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Israel blockaded Lebanese ports and struck Beirut airport and two military airbases on Thursday, expanding reprisals that have killed 53 civilians in Lebanon since Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers a day earlier.
Hizbollah guerrillas rained at least 70 rockets onto northern Israel in their heaviest bombardment in a decade. Two women were killed and 42 people were wounded, Israeli medics said. Residents in the north were ordered into bomb shelters.
The violence was the fiercest since 1996 when Israeli troops still occupied part of south Lebanon. It coincided with a major Israeli offensive into the Gaza Strip to try to retrieve a captured soldier and halt Palestinian rocket fire.
Information Minister Ghazi al-Aridi said after an emergency cabinet meeting that Lebanon wanted a comprehensive ceasefire and an end to "this open-ended aggression" by Israel.
AIR AND SEA BLOCKADE
Israeli aircraft bombed runways at Beirut's international airport, forcing flights to divert to Cyprus. Later in the day Israeli aircraft also attacked two airbases used mostly by Lebanon's small fleet of military helicopters.
A senior Israeli officer told Reuters the air and sea blockade would be maintained throughout what he said would be a prolonged offensive against Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
"We should not consider this a matter of days," said Brigadier-General Amir Eshel, deputy chief of air force staff. "This blockade will last as long as the conflict goes on."
Israeli naval vessels enforcing the siege turned away three ships carrying fuel to Beirut, a shipping source said.
Three of Hizbollah's al-Manar television facilities in Beirut and elsewhere came under fire from Israeli helicopters. One person was reported killed and 10 wounded.
Israeli forces also plan to strike the main Beirut-Damascus highway, according to an Israeli Defense Ministry briefing.
Israel has rejected Hizbollah demands that it release Arab prisoners in exchange for the captive soldiers, named by the Israeli army as Ehud Goldwasser, 31, and Eldad Regev, 26.
Sustained air strikes in south Lebanon killed more than 50 civilians and wounded 110 people, security sources said. Ten members of a family were killed in Dweir village and seven family members died in Baflay.
A Lebanese army soldier was also killed. Israeli air strikes on Wednesday killed two civilians and a Hizbollah fighter. Two dozen bridges have been hit, with most heavily damaged.
Israeli media said the army had warned Lebanon to evacuate all residents from a southern Beirut neighborhood where it believes Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah lives.
There was no confirmation from the Lebanese authorities that they had received any warning from Israel to evacuate the area, home to hundreds of thousands of mostly impoverished Shi'ites.
Hizbollah threatened to bombard Israel's third-largest city of Haifa if Beirut or its southern suburbs were attacked.
Arab foreign ministers agreed to hold an emergency meeting in Cairo on Saturday to discuss Israeli attacks in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, the Arab League said.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is sending a three-person team to the Middle East to try to defuse the crisis.
The violence rattled financial markets in Israel and Lebanon with investors worried that it might worsen, or spread to Syria.
The Israeli shekel lost as much as two percent against the dollar and shares lost four percent in early trade.
The Lebanese pound came under pressure. Beirut stocks slumped in panic selling, with Lebanon's biggest company Solidere shedding 15 percent, the maximum permitted.
The Israeli assault has widened divisions in Lebanon between those who praise Hizbollah's defiance of Israel and those angered by the high price it inflicts on the Lebanese.
Source: Reuters |
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