hamas-linked militants captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid, has killed a total of 175 Palestinians, the U.N. reported Thursday, adding that it was concerned that "with international attention focusing on Lebanon, the tragedy in Gaza is being forgotten."
The offensive in Lebanon began after another cross-border raid by militants, in this case Hezbollah guerrillas, captured two Israeli soldiers. More than three weeks into the fighting, six Israeli brigades - or roughly 10,000 troops - were locked in battle with hundreds of Hezbollah guerrillas in south Lebanon.
Israel said three of its soldiers were killed when an anti-tank rocket hit their tank, seriously damaging the vehicle, and a fourth during fighting in the southern Lebanese town of Taibeh.
Since the fighting started, 68 Israelis have been killed, 41 soldiers and 27 civilians. More than 300,000 Israelis have fled their homes in the north, Israeli officials said.
An Associated Press count shows at least 525 Lebanese have been killed, including 450 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 25 Lebanese soldiers and at least 50 Hezbollah guerrillas. Five of the civilians were reported dead Thursday in airstrikes. Hezbollah also reported four deaths but did not say when the fighters were killed.
Despite Israel's efforts to crush Hezbollah , the guerrillas launched at least 200 rockets into northern Israel on Thursday.
At least 100 of them rained down within a half-hour period Thursday afternoon, setting cars on fire, sending Israelis fleeing into shelters and killing eight people. The barrage, which came a day after the guerrillas fired more than 230 rockets into Israel, underscored Hezbollah 's continued ability to carry out unrelenting strikes.
In Maalot, three Israeli Arabs from the village of Tarshiha were riding in a car when rockets started falling. They ran out of the vehicle in search of shelter and were killed by a rocket, police said.
" Hezbollah fires missiles and they don't think about anyone," Naim Naim, who was friends with one of those killed, said as he stood near a large hole stained with blood that scarred the ground.
In Acre, people came out of their shelters after an initial barrage to see where the rockets fell, when a new batch of Katyusha rockets suddenly struck the town, killing three people as they stood in their garden. A fourth person was killed when a car was blown off the road onto the palm-tree lined sidewalk.
In response, Defense Minister Amir Peretz told top army officers to begin preparing for the next stage of the offensive in south Lebanon, a push to the Litani River, about 20 miles from the border, senior military officials said. Such a push would require further approval by Israel's Security Cabinet and could lead to far more casualties.
The Israeli army said Thursday it had taken up positions in or near 11 towns and villages across south Lebanon as part of an effort to carve out a smaller 5-mile-deep Hezbollah -free zone.
Israeli airstrikes throughout the day also hit a two-story house in Taibeh, killing a man, his wife and daughter, Lebanese security officials said.
Witnesses said at least four missiles hit the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, a Shiite area that has been repeatedly targeted. Israeli jets also dropped leaflets over southern Beirut warning residents to evacuate three Shiite neighborhoods, a possible prelude to more attacks.
In a televised speech broadcast Thursday night, Nasrallah, for the first time, offered to stop firing rockets into Israel if it stops its airstrikes. However, he threatened to launch missiles into Israel's commercial center of Tel Aviv if Israel hit Beirut. Israel has not struck Beirut proper since the start of the war.
"Anytime you decide to stop your campaign against our cities, villages, civilians and infrastructure, we will not fire rockets on any Israeli settlement or city," he said in a taped statement broadcast on Hezbollah 's Al-Manar TV.
Speaking directly to Israelis, Nasrallah said, "The only choice before you is to stop your aggression and turn to negotiations to end this folly."
Israeli officials shrugged off the offer, saying Hezbollah was on the defensive and was looking for a breather.
"We have no doubt the Hezbollah leadership would want nothing more than a cease-fire that would allow them to rearm, regroup and once again be in a position of strength where they can dominate Lebanese politics and initiate the kind of crisis we've seen over the past few weeks," Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.
At the United Nations, France circulated a revised resolution calling for an immediate end to hostilities and spelling out the conditions for a permanent cease-fire and lasting solution to the crisis.
Israel, backed by the United States, has brushed off calls for an immediate cease-fire, saying it wants an international force or the Lebanese army to deploy in southern Lebanon to prevent future Hezbollah attacks on Israel.
In an effort to bolster the Lebanese army, the United States announced plans to train the Lebanese army so it can take control of the south after the fighting ends. Other nations in the international community will help out as well, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday.
Meanwhile, in a report on the devastating Israeli attack Sunday on the village of Qana, New York-based Human Rights Watch said its reexamination of the incident showed 28 people had died, half the number initially reported by Lebanese organizations. Thirteen were still missing.
The AP re-questioned officials in the Lebanese Red Cross and Civil Defense Corps and reached the same conclusion - that only 28 people died. George Kitane, head of Lebanese Red Cross paramedics, said 19 children were among the dead.
An Israeli military inquiry into the Qana bombing, admitted a mistake but charged that Hezbollah guerrillas used civilians as shields for their rocket attacks.
