Israel Launches New Air Strikes on Beirut, Hezbollah Kills At Least Eight Israelis

BOURJ AL-MULOUK, Lebanon (AP) – Israel renewed airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs Thursday and an Israeli missile killed three people in a border village, a day after Hezbollah launched its biggest rocket barrage yet on the Jewish state.The Shiite guerrillas retaliated by firing at least 132 rockets at northern Israel _ 100 within several minutes _ killing at least eight people in Acre and Maalot. The death toll matched Israel’s bloodiest day of the conflict, when eight people were killed July 16 near a train maintenance depot.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.Defense Minister Amir Peretz told top army officers Thursday to begin preparing to push Israeli control 18 miles inside Lebanon to the Litani River, senior military officials said. The army says it already has taken up positions as far as five miles; moving farther would require approval by Israel’s Security Cabinet.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 520 confirmed dead _ included people missing.More than 1 million people, a quarter of Lebanon’s population, have been displaced, he said, adding that the fighting “is taking an enormous toll on human life and infrastructure, and has totally ravaged our country and shattered our economy.”At the United Nations, France circulated a revised resolution calling for an immediate cessation of Israeli-Hezbollah hostilities.It also spells out conditions for a lasting solution to the crisis, including: deploying peacekeepers; creating a buffer zone in south Lebanon free of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops; the release of two Israeli soldiers abducted by Hezbollah; and the “settlement of the issue of the Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel.”British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he hoped to see an agreement on a resolution in the next few days.So far, Washington has resisted calls for a cease-fire without simultaneous steps to deploy peacekeepers and tackle Hezbollah’s disarmament. France insists the fighting be halted first to pave the way for a wider peace.Elsewhere, an emergency meeting of the Islamic world’s biggest bloc demanded that the United Nations implement an immediate cease-fire and investigate what it called Israel’s flagrant human rights violations. Iran’s hardline president said the obliteration of Israel would cure the Middle East’s woes.Amid the diplomatic wrangling, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah offered to stop the missile attacks on Israeli cities if Israel stops attacks on Lebanese towns.Speaking in a taped television address, he also threatened to fire rockets into Tel Aviv if Israel attacks downtown Beirut.Earlier, Hezbollah’s chief spokesman said his group will not agree to a cease-fire until all Israeli troops leave Lebanon.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his country would stop its offensive only after international peacekeepers were in place in southern Lebanon.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.In fighting Thursday:_Three Israeli soldiers were killed when a rocket hit their tank in the Lebanese border village of Rajmil, the army said._In the border village of Taibeh, an Israeli missile crashed into a two-story house, killing a couple and their daughter, Lebanese security officials said. Guerrillas clashed with Israeli troops, destroying a tank and two bulldozers and wounding its crew members, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said. The Israeli army said only a tank was lightly hit._In the first air raids on Beirut in almost a week, witnesses said at least four missiles hit the southern suburb of Dahieh, a Shiite Muslim area repeatedly shelled by Israel. Lebanese television said the attacks targeted a Hezbollah compound damaged by earlier raids._Later Thursday, Israeli jets dropped leaflets over southern Beirut warning residents to evacuate three Shiite neighborhoods, a possible prelude to more attacks._Warplanes carried out at least five air raids near villages around the southern market town of Nabatiyeh, Lebanese security officials said. The officials said there were heavy clashes between guerrillas and troops near the border towns of Kfar Kila and Adaisse, where they said two Israeli tanks were destroyed._Israeli warplanes 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 Lebanon’s infrastructure._Other strikes hit targets near the 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.On Wednesday, two Israeli soldiers were killed and four wounded in heavy ground battles around the southern village of Ayt a-Shab, the Israeli military said Thursday. It said four Hezbollah fighters were killed and two wounded; there was no confirmation from Hezbollah.Meanwhile, an Israeli military inquiry into the bombing Sunday of a building in the southern village of Qana, which killed mostly women and children, admitted a mistake but charged that Hezbollah guerrillas used civilians as shields.“Had the information indicated that civilians were present … the attack would not have been carried out,” a statement from the inquiry said.While Lebanese officials said 56 died in Qana, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday there were 28 known dead and 13 missing. The AP on Thursday interviewed officials in the Lebanese Red Cross and Civil Defense Corps and reached the same numbers. George Kitane, head of Lebanese Red Cross paramedics, said 19 children were among the dead.Using those revised totals from Qana, at least 520 Lebanese have been killed since the fighting began three weeks ago, including 445 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 25 Lebanese soldiers and at least 46 Hezbollah guerrillas.In all, 67 Israelis have been confirmed dead _ 40 soldiers in fighting, 27 civilians killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks.The prospect of a longer war already has raised tensions across the Mideast, where anti-Israeli and anti-American hostility is high.In Malaysia, leaders of key countries in the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference issued a declaration calling for a U.N.-implemented cease-fire and warning that the Israeli-Hezbollah fighting would fan Muslim radicalism worldwide.Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad _ who has in the past called for Israel to be wiped off the map _ said “the main solution (to the Mideast conflict) is for the elimination of the Zionist regime.”Jordan’s King Abdullah II, a key U.S. ally, warned that the prolonged battle in Lebanon has weakened moderates all across the Mideast.

Israel Launches New Air Strikes on Beirut, Hezbollah Kills At Least Eight Israelis

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