52 Lebanese civilians killed in Israeli attack
Online update 13 July 2006
Israel intensified its attacks against Lebanon on Thursday, blasting Beirut's international airport and the southern part of the country in its heaviest air campaign against its neighbor in 24 years. According to Al-Jazeera TV station, 47 Lebanese civilians were killed in the attacks.
The strikes on the airport, which damaged three runways, came hours before Israel said it was imposing an air and naval blockade on Lebanon.
The strikes come in response to the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbullah's capture of two Israeli soldiers Wednesday morning in a cross border attack. Eight Israeli occupation soldiers were killed and 21 wounded in the 'Truthful Promise' operation which Hizbullah wants to swap the two soldiers for Arabs held in Israeli prisons. Two Hizbullah militants were killed in the attack.
Israel holds approximately 10,000 Palestinian and Arab prisoners including 2,000 Lebanese.
It is refusing to exchange prisoners and responded by launching an aggressive military attack on Lebanon targeting civilians and infrastructure.
Israel's chief of staff on Thursday warned Hizbuallah that the Lebanese capital Beirut is "not immune" from attacks. Hizbullah responded by warning that it could fire Katyusha rockets as far as the port of Haifa in north Israel.
Beirut airport, located in the Hizbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, was closed after the attacks and flights were diverted to nearby Cyprus. It was the first time since Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon and occupation of Beirut that the airport was hit by Israel.
Israel also fired a missile at the building housing the studios Hizbollah's Al-Manar TV in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Thursday morning. One person was hurt, but the station continued to broadcast.
Overnight Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon, meanwhile, killed 47 civilians and wounded dozens more. A family of 10 and another family of seven were killed in their homes in the village of Dweir near Nabatiyeh, the officials said.
Later Thursday, the Lebanese resistance fired volleys of rockets at northern Israel, killing an Israeli woman in her home in the border town of Nahariya, officials said. Five people were wounded.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the Hezbollah raid an "act of war" by Lebanon and threatened "very, very, very painful" retaliation. The Cabinet, meeting Wednesday in the wake of the military's highest daily death toll in four years, decided to continue the army operation and call on the international community to disarm Hizbollah, according to participants.
On Thursday, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the offensive in Lebanon has far-reaching objectives, including pushing Hizbullah militants away from the Israeli border and eventually sidelining the group altogether.
"We must neutralize the hostile terrorist infrastructure that exists in Lebanon," he said.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz also demanded that Lebanese army forces be deployed along the border. Lebanon has long refused to do this, saying that it is not in business of protecting Israel's northern border.
The Lebanese government said Wednesday that it had not known of the Hizbollah operation, did not condone it and bore no responsibility for it.
In its overnight attacks, Israeli aircraft and artillery targeted roads and bridges, as well as Hezbollah positions and houses of guerrilla members and leaders. A bridge on the main highway between Beirut and southern Lebanon was hit by big bombs that left huge craters, blocking traffic.
Hezbollah's TV station reported that guerrillas has fired Katyusha rockets at the Israeli border town of Kiryat Shmona and targeted an airstrip in the upper Galilee panhandle. Another barrage of rockets targeted Nahariya near the coast.
Nahariya Mayor Jackie Sabag said the whole town had been shut down and residents were urged to stay in underground shelters. Patients at the town's hospital were moved to rooms on lower floors.
The Israeli army said several rockets had landed more than 12 miles south of the border, showing that Hezbollah has managed to extend its missiles' range.
Israel and Lebanon have a history of conflict, punctuated by a full-scale Israeli invasion in 1982, and its 18-year occupation of a buffer zone in southern Lebanon. The last major Israeli air, ground and sea offensive against Lebanon was in 1996 when about 150 Lebanese civilians were killed.
Arab leaders have remained silent in response to the escalation. The Cairo-based Arab League will hold an emergency Arab foreign ministers meeting on Saturday.
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