CRISIS in the MIDDLE EAST

[theone666]

Friday, 4 August 2006, 07:21 GMT 08:21 UK

Two Palestinians have been killed during Israeli army operations in the south of Gaza, hospital officials say.
The officials said a third person was wounded when a tank shell was fired near a house in the town of Rafah.

An Israeli spokeswoman said air strikes had been launched and ground forces were targeting the area to destroy what she called terrorist infrastructure.

On Thursday, Palestinians said at least seven people, including a child, had been killed by Israeli forces.

A further 26 people were injured.

About 150 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have died in Israeli attacks in Gaza since militants captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid into Israel at the at the end of June.

The United Nations says 35 children have been killed in the last month alone.

On Wednesday that UN warned that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was at least as serious as that in southern Lebanon.

Delivery of food and other essential items has been reduced to a trickle.

[stormseal]

a fine example of muslim/insurgent/jihad/terrorist, madnesss, utter madness and lunacy, as a result of kidnapping and killing a few Israeli soldiers, thousands of muslims pay the price which is> death , the fact that the lunatics that committed the killing and kidnaps were well aware of what the Israeli payback would be and didnt give a damn, proves to me that Hezboolah and Hamas care nothing about the Palestinian or Lebanese People, reason being that both are taking their instructions from Iran and Syria, maybe the time will come to cure the Radical disease once and for all.

[theone666]

By RAVI NESSMAN, AP

BEIRUT, Lebanon (Aug. 4) -- Israel's pounding of Hezbollah positions across Lebanon expanded Friday with missiles targeting bridges in the Christian heartland north of Beirut for the first time, an attack that further isolates Lebanon from the outside world.

Five civilians were killed and 19 wounded in the airstrikes north of the capital, Lebanese security officials said. A Lebanese soldier and four civilians were killed in air raids near Beirut's airport and southern suburbs, security officials and witnesses said.

The destruction of four bridges on the main north-south coastal highway linking Beirut to Syria further sealed Lebanon from outside links, as the Israeli naval blockade and earlier strikes against roadways have largely closed off other access points.

Fierce fighting continued along the border, and Hezbollah said in a statement broadcast by the group's Al-Manar TV station that guerrillas had killed six Israeli soldiers near the villages of Aita al-Shaab and Markaba.

Arab media reported Hezbollah had hit an Israeli tank. The Israeli army was not immediately available to comment on the claims.

The clashes came a day after a massive barrage of guerrilla rockets pounded northern Israel, killing eight people, and an offer by Hezbollah's leader to stop the attacks if Israel ends its airstrikes. Two more rockets hit northern Israel early Friday, causing little damage.

Israel's United Nations ambassador, Dan Gillerman, said that Sheik Hassan Nasrallah's offer of a truce was "a sign of weakness ... and he may be looking for a way out."

Gillerman warned against Hezbollah threats to launch rockets on Israel's commercial center of Tel Aviv. "We are ready for it, and I am sure that he (Nasrallah), as well as his sponsors, realize the consequences of doing something as unimaginable and crazy as that," the Israeli ambassador told CNN early Friday.

The Israeli military said the targets of the latest attacks in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh were Hezbollah facilities and a Hamas office. Beirut media said Israel launched 24 bombing runs in an hour.

South Beirut has been attacked repeatedly by Israeli warplanes since fighting began July 12. It is predominantly a Shiite Muslim sector largely controlled by Hezbollah guerrillas, and Israel has not struck Beirut proper since the start of the war.

However, the strikes early Friday hit the affluent Christian locality of Jounieh, north of the capital, for the first time. The bombing against the picturesque coastal resort marked a sharp expansion of Israel's attack on Lebanon, which now threatens Christian areas where Hezbollah has no support and no presence.

In the hills of southern Lebanon, Israeli artillery intensified bombing overnight, sometimes sending as many as 15 shells per minute against suspected Hezbollah strongholds.

On the second front of its offensive against Islamic militants, Israel began pulling tanks out of southern Gaza after a two-day incursion, after aircraft fired at clusters of militants. The heavy clashes killed eleven Palestinians, including an 8-year-old boy.

Despite Hezbollah's truce offer and continuing diplomatic efforts to broker a cease-fire, the Israeli army prepared to push up to Lebanon's Litani River, about 20 miles north of the border, 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 24th day of Israel's punishing onslaught, 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, it appeared likely that Hezbollah would emerge damaged but far from destroyed by the fighting.

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, 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.

Since the fighting started, an Associated Press count shows that at least 530 Lebanese have been killed, including 454 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 26 Lebanese soldiers and at least 50 Hezbollah guerrillas. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said that 1 million people -- or about a quarter of Lebanon's population -- had fled the fighting.

Sixty-eight Israelis have been killed -- 41 soldiers and 27 civilians. More than 300,000 Israelis have fled their homes in the north, Israeli officials said.

Despite Israel's efforts to crush Hezbollah, the guerrillas launched at least 200 rockets into northern Israel on Thursday. The barrage underscored Hezbollah's continued ability to carry out unrelenting strikes.

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, 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 it has 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.

In his televised speech broadcast Thursday night, Hezbollah's Nasrallah for the first time offered to stop firing rockets into Israel if it stops its airstrikes. But he also threatened to launch missiles into Tel Aviv if Israel hits Beirut.

"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 added, "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.

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 rejected 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.

In an effort to bolster the Lebanese military, the United States announced plans to train the Lebanese army so it can take control of the south after the fighting ends. Other nations will help out as well, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday.

Associated Press reporter Ravi Nessman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.


08-04-06 06:42 EDT

[theone666]

Friday, 4 August 2006, 19:34 GMT 20:34 UK

An Israeli air strike near Lebanon's north-eastern border with Syria has killed at least 26 people and injured about 20, Lebanese officials have said.
Israeli planes also struck bridges in mainly Christian areas north of Beirut, while a raid in southern Lebanon killed seven people, security sources said.

Hezbollah fired 190 rockets into Israel, killing three civilians.

Late on Friday, rockets hit near the city of Hadera, 80km (50 miles) inside Israel, Israeli police said.

This is the furthest south Hezbollah has struck since the conflict began three weeks ago.

Police and witnesses said one or two rockets landed in open land and there were no reports of casualties.

Hadera is some 45km (30 miles) north of Tel Aviv, which Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday threatened to target if Israel attacked central Beirut.

