60 Die in New Israeli Raids

08/08/2006| IslamWeb

At least 60 civilians were killed yesterday in a wave of Israeli bombing raids against villages in southern and eastern Lebanon, police said.

Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, who had earlier accused Israel of killing more than 40 people in an attack on the Lebanese village of Hula, later said just one person had been killed in the strike, which demolished six buildings.

As clashes between Hizbollah militants and Israeli forces along the border intensified, the Israeli army warned Lebanese living south of the Litani River not to go outdoors.

A wave of attacks severed the southern port city of Tyre from the rest of the country, while the military carried out a deadly evening raid on the southern suburbs of Beirut.

In the deadliest attack, 14 civilians, including women and children, died in Ghaziye near the city of Sidon, when three buildings and a villa were hit by an Israeli air strike.

In other attacks, at least eight people were killed when the Israeli military launched two strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, a rescue worker with the Lebanese Red Cross said.

The blasts, which followed instensified airstrikes by Israel, came just hours after Arab League diplomats wrapped up a crisis meeting that strongly backed Siniora's ceasefire demands.

The bombardments targeted the southern Shiyah district which until now had been spared attacks and was still inhabited by some residents.

A three-storey building reportedly collapsed. A neighbouring building had also been sliced in two while a fire was raging in a nearby mosque.

At least five civilians were killed in Tyre in two successive early afternoon raids on three buildings, which collapsed.

The housing complex hit was the same as that targeted by a helicopter-borne commando operation at the weekend that the Israeli military said left three Hizbollah militants dead.

Seven people were killed and five wounded at dawn when Israeli fighter-bombers struck a house in Ghassaniyeh, south of the port of Sidon, the main city in the southern region, completely destroying the three-storey building.

Police said Israeli air strikes had destroyed six buildings in the attack on Hula, a village caught in the centre of Israel's ground push into southern Lebanon. They said that one person was dead and 65 were pulled out alive.

"It turned out there was one person killed. They thought that the whole building smashed on the heads of 40 people. Thank God that they have been saved," Siniora said.

The renewed fighting came despite moves at the UN to agree a resolution proposed by the US and France that urges an end to "offensive" Israeli military operations as well as Hizbollah attacks on the Jewish state.

Intense clashes erupted in the south as the Israeli army pressed on with a bid to eradicate Hizbollah from the border area and halt the rocket attacks on Israel that killed 15 people on Sunday alone.

Residents of Tyre reported hearing the thuds of battle on the western end of the front, with the sound of cannon fire shaking walls in the city itself.

Hizbollah, meanwhile, sent at least 83 missiles into northern Israel, lightly wounding five Israelis, according to Israeli rescue services.

In further evidence of Hizbollah's expanded attacks, the Israeli army said it downed a Hizbollah drone over the Mediterranean Sea. Israeli officials said at least two other unmanned aircraft were sent on reconnaissance missions by the militia since late 2004, but this was the first one shot down.

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz responded to the Hizbollah barrage with an order to step up attacks against the group's rocket sites. Peretz told the top parliamentary committee on security affairs that in the absence of a diplomatic agreement, he has instructed the army to "take control" of launch sites and "take the Israeli people out of the shelters".

The latest Israeli push included head-on ground clashes aimed at flushing out Hizbollah militiamen from the border zone.

The village of Hula is caught in the centre of the clashes.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Lebanese man calls for help while another one climbs on the ruins trying to saved people trapped in a building destroyed in an Israeli strike in Beirut. (AFP)