Israel Intensifies Airstrikes As Arabs Rally Around Siniora
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BEIRUT, Lebanon — Israel intensified its strikes on Beirut and southern Lebanon yesterday, killing at least 33 people in one of the heaviest tolls in days. Lebanon’s prime minister won strong support from Arab states to plead his case at the United Nations for a full Israeli withdrawal.
Hezbollah guerrillas killed two Israeli soldiers with an anti-tank missile in south Lebanon a few hours after a third soldier died from sniper fire in the same area, the Israeli army said.
President Bush said he anticipates that Hezbollah and Israel will not agree with all aspects of a Middle East ceasefire resolution but said, “We all recognize that the violence must stop.”
Prime Minister Siniora of Lebanon got strong backing from Arab League foreign ministers, who warned the U.N. Security Council against adopting resolutions that do not serve Lebanon’s interests. They decided to send a high-level delegation to New York to press Lebanon’s case.
Israeli warplanes repeatedly bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs and pounded other areas of Lebanon, killing 15 people, Lebanese officials said. In northern Israel, scores of Hezbollah rockets wounded five people, rescue workers said.
An Israeli strike on the southern Beirut suburb of Chiah at sunset killed 10 people, police said.
The blast rocked Beirut within two hours of the foreign ministers’ departure. Lebanese security officials said Israel naval artillery had fired from ships off the Mediterranean coast, where they also are enforcing a sea blockade.
Seven people were killed when a missile hit a house in Qassmieh on the coast north of Lebanon’s port city of Tyre, a civil defense official, Youssef Khairallah, said.
Mr. Siniora at one point told the Arab League officials that 40 people were killed by an Israeli airstrike that flattened a building in the southern village of Houla, but he later backtracked, saying only one person died.
The Israeli army said three of its soldiers were killed in fighting in the area of Bint Jbeil. Hezbollah guerrillas killed two with an anti-tank missile, and a third died from sniper fire, the army said.
The soldiers killed five Hezbollah gunmen in the battle, the army said.
A new barrage of 83 rockets hit northern Israel, slightly wounding five Israelis, rescue services said.
Ministers called for a meeting of Israel’s Security Cabinet later yesterday to discuss whether to broaden the nearly four-week-old offensive.
One minister, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did not want to be seen as criticizing the military, said the army needed to send all available ground forces into Lebanon immediately to push Hezbollah and its rocket launchers out of the area south of the Litani River, about 18 miles from the border.
Israel’s attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 617 people, including 524 civilians, 29 Lebanese soldiers, and at least 53 Hezbollah guerrillas. Hezbollah fired its deadliest rocket barrage Sunday on Israel, killing 12 Israeli reservists and three civilians. That brought the Israeli death toll to 97, including 49 soldiers, the 12 reservists, and 36 civilians.
Israeli warplanes hit an apartment complex in Tyre, and an ambulance driver, Shadi Jradi, said he got a report of five people killed, although he did not see the bodies himself.
A woman and her daughter were killed near a Lebanese army checkpoint between the villages of Harouf and Dweir, security officials said. Four other people were killed in a raid that destroyed a house in Kfar Tebnit.
Air raids on the town of Ghaziyeh also destroyed several buildings, killing at least one person and wounding 14, hospital officials said.
A building collapsed in the village of Ghassaniyeh, and at least one body was pulled from the rubble. Witnesses and civil defense workers said six more people were buried, but that could not be confirmed.
Five air raids struck the market town of Nabatiyeh, targeting two office buildings, a house, and one of the offices of a Shiite grand ayatollah, Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. No casualties were reported there or in raids on the villages of Jibsheet and Toul.
Attacks also were carried out in Naqoura on the border and Ras al-Biyada, about halfway between Naqoura and Tyre. About 30 Israeli commandos landed by helicopter on a hill overlooking Ras al-Biyada, where they battled Hezbollah militants, Lebanese security officials said. Israeli officials would not confirm the operation.
After nightfall, three loud explosions rocked Beirut, and Lebanese security officials said Israel naval artillery had fired on the southern suburbs from ships off the Mediterranean coast, where they also are enforcing a sea blockade.
In other violence, Israeli warplanes hit roads in the Bekaa Valley, a northeastern region of Lebanon that is a symbol of Hezbollah power. At least four explosions were heard around the city of Baalbek, about 60 miles north of Israel’s border, witnesses said. The Israeli military confirmed it had hit several targets in the area.
Warplanes also struck a large factory for construction materials just south of Baalbek.
Jet fighters attacked the Rashaya region farther south on the corridor linking southern regions with the Bekaa Valley, witnesses said. A road near the Beirut border post at Masnaa on the Beirut-Damascus highway, a frequent target of attack, was hit again.