Civil defence authorities in Tel Aviv have warned people to be prepared for a possible missile attack, issuing leaflets to the city's 1.5m inhabitants to advise them how to prepare bomb shelters or protected rooms.

Army push

The continuing violence comes as the Israeli army has been told to prepare for a possible advance in what could be its deepest incursion into Lebanon for more than 20 years.

This could see the army push up to the Litani river, 30km (19 miles) north of the border, in pursuit of Hezbollah.

Israel's campaign began three weeks ago after Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers.

Lebanon says more than 900 people have died since then, most of them civilians. Israel has lost 29 civilians and 40 soldiers.

The raid on the Lebanese village of Qaa, on the northern tip of the Bekaa Valley, hit a vegetable warehouse where farm workers were loading produce, local civil defence officials said.

The dead and injured, many of them Syrian Kurds, were taken to hospitals in Syria.

The Israeli army said it attacked two structures on suspicion that weapons were being transported, and that it was investigating reports that a warehouse had been hit.

The number of dead is the highest in a single strike since Israeli planes hit the southern Lebanese village of Qana, where, according to Human Rights Watch, 28 people were killed and 13 are still missing.

Israeli planes also struck a house in the Lebanese border village of Taibeh, killing seven people and injuring 10, news agencies reported.

There is also heavy fighting in southern Lebanon as Israeli forces try to push Hezbollah back from the border - two Israeli soldiers were killed by an anti-tank missile earlier on Friday.

The loss of life also continued in Israel where two people died when Hezbollah rockets hit two Israeli Arab villages, Israeli police said.

Earlier, an Israeli woman died and another person was seriously injured when a house in the village of Mughar was hit.

Another person previously reported killed in Kiryat Shmona was in critical condition, rescue services said.

Christian heartlands

Israeli jets also pounded targets north and south of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

Five people were killed as Israeli planes destroyed four bridges on the main coastal highway in the Christian heartlands north from Beirut.

A UN refugee agency spokeswoman told the BBC the destruction of the bridges was a major setback for the aid operation.

"Now the main road is basically cut off," said Astrid van Genderen Stort. "We are looking at secondary roads, but they are small. That will delay our operations."

The Israeli army said the bridges had been destroyed to prevent Syria from rearming its ally Hezbollah.

At the United Nations in New York, negotiations are continuing on the wording of a ceasefire resolution.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has called for a lasting solution to the conflict.

He told the BBC he wanted international leaders to pressure Israel to return detainees, provide maps of landmines and withdraw from "occupied territory".

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said there will be no ceasefire until an international force is deployed in southern Lebanon.

[theone666]

By SAM F. GHATTAS, AP

BEIRUT, Lebanon (Aug. 4) -- Israeli warplanes destroyed four key bridges on Lebanon's last untouched highway Friday, severing the country's final major connection to Syria and deepening its isolation.

Aircraft on a mission to destroy weapons caches hit a refrigerated warehouse where farm workers were loading vegetables, killing at least 28 near the Lebanon-Syria border as Hezbollah launched its deepest rocket strike inside Israel to date.

Three Hezbollah rockets landed Friday near a town 50 miles south of the Lebanese border, police said, and at least 190 rockets rained on other towns, killing four civilians, three of them Arabs.

Israel pressed its ground offensive in southern Lebanon as its attacks on the main north-south coastal highway linking Beirut to Syria cut the only remaining major road link between the two countries. The drive to the Syrian border takes twice the time - at least three hours - on the small coastal road that remains open.

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, a staunch pro-Syrian and close ally of Hezbollah, charged that Israel is trying to pressure Lebanon to accept its conditions for a cease-fire, which include Hezbollah's disarmament and ouster from a swath of south Lebanon.

"The Israeli enemy's bombing of bridges and roads is aimed at tightening the blockade on the Lebanese, cutting communications between them and starving them," Lahoud said.

He blamed the new raids on Israel's failure to win quick victory in the south, where Israeli soldiers have been mired in ground battles with Hezbollah guerrillas for several days.

An Israeli army spokesman, Capt. Jacob Dallal, said Israel targeted the bridges to stop the flow of weapons from Syria.

In Israel, no casualties were immediately reported in the Hezbollah attack near the town of Hadera, about 30 miles north of Tel Aviv, the nation's commercial center.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has threatened to hit Tel Aviv if Israeli warplanes hit the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Israeli resumed air strikes on Beirut Thursday, after first targeting the city at the beginning of the war.

Hezbollah is believed to have missiles that can reach Tel Aviv, but such an attack would likely trigger a massive Israeli response.

More Israeli airstrikes flattened two southern Lebanese houses Friday and more than 50 people were buried in the rubble, security officials and the state news agency said.

The number of dead was not immediately known.

Five Lebanese civilians were killed and 19 wounded in the Israeli airstrikes north of the capital, in Christian areas where Hezbollah has little support or presence, including the picturesque coastal resort of Jounieh.

In separate air raids near Beirut's airport and southern suburbs, a Lebanese soldier was killed and two soldiers and four civilians were wounded, security officials and witnesses said. The predominantly Shiite Muslim sector is largely controlled by Hezbollah guerrillas. Israel said Hezbollah facilities and a Hamas office were targeted.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed by a Hezbollah anti-tank missile during heavy fighting in a southern Lebanese village where the militant group had been launching rockets, the army said. It later said another soldier had died.

International aid agencies said Friday said the road bombing would slow down aid shipments to needy civilians in central Lebanon and the coastline around the capital, Beirut, where the bulk of the population lives.

Border crossings in the east have been shut by airstrikes. Israel has imposed a naval blockade and has hit the international airport to seal off Lebanon's sea and airspace.

"This is Lebanon's umbilical cord," Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Program told The Associated Press. "This (road) has been the only way for us to bring in aid. We really need to find other ways to bring relief in."

The European Union said Israel and Hezbollah must guarantee the safety of aid workers if it is to continue helping people made homeless by the fighting.

Emergencies services at the al-Qusair National Hospital on the Lebanese-Syrian border and the National Hospital in the Syrian city of Homs said at least 28 people were killed in the farm attack near al-Qaa, a town about six miles from a Hezbollah stronghold.

Ali Yaghi, a Lebanese civil defense official at the scene, said at least 12 workers were wounded and some were likely buried under rubble.