"Had the information indicated that civilians were present ... the attack would not have been carried out," a statement from the inquiry said.
AP reporters Hamza Hendawi in Bourj al-Mulouk, Lebanon, Hussein Dakroub in Beirut and Matti Friedman in Maalot, Israel, contributed to this report.
AP-NY-08-03-06 1606EDT
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Israeli Warplanes Pound Beirut's Suburbs
By JOSEPH PANOSSIAN, AP
BEIRUT, Lebanon - (Aug. 4) Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut's southern suburbs and other parts of Lebanon early Friday, local media reported.
Shortly after sunrise Friday, Israeli fighter jets fired missiles on a bridge in the port city of Jounieh in the Christian heartland 12.5 miles north of Beirut, Lebanese security officials said.
The jets also hit a civilian car and a van on the coastal road in Jounieh, wounding at least two people, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Airstrikes on the capital's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, began just before 1:00 a.m. local time, causing two huge explosions. On Thursday, Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on the area warning people to leave.
Fighter planes appeared to focus on the southern suburb of Ouzai, making 24 pre-dawn over-flights in less than an hour, local media outlets said.
Lebanon's independent New TV aired footage of huge fires raging against the night sky in several locations in the suburb. A road in the area runs parallel to one of Beirut airport's runways, but it wasn't immediately apparent what the warplanes targeted.
The attacks on Ouzai, a predominantly Shiite Muslim area, were the first since fighting between Hezbollah and Israel began 24 days ago. At daybreak, New TV reported two additional strikes on the area, airing footage of smoke billowing from buildings.
The capital's southern suburbs have been the target of repeated Israeli attacks since fighting began July 12.
Israeli jets launched three attacks near Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, Hezbollah's TV, Al-Manar, and witnesses reached by telephone said.
Another airstrike was launched near the Lebanese-Syrian border crossing at Masnaa, east of Beirut, the Voice of Lebanon radio said.
The Israeli military confirmed airstrikes on Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, but did not give specific locations.
The Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. television station reported that Israeli warships shelled the southern suburbs of Haret Hreik and al-Ruweis.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in a speech televised Thursday, offered to halt rocket attacks on Israel in return for an end to the air attacks. He also threatened to launch missiles at Tel Aviv if Israel attacks Beirut proper.
Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, told CNN that Nasrallah's suggestion for a halt to the rocket attacks was "a sign of weakness," suggesting that Hezbollah's leader, "may realize that his forces are being degraded and looking for a way out."
On Nasrallah's threats against Tel Aviv, Gillerman said, "I am sure that he, as well as his sponsors, realize the consequences of doing something as unimaginable and crazy as that."
08-04-06 00:14 EDT
BEIRUT, Lebanon - (Aug. 4) Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut's southern suburbs and other parts of Lebanon early Friday, local media reported.
Shortly after sunrise Friday, Israeli fighter jets fired missiles on a bridge in the port city of Jounieh in the Christian heartland 12.5 miles north of Beirut, Lebanese security officials said.
The jets also hit a civilian car and a van on the coastal road in Jounieh, wounding at least two people, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Airstrikes on the capital's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, began just before 1:00 a.m. local time, causing two huge explosions. On Thursday, Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on the area warning people to leave.
Fighter planes appeared to focus on the southern suburb of Ouzai, making 24 pre-dawn over-flights in less than an hour, local media outlets said.
Lebanon's independent New TV aired footage of huge fires raging against the night sky in several locations in the suburb. A road in the area runs parallel to one of Beirut airport's runways, but it wasn't immediately apparent what the warplanes targeted.
The attacks on Ouzai, a predominantly Shiite Muslim area, were the first since fighting between Hezbollah and Israel began 24 days ago. At daybreak, New TV reported two additional strikes on the area, airing footage of smoke billowing from buildings.
The capital's southern suburbs have been the target of repeated Israeli attacks since fighting began July 12.
Israeli jets launched three attacks near Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, Hezbollah's TV, Al-Manar, and witnesses reached by telephone said.
Another airstrike was launched near the Lebanese-Syrian border crossing at Masnaa, east of Beirut, the Voice of Lebanon radio said.
The Israeli military confirmed airstrikes on Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, but did not give specific locations.
The Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. television station reported that Israeli warships shelled the southern suburbs of Haret Hreik and al-Ruweis.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in a speech televised Thursday, offered to halt rocket attacks on Israel in return for an end to the air attacks. He also threatened to launch missiles at Tel Aviv if Israel attacks Beirut proper.
Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, told CNN that Nasrallah's suggestion for a halt to the rocket attacks was "a sign of weakness," suggesting that Hezbollah's leader, "may realize that his forces are being degraded and looking for a way out."
On Nasrallah's threats against Tel Aviv, Gillerman said, "I am sure that he, as well as his sponsors, realize the consequences of doing something as unimaginable and crazy as that."
08-04-06 00:14 EDT