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Israeli air strikes kill 42
17/07/2006 23:25 - (SA)
Beirut - Israeli air strikes killed 42
people across Lebanon on Monday on the sixth day of a bombardment that has
wreaked the heaviest destruction in Lebanon for over 20 years.
The dead included 10 civilians hit on a
southern bridge.
Rescuers also pulled nine bodies from the wreckage of a
building in the southern city of Tyre that was bombed on Sunday,
raising the death toll since Israel's offensive began to 204 -
all but 14 of them civilians.
The fighting was triggered when Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in a
cross-border raid on northern Israel on July 12.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Jewish state
would pursue its offensive until the two soldiers were returned
and the Lebanese army controlled all of south Lebanon. May step up attacks "Our
enemies have challenged the state of Israel's sovereignty and
the peace of its citizens," Olmert said in an address.
An Israeli government source said Israel may step up attacks
in coming days, mindful its chief ally, the United States, might
not resist indefinitely international pressure for a ceasefire.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said security council
members would start work on a detailed agreement on deploying a
multinational security force to south Lebanon, but Washington
gave only a guarded welcome and Israel said it was premature.
"We're at the stage where we want to be sure that Hezbollah
is not deployed at our northern border," Israeli government
spokesperson Miri Eisin said.
Twenty-four Israelis have been killed in the fighting,
including 12 civilians hit in rocket attacks.
Blasts rocked Beirut through the day and civilian
installations, petrol stations and factories were also hit. 'Excuse'
"I can't believe they are doing all this for two captives. "This is just an excuse," said Ali Sharara, 21, who fled his home
in south Beirut to sleep in a city park for the last two nights.
Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at the Israeli city of
Haifa on Monday and medics said a three-storey building
collapsed, wounding two people. Israel closed Haifa's port.
Another wave of rockets struck deep inside Israel, including
the town of Afula 50km south of the border. One
rocket landed next to a hospital in Safed, injuring six people.
A UN team sent to Lebanon to seek a solution to the
fighting said it had made a promising start, but that more
diplomacy was needed before there could be any optimism.
Three Israeli tanks briefly crossed a few hundred metres
into Lebanese territory on Monday afternoon, a UN source said, following a similar incursion overnight in which
Israel said Hezbollah positions were destroyed. 'Cutting Lebanon to pieces'
Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Israeli attacks
had inflicted billions of dollars of damage. "What Israel has
been doing is cutting the country to pieces," he told Reuters.
Israeli radio said Hizbollah tried to fire an Iranian-made
rocket with a range of 100km, but it malfunctioned.
- Reuters
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