Syria's official news agency reported that 33 were killed, 23 of them Syrians. That toll included 18 men, 2 elderly women and 3 young girls, it said, reporting 10 wounded.

The Israeli army said it had attacked two buildings where it suspected weapons were being stored, and it was checking reports that it had hit a vegetable storehouse and civilians.

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 about 20 towns and villages in south Lebanon.

Israeli artillery intensified bombing there overnight, sending as many as 15 shells per minute against suspected Hezbollah strongholds.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz has told top army officers to begin preparing for a push to the Litani River, about 20 miles north of the border. That would require further approval by Israel's Security Cabinet and could lead to far more casualties.

Hezbollah said in a statement broadcast by the group's Al-Manar TV station that guerrillas had killed six Israeli soldiers near the villages of Aita al-Shaab and Markaba.

The Israeli army said two soldiers were killed and two wounded by a Hezbollah anti-tank missile during heavy fighting in a village where the militant group had been launching rockets.

Despite Israel's efforts, Hezbollah launched at least 200 rockets into northern Israel on Thursday, in a new tactic of simultaneously firing a large number of rockets.

Hezbollah's leader offered to stop attacking if Israel ends its airstrikes.

Israel's United Nations ambassador, Dan Gillerman, said that Sheik Hassan Nasrallah's offer of a truce was "a sign of weakness ... and he may be looking for a way out."

Gillerman warned against a threat by Nasrallah to launch rockets on Israel's commercial center, Tel Aviv.

"We are ready for it, and I am sure that he (Nasrallah), as well as his sponsors, realize the consequences of doing something as unimaginable and crazy as that," the Israeli ambassador told CNN.

On the second front of its offensive against Islamic militants, Israel began pulling tanks out of southern Gaza after a two-day incursion that killed eleven Palestinians, including an 8-year-old boy.

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, 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 Hezbollah guerrillas who captured two Israeli soldiers.

According to an Associated Press count, at least 530 Lebanese have been killed, including 454 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry; 26 Lebanese soldiers; and at least 50 Hezbollah guerrillas. That figure does not include the farm attack.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said that 1 million people - or about a quarter of Lebanon's population - had fled the fighting.

Seventy-five Israelis have been killed - 44 soldiers and 31 civilians. More than 300,000 Israelis have fled their homes in the north, Israeli officials said.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said the United States and France have "come a long way" in negotiating a Security Council resolution that calls for an immediate end to Middle East hostilities,said.

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed support Thursday for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon as the first phase in ending the conflict. It was the most concrete signal yet that the U.S. may be willing to compromise on the stalemate over how to end the fighting.

Israel, backed by the United States, has rejected 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.

Associated Press reporter Ravi Nessman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.


08-04-2006 15:10:33 EDT

[theone666]

Saturday, 5 August 2006, 00:57 GMT 01:57 UK

At least three Palestinians have been killed in two Israeli missile strikes in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials say.
Two family members died in one strike on a house in Rafah, hospital officials said. A second strike killed a member of the Islamic Jihad militant group.

About a dozen Palestinians have died in the past three days of Israeli action.

Israel has carried out many operations in Gaza since the capture of one of its soldiers by militants in June.

Some local reports said the two who died in the strike on the house in Rafah were teenagers. Other family members were wounded, the reports said.

An Israeli army spokesman said the only strikes at that time were outside Rafah and had targeted militants.

The army did confirm the second attack that killed the militant. Islamic Jihad told Associated Press news agency a 19-year-old member was killed.

Tunnel

Israel says it has been carrying out air and ground strikes against Palestinian fighters in the Rafah area, and its troops have been carrying out house-to-house searches.

The army moved in to destroy what a spokeswoman called "terrorist infrastructure".

The army says its operation is focused on finding the tunnel that was used by militants to cross into Israel when they captured Cpl Gilad Shalit and killed two other soldiers in June.

About 150 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have died in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the capture of Cpl Shalit.

The United Nations says 35 children have been killed in the past month alone.

[theone666]

Saturday, 5 August 2006, 03:49 GMT 04:49 UK

Israeli planes have been in action again over Lebanon with raids on the capital, Beirut, and other targets.
Explosions were heard in Beirut's southern suburbs while Israeli helicopters took part in intensive operations around Tyre further south.

An Israeli air strike near Lebanon's north-eastern border with Syria killed at least 28 people on Friday.

Hezbollah continued to launch rockets into Israel, killing three civilians with about 190 strikes on Friday.

Meanwhile at the United Nations in New York, negotiations are continuing on the wording of a resolution that could bring about a ceasefire.

Israel's campaign began three weeks ago after Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers.

Lebanon says more than 900 people have died since then, most of them civilians. Israel has lost 29 civilians and about 40 soldiers.

Helicopters

Israeli fighter-bombers again struck Hezbollah strongholds in southern Beirut a number of times early on Saturday.

Israeli Apache helicopters raked areas to the south and east of the southern city of Tyre with heavy machinegun fire and missiles.

Some reports said Israeli commando units had landed near Tyre and had clashed with Hezbollah fighters.

The attacks follow Friday's bombing of bridges in mainly Christian areas north of Beirut - strikes Israel said were to prevent Syria from rearming its ally Hezbollah.

Aid agencies said Israel's destruction of the bridges was a major setback for the relief operation.

Christiane Berthiaume of the UN's World Food Programme told the BBC the "umbilical cord" for aid from Arida on the Syrian border to Beirut had been cut.

Ms Berthiaume said the situation around Tyre was difficult to assess but it was clear there were serious shortages of food, medicine, fuel and drinking water.

Syrian Kurds

In New York, UN Security Council members continued to search for a resolution that could bring about a ceasefire.

US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton said talks with his French counterpart had brought them a "little bit closer".

Diplomats said the differences lay in the timing of a truce - whether it would come before an international force was deployed - as France wants - or along with the deployment.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said there will be no ceasefire until the international force is deployed in southern Lebanon.

US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said: "We hope to have a resolution early next week."

The UN negotiations come after intense military activity on Friday, which included an Israeli raid on the Lebanese village of Qaa, on the northern tip of the Bekaa Valley.

Local civil defence officials said it hit a vegetable warehouse where farm workers were loading produce.

About 20 people were hurt in addition to the 28 dead, they said. Many were Syrian Kurds.

An Israeli army spokesman said it believed the building had taken delivery of weapons from Syria.

