GAZA CITY/BEIRUT, 13 July 2006 — Israel pounded southern Lebanon with airstrikes and artillery and sent ground troops over the border for the first time in six years yesterday after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in an explosion of violence between the two countries.
And Israel sharply escalated its military campaign in the Gaza Strip, dropping a quarter ton bomb on a home yesterday in an attempt to assassinate top Hamas leaders. Nine members of a family, including seven children, were killed.
The airstrike targeted the No. 1 Palestinian fighter on Israel’s wanted list.
After initially claiming that its leaders had escaped harm, Hamas men took over the intensive care unit of Gaza City’s main hospital, where doctors said seven people were in critical condition. Gunmen barred reporters from entering the unit, suggesting that Hamas members were inside.
The Israeli Army said Mohammed Deif, the leader of the Hamas military wing and top of Israel’s wanted list for more than a decade, was among the wounded. Palestinian security officials said he suffered a serious spinal injury.
Elsewhere in Gaza, at least nine Palestinians were killed in four separate incidents, including Israeli tank fire and a gunfight.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the soldiers’ capture “an act of war” and said he held the Lebanese government responsible for their safety. He warned that Israel’s response would be “very painful.” Israel’s northern commander, Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, said Israel wants to “push back” Hezbollah fighters, who control Lebanon’s southern border.
Faced with a second front, Israel suddenly has a far more complicated task in freeing an Israeli soldier kidnapped two weeks ago by Hamas-allied groups in Gaza.
Hezbollah said it had kidnapped the soldiers to help win the release of prisoners held in Israel. Palestinians had made identical demands in seizing the Israeli soldier. It was not known whether Hezbollah planned yesterday’s operation to snatch the two Israelis in coordination with Hamas.
Israel has been conducting a large-scale military offensive in Gaza since the groups captured the soldier on June 25. The campaign’s declared aim is to force Hamas fighters to turn over the soldier and to halt ongoing rocket fire on southern Israel. Yesterday’s aerial attack in Gaza City was bound to intensify international criticism of Israel. The United Nations has already complained about what it said was disproportionate use of Israeli force in the Gaza operation.
In Rome, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the release of all captured Israeli soldiers, but also condemned the incursion in Lebanon and urged Israel to show restraint.
“We would not want to see an expansion, an escalation of conflict in the region,” Annan said.
Security officials said Israel dropped a 250-kilo (550-pound) bomb on the two-story house, which collapsed from the force of the blast, burying people under the rubble. Israeli officials said the attack was aimed at top Hamas fighters gathered in the building.
Rescue workers pulled from the rubble the mangled body of a 4-year-old child, clad in a red-T-shirt, whose head was blown open by the blast and whose lower body was torn off.
The house belonged to Nabil Abu Salmiyeh, a Hamas activist and lecturer at Gaza City’s Islamic University. Palestinian hospital officials said Abu Salmiyeh, his wife and seven of their nine children were killed, and rescue workers said four people were still missing.
— With input from agencies