In other military action on Friday:



Israeli planes struck a house in the Lebanese border village of Taibeh, killing seven people and injuring 10

There was heavy fighting in southern Lebanon as Israeli forces tried to push Hezbollah back from the border - two Israeli soldiers were killed by an anti-tank missile

Two people died when Hezbollah rockets hit two Israeli Arab villages, Israeli police said

An Israeli woman died and another person was seriously injured when a house in the village of Mughar was hit

Some of the Hezbollah rockets landed near Hadera, 80km (50 miles) from the border, the furthest south Hezbollah has struck.

Hadera is some 45km (30 miles) north of Tel Aviv, which Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday threatened to target if Israel attacked central Beirut.

The continuing violence comes as the Israeli army has been told to prepare for a possible advance in what could be its deepest incursion into Lebanon for more than 20 years.

This could see the army push up to the Litani river, 30km (19 miles) north of the border, in pursuit of Hezbollah.

[theone666]

By STEVEN R. HURST, AP

BEIRUT, Lebanon (Aug. 5) - Israel and Hezbollah fought bloody ground battles and exchanged fierce air and missile strikes Friday - including bombing raids that severed Lebanon's last major supply link with Syria and the outside world, and the guerrillas' deepest rocket attack inside Israel to date.

Loud explosions resounded in Beirut's suburbs early Saturday as Israeli warplanes renewed their onslaught, local media said. Israeli helicopters, meanwhile, attacked suspected Hezbollah positions in the southern city of Tyre, though Hezbollah's TV station claimed that fighters repelled helicopter-borne troops who tried to land, killing one soldier. Israel declined to comment.

After days of desultory diplomacy, Washington said it was near agreement with France on a U.N. cease-fire resolution, possibly by early next week. But Israel and Hezbollah showed no signs of holding their fire.

Israeli aircraft on a mission Friday to destroy weapons caches hit a refrigerated warehouse where farm workers were loading fruit, killing at least 28 near the Lebanon -Syria border. And three Hezbollah rockets landed near Hadera, 50 miles south of the Israel- Lebanon border; 188 rockets rained on other towns, killing three Israeli Arabs.

Given the determination of both Hezbollah and Israel to look victorious when the conflict finally ends, the worst of the fighting may still lie ahead with the militant Shiite guerrilla fighters perhaps making good on their threat to rocket Tel Aviv and Israel launching an all-out ground offensive, pushing northward to the Litani River.

Israeli military officials said Friday they completed the first phase of the offensive, securing a 4-mile buffer zone in south Lebanon, though pockets of Hezbollah resistance remained.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz told top army officers to begin preparing for a push to the Litani, about 20 miles north of the border - a move that would require Cabinet approval. Peretz vowed his forces would complete "the whole mission" of driving guerrilla fighters out of missile range, a defiant response to the Hezbollah leader's threat to launch missiles into Israel's largest city.

Israeli airstrikes destroyed four key bridges after dawn, severing Beirut's final major connection to Syria and raising the threat of severe shortages of food, gasoline and medicines within days. The attack in the Christian heartland just north of Beirut killed four civilians and a Lebanese soldier.

Israel said it targeted the bridges to stop the flow of weapons to Hezbollah from Iran through Syria. Those weapons include not only missiles, but sophisticated anti-tank missiles said to be responsible for most of the 44 Israeli soldiers killed in more than three weeks of fighting.

However, aid workers said the destroyed highway was a vital conduit for much-needed food and supplies, with Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Program calling it Lebanon's "umbilical cord."

"This (road) has been the only way for us to bring in aid. We really need to find other ways to bring relief in," she said in Geneva, Switzerland.

Hospitals were in danger of closing soon because medicines, hospital supplies and fuel for generators was fast running out. Staples like milk, rice and sugar were growing short across the country. Lines at Beirut filling stations stretch longer by the day.

Dr. George Tomey, acting president of the American University of Beirut, said its Medical Center, one of the prime and best known medical facilities in the Middle East, will stop receiving new patients as of Monday, except for emergency cases.

Dr. Ghassan Hammoud, who runs a 320-bed hospital packed with war wounded in the southern port city of Sidon, said he may have to shut down within 10 days.

On the 24th day of the conflict, the State Department said Friday that the United States and France were nearing completion of a U.N. resolution designed to halt the fighting in Lebanon and to set out principles for a lasting cease-fire.

"We are very close to a final draft with the French on a text," the department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

In a sign of billowing support for Hezbollah's Shiite fighters across the Arab world, tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims protested in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, chanting "Death to Israel, Death to America," the biggest rally in support of the militant Shiite organization since the fighting began.

As of Friday the Associated Press count showed at least 559 Lebanese have been killed, including 482 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 27 Lebanese soldiers and at least 50 Hezbollah guerrillas.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said that 1 million people - or about a quarter of Lebanon's population - has fled the fighting. Others estimate some 800,000 Lebanese have been made refugee.

Since the fighting started, 74 Israelis have been killed, 44 soldiers and 30 civilians. More than 300,000 Israelis have fled their homes in the north, Israeli officials said.

Lebanese security officials and the state news agency said Israeli airstrikes flattened two southern houses Friday and that more than 50 people were buried in the rubble. Israel denied attacking the villages, Aita al-Shaab and Taibeh.

Friday's attack on the refrigerated warehouse in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley killed at least 28 farm laborers as they loaded peaches and apples onto trucks bound for the Syrian market, Lebanese security and hospital officials said. Syria's official news agency, SANA, reported that 33 people were killed in the raid, including 23 Syrian workers.

Israeli army spokesman Capt. Jacob Dallal said the army suspected the warehouse was used for arms because it tracked a truck it believed was carrying weapons that went into the warehouse from the Syrian side. He said the truck stayed inside for about 90 minutes before returning to Syria.

Israel contends that Hezbollah gets almost all of its weaponry from Syria and by extension Iran. That's why it says cutting off the supply chain is essential - and why fighting Hezbollah after it has spent six years building up its arsenal is proving so painful to Israel.

On Friday, the army confirmed a Hezbollah anti-tank missile killed three soldiers and wounded two others in southeastern Lebanon .

In the last two days alone, these missiles have killed seven soldiers and damaged three Israeli-made Merkava tanks - mountains of steel that are vaunted as symbols of Israel's military might, the army said. It said Hezbollah has fired Russian-made Metis-M anti-tank missiles and owns European-made Milan missiles.

Hezbollah's sophisticated anti-tank missiles are perhaps the guerrilla group's deadliest weapon in Lebanon fighting, with their ability to pierce Israel's most advanced tanks. Experts say this is further evidence that Israel is facing a well-equipped army in this war, not a ragtag militia.

In the second front of Israel's offensive against Islamic militants, an airstrike early Saturday in the southern Gaza town of Rafah killed at least two Palestinians and wounded five others, officials said. The Israeli army said its aircraft fired at several armed Palestinians.


08-05-06 00:24 EDT

[theone666]

Saturday, 5 August 2006, 10:08 GMT 11:08 UK

Israeli commandos have clashed with Hezbollah fighters during a raid on the southern Lebanese city of Tyre.
The Israeli army said eight soldiers were wounded and several militants were killed in the operation which it said targeted Hezbollah rocket launchers.

Israel said it carried out more than 70 air strikes across Lebanon overnight, while Hezbollah fired more rockets at the Israeli city of Haifa on Saturday.

Diplomats meanwhile are continuing to work on a resolution for a ceasefire.

The US and France are trying to resolve differences over the wording of a UN resolution calling for an end to the violence and authorising the deployment of an international force in southern Lebanon.


'Spent bullets'

Israel sent special troops into Tyre hours after a long-range missile hit the Israeli town of Hadera, 75km (50 miles) from the Israel-Lebanon border - the deepest strike into Israel so far.

The Israeli military says it targeted the cells and infrastructure involved in launching the attack.

Lebanese officials said a unit of commandos landed by helicopter near an orange grove in the north of the city and raided an apartment building, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Qassem Aad, 18, said he saw several people walk out of the building before gunfire erupted.

"I saw a man screaming, he was shot," Mr Aad was quoted by AP as saying.

Hezbollah al-Manar television said Hezbollah fighters repelled the attack and showed pictures of spent bullets and a blood-stained concrete floor.

Israel said eight soldiers were wounded in the operation, two seriously. It said a number of Hezbollah militants were killed.

Lebanese officials said a Lebanese soldier and at least one civilian were killed.

Hezbollah said it fired more missiles at Haifa in retaliation for the raid, leaving five people wounded.

Elsewhere, an Israeli soldier died after coming under attack from Hezbollah mortar fire in the eastern village of Taibeh.

Diplomatic moves

As the violence raged, the United States and France continued to try to resolve differences over the wording of a UN Security Council resolution that could bring about a ceasefire.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan telephoned US President George W Bush and French President Jacques Chirac on Friday to express his concern about delays in reaching an agreement.

Diplomats said the differences lay in the timing of a truce - whether it would come before an international force was deployed - as France wants - or along with the deployment.

US Middle East envoy David Welch meanwhile arrived in Beirut at what could be a critical stage in the diplomatic process, says the BBC's Nick Childs in the Lebanese capital.

There is a heavy security presence close to the prime minister's office, in part because there is also a pro-Hezbollah demonstration in the square nearby, our correspondent says.

Mr Welch will hold talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, parliament speaker Nabih Berri, the leader of the Shia Amal movement and a possible conduit to Hezbollah.

It is assumed Mr Welch is discussing the latest on the efforts to forge the resolution to halt the fighting, our correspondent adds.

[theone666]

By KATHY GANNON, AP

TYRE, Lebanon (Aug. 5) - Israeli naval commandos battled with Hezbollah in the southern port city of Tyre early Saturday, while a guerrilla rocket killed a soldier in clashes on the border and Israeli raids left at least eight people dead in multiple strikes across the country.

After days of desultory diplomacy, Washington said it was near agreement with France on a U.N. cease-fire resolution, possibly by early next week. But no cessation of fighting was in sight Saturday.

Given the determination of both Hezbollah and Israel to look victorious when the conflict finally ends, the worst of the fighting may still lie ahead with the militant Shiite guerrilla group perhaps making good on its threat to rocket the main Israeli city of Tel Aviv and Israel launching an all-out ground offensive, pushing northward to the Litani River about 20 miles from the border.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch arrived in Beirut late Friday and met with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, aides to Saniora said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make official statements.

On Saturday, Welch visited Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a prominent Shiite Muslim who has been negotiating on behalf of Hezbollah in the conflict.

In Tyre, Hezbollah said its guerrillas repelled the Israeli commandos and killed a member of the force. Israeli defense officials said eight soldiers were wounded during the fight, in the first confirmation that a naval commando had raided the coastal city. Two of the wounded were in serious condition, they said.

The army said the mission was to take out the launching sites of rockets that have plagued northern Israel for three weeks. It said several Hezbollah fighters were hit.

A Lebanese soldier and a civilian were also killed in the clash, local officials in Tyre said.

Lebanese military officials said the Israeli commandos landed near an orange grove, cut a hole through a barbed wire fence and targeted the second floor of an apartment building.

The commandos were repelled by Hezbollah guerrillas and Lebanese soldiers who clashed with the forces, the Shiite militia said.

A resident said he saw the commando force attack the building. "They all had beards. I thought maybe they were Hezbollah," said 18-year-old Qassem Aad, who lives nearby.

Aad said he saw several people walk out of the building with their hands up, and that shooting then erupted. "I saw a man screaming - he was shot."

Ambulance workers said six people were killed, including two from Hezbollah and one soldier from the Lebanese army who was at a nearby checkpoint and was shot at.

A Lebanese army officer confirmed one Lebanese soldier died and said four people in the targeted apartment were killed.

Meanwhile, explosions rattled Beirut as Israeli warplanes renewed their strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in the city's southern suburbs.

In eastern Lebanon, Hezbollah mortars hit two vehicles of an Israeli engineering corps during a sweep of a village in the Taibeh area, killing a soldier and wounding nine others, the Israeli army said.

A gutted van with the charred body of the driver was also found Saturday morning near Qaa in eastern Lebanon, the town's mayor, Saadeh Toum, said.

Travelers have been taking dirt roads to travel from one place to another because of bombardment of the main roads in the region.

While meeting fierce resistance on the ground in south Lebanon, the Israeli army said it had taken up positions in or near 11 towns and villages as part its effort to carve out a five-mile Hezbollah-free zone.

"We plan to carry out the whole mission," Defense Minister Amir Peretz said. "Hezbollah must not have illusions that we plan to give in. (Hezbollah leader Hassan) Nasrallah shouldn't doubt that he faces a force that insists on completing its mission."

As of Friday an Associated Press count showed at least 567 Lebanese have been killed, including 489 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 28 Lebanese soldiers and at least 50 Hezbollah guerrillas.

The Lebanese government's Higher Relief Council said 907 Lebanese had been killed in the conflict.

Since the fighting started, 75 Israelis have been killed - 45 soldiers and 30 civilians. More than 300,000 Israelis have fled their homes in the north, Israeli officials said.

The State Department said on Friday that the United States and France were nearing completion of a U.N. resolution designed to halt the fighting in Lebanon and to set out principles for a lasting cease-fire.

"We are very close to a final draft with the French on a text," spokesman Sean McCormack said.


08-05-06 06:47 EDT

[theone666]

AP

UNITED NATIONS (Aug. 5) - The United States and France agreed Saturday on a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that calls for an end to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah but would allow Israel to defend itself if attacked, officials said.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton and French President Jacques Chirac's office confirmed that agreement had been reached.

Officials with knowledge of the document said the draft calls for a "full cessation" of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, but would allow Israel the right to launch strikes if attacked by Hezbollah.

But it does not call for an "immediate cessation of violence," those officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the draft had not yet been made public.

That appeared to be a victory for the U.S. and Israel. France and many other nations had demanded an immediate halt to violence without conditions as a way to push the region back toward stability.

The French presidential palace in Paris said a deal was reached on a resolution that seeks a total halt to hostilities and would work toward a permanent cease-fire and a long-term solution.

The full 15-nation Security Council was to meet later Saturday to discuss the resolution, and it was likely to be adopted in the next couple of days, Bolton said.

Bolton said the resolution would be the first of two. The second could spell out a larger political framework for peace between Israel and Hezbollah or set the conditions for a peacekeeping force to deploy to Lebanon.

"We're prepared to continue to work tomorrow in order to make progress on the adoption of the resolution but we have reached agreement and we're now ready to proceed," Bolton said. "We're prepared to move as quickly as other members of the council want to move."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was at President George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, but will head back for a vote.

"She will be prepared to go to New York," U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Since fighting began, the U.N. Security Council has failed to take any action to stop it, primarily because of opposition from the United States, Israel's closest ally.

Any deal will have to gain the acceptance of both Israel and Hezbollah, which could prove difficult.

Israel has said it will not halt its campaign against Hezbollah unless an international stabilization force is in place. Meanwhile, Hezbollah's chief spokesman said Thursday the militia will not agree to a cease-fire until all Israeli troops leave Lebanon.

Israel also says it wants to continue fighting for up to two weeks to seriously diminish Hezbollah's military capability.

A current U.N. force already in Lebanon could initially monitor implementation of the resolution, but a more robust international force would be deployed to support Lebanese forces in providing security and implementing a permanent cease-fire.


08-05-06 11:14 EDT

[theone666]

AP

UNITED NATIONS (Aug. 5) - Israel and Hezbollah sharply intensified fighting Saturday with airstrikes, rocket attacks and brutal ground fighting - an apparent bid to inflict maximum mutual damage even as the United States and France agreed on a draft U.N. resolution calling for a halt to the violence.

Even if the U.N. Security Council adopts the resolution early next week as expected, the task of winning agreement from the warring parties portended a far more bumpy diplomatic road than the one already traveled.

As it became clear a U.S.-French agreement on the text was drawing near, Israeli-Hezbollah fighting grew particularly intense over the past few days.

Israeli commandos battled Hezbollah guerrillas in a dramatic raid on an apartment building in the southern port city of Tyre on Saturday, while warplanes blasted south Beirut. The fighting across Lebanon killed at least eight Lebanese and two Israeli soldiers, while a Hezbollah rocket volley killed three women in northern Israel.

Shortly after the diplomatic agreement was announced on the 25th day of the conflict, a Hezbollah Cabinet minister said militant Shiite guerrillas would not stop fighting until all Israeli troops leave Lebanon. The draft resolution makes no such demand.

"We (will) abide by it on condition that no Israeli soldier remains inside Lebanese land. If they stay, we will not abide by it," said Mohammed Fneish, one of two Hezbollah members of the government.

An Israeli Cabinet minister said Israel, too, had no intention to end its offensive for the time being.

"The Israeli military continues to act in the meantime, without letup, in many areas," Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog said. "We still have the coming days for many military missions, but we have to know that the timetable is becoming increasingly shorter."

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with senior ministers late Saturday. They approved continuation of the Lebanon offensive according to the present guidelines but did not discuss the draft U.N. resolution, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

The Lebanese government said it objected to portions of the U.S-French draft resolution and would demand that some provisions be amended.

"The government has objected to the U.S-French draft resolution. It has made amendments to some of the provisions and has sent them to Lebanon's U.N. representative," an aide to Prime Minister Fuad Saniora told The Associated Press late Saturday.

The aide, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make statements to the media, insisted that the government's position did not amount to a flat rejection of the draft resolution.

As written, the resolution would be a difficult, if not impossible, pill for Hezbollah to swallow, particularly language calling for the "unconditional release" of two Israeli soldiers captured by the guerrillas in a cross-border raid July 12. The hostage taking prompted the Israeli onslaught in Lebanon.

Hezbollah snatched the two soldiers to use them as bargaining tools for the release of Arab prisoners held by Israel, including three Lebanese. While the draft resolution directs Hezbollah to release the Israelis unconditionally it only encourages "efforts aimed at settling the issue of the Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel."

That language may prove the fundamental deal-breaker for Hezbollah, whose leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah vowed eight days into the conflict never to release the two Israeli soldiers without a prisoner exchange even "if the whole universe comes (against us)."

In the past two days, Hezbollah fired 365 rockets into Israel, including the deepest strike of the conflict - on Hadera, some 50 miles south of the border. Six civilians were killed in the attacks.

Over the same period, Israel conducted as many as 170 airstrikes on targets in Lebanon, killing at least 45 people.

The Israeli army also said Hezbollah has fired some 3,000 rockets into northern Israel since fighting broke out July 12.

The U.N. peacekeeping force in the south of the country, known as UNIFIL, reported what it called "intense shelling and exchanges on the ground" along the common border. Israel has taken control of a band of territory a few miles deep right across the frontier.

Israel has resumed nightly airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in south Beirut, and on Friday struck in the Christian heartland north of the capital, rocketing bridges and severing the last major road link to Syria and the outside world.

In the most dramatic operation, Israeli commandos battled Hezbollah guerrillas in a pre-dawn raid on an apartment building in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre. The raid was the latest Israeli commando operation deep inside Lebanese territory aimed at taking out Hezbollah positions.

Both Israel and Hezbollah claimed victory in the Tyre battle - with Israel claiming it was "very successful" in taking out a key guerrilla unit involved in firing long-range rockets into Israel - including one that hit Hadera.

Lebanese military and rescue workers said at least five Lebanese - including a soldier at a nearby checkpoint - were killed in the raid. The Israeli military reported eight soldiers wounded, two seriously.

Israeli jets continued pounding targets late Saturday and early Sunday with strikes near Tyre, southern market town of Nabatiyeh and two separate roads in the north of the country, both of them leading to Syria.

So far, at least 575 people have died in the fighting in Lebanon including 497 civilians, 28 members of the army and 50 Hezbollah guerrillas. Added to the total deaths were five Syrian farm workers killed in an Israel airstrike just inside the Lebanese border in the Bekaa Valley whose deaths were not counted when the attack occurred Friday. A total of seven civilians and one soldier were killed Saturday. Three Syrian farm workers wounded in the Israeli airstrike also died.

The Israeli military said late Saturday it had killed more than 400 Hezbollah guerrillas since the fighting began.

Seventy-nine Israelis have died, including 46 soldiers and 33 civilians killed by Hezbollah rockets. The latest deaths were three Israeli women in a direct hit on a house in an Arab village and one Israeli soldier killed in fighting with Hezbollah.


8/5/2006 20:29:26 EDT

[theone666]

Saturday, 5 August 2006, 23:32 GMT 00:32 UK

The US and France have agreed the wording of a UN resolution to end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
It calls for a "full cessation of hostilities", demanding that Hezbollah halt all attacks and Israel stop all offensive military operations.

A BBC correspondent at the UN says the wording would allow Israel some freedom if it argues it needs to defend itself.

The UN Security Council has held initial consultations on the draft. Israel has so far reacted cautiously.

US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton said the Security Council meeting on Saturday was "very productive".

"We received a lot of encouraging comments on the draft text," he said, adding that member states needed to send it back to their capitals to seek instruction.

Meanwhile the violence has continued, with Israeli commandos clashing with Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli army said eight soldiers had been wounded and several militants were killed in the raid on an apartment in Tyre suspected of housing Hezbollah fighters in the city.

Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets into northern Israel - about 170 were fired on Saturday. Three women were killed in an attack in the mainly Arab village of Arab al-Aramshe.

'Confrontation'

The draft resolution follows weeks of disagreement over the precise wording of a call to end the violence in Lebanon.

Mr Bolton said the text did not include a requirement for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

But it does call for "the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military actions".

The draft - sent to all 15 member states in the Security Council - also calls for the current UN force in Lebanon to monitor any cessation in fighting.

Lebanon's initial reaction was to express reservations. A Lebanese envoy to the UN, Nouhad Mahmoud, said: "We would have liked to see our concerns more reflected in the text."

He said the text lacked a call for Israeli forces in Lebanon to withdraw. "That is a recipe for more confrontation," he said.

Israeli cabinet minister Isaac Herzog called the text an "important development".

He said military operations would continue "in the coming days, but we have to know that the timetable is becoming increasingly shorter".

Swift passage of the resolution seems likely, says the BBC's James Robbins at the UN in New York, and a formal vote could come as soon as Monday.

Foreign ministers are expected to come to New York for that vote, to give maximum weight to a call to all sides to stop fighting and work for a long-term political settlement, our correspondent adds.

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed news of the agreement, calling it "an absolutely vital first step in bringing this tragic crisis to an end".

The White House said President George W Bush was "happy with the progress being made".

Aid warning

As the violence on the ground continues, the Israeli army has warned residents in the Lebanese city of Sidon to stay away from rocket launching sites.

In other developments:


Israeli carried out a commando raid on Tyre, which Hezbollah said it had repelled. Lebanon says one of its soldiers died during the raid
Hezbollah fired more missiles at the northern Israeli city of Haifa in retaliation, wounding five people

An Israeli soldier died after coming under Hezbollah mortar fire in the eastern village of Taibeh

US envoy David Welch held talks in Beirut with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, the leader of the Shia Amal movement and a possible conduit to Hezbollah

Thousands marched in London, UK, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon
Aid agencies have warned of difficulties in delivering supplies to hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the fighting, after four bridges on the main coastal highway north from Beirut were destroyed on Friday.

"Now the main highway is bombed we have a major, major setback... it's like a de facto blockade at the moment," Astrid van Genderen Stort, spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency told the BBC.

[theone666]

Sunday, 6 August 2006, 03:34 GMT 04:34 UK

The UN Security Council has begun considering a draft resolution aimed at halting fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
The US said it was encouraged by the response, but Lebanese officials expressed reservations.

The draft - agreed by France and the US on Saturday - demands that Hezbollah halt all attacks and Israel stop all offensive military operations.

Correspondents say a vote at the UN could come on Monday or Tuesday.

There is little sign hostilities will abate before then. In the latest military action, five civilians were killed early on Sunday in an Israeli air raid on the South Lebanese village of Ansar, according to Lebanese sources.

Israel's campaign began three weeks ago after Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers.

'No delusions'

The UN draft resolution, agreed after much debate between France and the US, calls for a "full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations".

The text does not include the phrase "immediate cessation of hostilities" that France had wanted or an explicit demand for the return of the captured Israeli soldiers - a US preference.

The French and US envoys to the UN said they were encouraged by the initial reactions from others on the 15-member Security Council.

The White House said President George W Bush was happy with the draft but had "no delusions about what lies ahead".

A second resolution would be needed later to authorise an international peacekeeping force for southern Lebanon.

A Lebanese envoy to the UN, Nouhad Mahmoud, said: "We would have liked to see our concerns more reflected in the text."

He said it lacked a call for Israeli forces in Lebanon to withdraw. "That is a recipe for more confrontation," he said.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the draft was "not adequate".

Lebanon is not currently a member of the Security Council, but the US says its government is being consulted about negotiations at the UN.

Israeli Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog said the Israeli army would "continue to act" until the resolution was enforced.

Commando raid

There were reports of more Israeli air strikes early on Sunday morning on roads on the eastern Bekaa valley and on bridges in the north of the country.

On Saturday, Israel dropped leaflets on the Lebanese city of Sidon, warning people there to leave.

The Israeli army said it intended to attack Hezbollah rocket-launching sites in the area and wanted to avoid civilian casualties.

In other developments:


Syria accused Israel in a letter to the UN of intentionally bombing a Lebanese village close to the Syrian border on Friday, killing 28 people, mostly Syrians

Hezbollah fired about 170 rockets into northern Israel on Saturday, killing three women in a mainly Arab village

An Israeli commando raid on Tyre on Saturday left several militants dead and eight Israeli troops wounded, the Israeli army said. Hezbollah said it repelled the raid

Thousands marched in London, UK, calling for an immediate ceasefire

[theone666]

By ARON HELLER, AP

UNITED NATIONS (Aug. 6) - Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets at towns across northern Israel on Sunday, killing 10 people in the worst rocket attack on Israel since fighting began July 12, rescue services said.

Israel's Channel Two television reported that nine of those killed were reserve soldiers.

"It was a direct hit on a crowd of people," Dan Ronen, the chief of the northern police command, told Army Radio.

One of the rockets hit the northern town of Kfar Giladi, causing many of the injuries and deaths, rescue officials said. Army Radio said a synagogue was also hit.

Convoys of police and rescue vehicles raced to the town.

"This was the most difficult thing I could have imagined in my career. There are nine bodies here covered in blankets, around us cars are going up in flames," Army Radio reporter Hadas Shteif said as she choked back tears. "On one side is the cemetery, on the other side are the nine young bodies waiting for burial."

A nearby forest burst into flames from the barrage and huge plumes of gray smoke rose into the air.

Witnesses reported the barrage was going on more than 15 minutes after it had begun. One rescue service reported at least two rockets directly hit homes.

A day earlier, Israel and Hezbollah sharply intensified fighting with airstrikes, rocket attacks and brutal ground fighting - an apparent bid to inflict maximum mutual damage even as the United States and France agreed on a draft U.N. resolution calling for a halt to the violence.

Even if the U.N. Security Council adopts the resolution early next week as expected, the task of winning agreement from the warring parties portended a far more bumpy diplomatic road than the one already traveled.

As it became clear a U.S.-French agreement on the text was drawing near, Israeli-Hezbollah fighting grew particularly intense over the past few days.

Israeli commandos battled Hezbollah guerrillas in a dramatic raid on an apartment building in the southern port city of Tyre on Saturday, while warplanes blasted south Beirut. The fighting across Lebanon killed at least eight Lebanese and two Israeli soldiers, while a Hezbollah rocket volley killed three women in northern Israel.

Shortly after the diplomatic agreement was announced on the 25th day of the conflict, a Hezbollah Cabinet minister said militant Shiite guerrillas would not stop fighting until all Israeli troops leave Lebanon. The draft resolution makes no such demand.

"We (will) abide by it on condition that no Israeli soldier remains inside Lebanese land. If they stay, we will not abide by it," said Mohammed Fneish, one of two Hezbollah members of the government.

An Israeli Cabinet minister said Israel, too, had no intention to end its offensive for the time being.

"The Israeli military continues to act in the meantime, without letup, in many areas," Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog said. "We still have the coming days for many military missions, but we have to know that the timetable is becoming increasingly shorter."

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with senior ministers late Saturday. They approved continuation of the Lebanon offensive according to the present guidelines but did not discuss the draft U.N. resolution, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

The Lebanese government said it objected to portions of the U.S-French draft resolution and would demand that some provisions be amended.

"The government has objected to the U.S-French draft resolution. It has made amendments to some of the provisions and has sent them to Lebanon's U.N. representative," an aide to Prime Minister Fuad Saniora told The Associated Press late Saturday.

The aide, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make statements to the media, insisted that the government's position did not amount to a flat rejection of the draft resolution.

As written, the resolution would be a difficult, if not impossible, pill for Hezbollah to swallow, particularly language calling for the "unconditional release" of two Israeli soldiers captured by the guerrillas in a cross-border raid July 12. The hostage taking prompted the Israeli onslaught in Lebanon.

Hezbollah snatched the two soldiers to use them as bargaining tools for the release of Arab prisoners held by Israel, including three Lebanese. While the draft resolution directs Hezbollah to release the Israelis unconditionally it only encourages "efforts aimed at settling the issue of the Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel."

That language may prove the fundamental deal-breaker for Hezbollah, whose leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah vowed eight days into the conflict never to release the two Israeli soldiers without a prisoner exchange even "if the whole universe comes (against us)."

In the past two days, Hezbollah fired 365 rockets into Israel, including the deepest strike of the conflict - on Hadera, some 50 miles south of the border. Six civilians were killed in the attacks.

Over the same period, Israel conducted as many as 170 airstrikes on targets in Lebanon, killing at least 45 people.

The Israeli army also said Hezbollah has fired some 3,000 rockets into northern Israel since fighting broke out July 12.

The U.N. peacekeeping force in the south of the country, known as UNIFIL, reported what it called "intense shelling and exchanges on the ground" along the common border. Israel has taken control of a band of territory a few miles deep right across the frontier.

Israel has resumed nightly airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in south Beirut, and on Friday struck in the Christian heartland north of the capital, rocketing bridges and severing the last major road link to Syria and the outside world.

In the most dramatic operation, Israeli commandos battled Hezbollah guerrillas in a pre-dawn raid on an apartment building in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre. The raid was the latest Israeli commando operation deep inside Lebanese territory aimed at taking out Hezbollah positions.

Both Israel and Hezbollah claimed victory in the Tyre battle - with Israel claiming it was "very successful" in taking out a key guerrilla unit involved in firing long-range rockets into Israel - including one that hit Hadera.

Lebanese military and rescue workers said at least five Lebanese - including a soldier at a nearby checkpoint - were killed in the raid. The Israeli military reported eight soldiers wounded, two seriously.

Israeli jets continued pounding targets late Saturday and early Sunday with strikes near Tyre, southern market town of Nabatiyeh and two separate roads in the north of the country, both of them leading to Syria.


08-06-06 06:36 EDT