BEIRUT, 18 July 2006 — Israeli jets pounded Lebanon with a new wave of deadly air raids yesterday, sending the death toll above 200 after less than a week of fighting as Hezbollah again hammered the Israeli city of Haifa.
An Israeli missile killed 12 people traveling in a minibus south of Beirut in the day’s single deadliest attack, as world leaders scrambled to head off an all-out Middle East war.
As a tit-for-tat cycle of violence continued, six people were injured, one seriously, when a Hezbollah rocket plowed into a four-story apartment building in Haifa, one day after eight railway workers were killed in the first such deadly attack in Israel’s third largest city. Leaders at the Group of Eight summit in Russia rushed to contain the crisis, floating the idea of organizing a substantial international force for Lebanon.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said such a “stabilization” force should be much larger than the 2,000-strong UN observer mission already deployed in south Lebanon.
“The mission will have to be far more specific and clearer, and the force employed will have to be far greater,” he said.
Meanwhile, a special UN envoy leading a team seeking to negotiate a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah told reporters after talks in Beirut that there had been “some promising first efforts on the way forward.”
“I must stress that these are first steps and much diplomatic work needs to be done,” said Vijay Nambiar, who was to hold talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni today. But Hezbollah rejected a truce on terms dictated by Israel. “We accept no conditions for a cease-fire, whatever the pressure,” Abdullah Kasir, a member of Hezbollah’s central committee, told AFP.
Lebanese civilians have found themselves caught in the cross-fire in a fierce flare-up of violence. The overall toll killed in Lebanon since last Wednesday reached 192, in addition to 12 soldiers. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday said a cease-fire would only be considered on three conditions: that Hezbollah releases two captured Israeli soldiers, the firing of Hezbollah rockets on Israeli towns ceases, and that the militia be disarmed in line with a UN resolution.
Twenty-four Israelis have been killed since fighting began last Wednesday, including 12 civilians in a barrage of Hezbollah rocket fire across the border. Yesterday, rockets reached deep into Israel as far as the Arab towns of Afula and Nazareth.
The UN Security Council met behind closed doors to discuss the escalation as UN envoys holding urgent attacks in the region said they had achieved “some promising first efforts” to end hostilities.
“I appeal to the parties to focus their targets narrowly and to bear in mind that they have an obligation under international humanitarian law to spare civilian lives (and) to spare civilian infrastructure,” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said at the G-8 summit.
The Israeli onslaught has left Lebanon virtually cut off from the outside world and much of its infrastructure in tatters, with jets hitting roads, bridges and power stations as well as Hezbollah strongholds. Beirut’s international airport, already shut to traffic since last Thursday, was hit again late Sunday by Israeli warplanes which fired 10 missiles on a runway and set the night sky ablaze.
The Israeli military ordered residents to flee villages in southern Lebanon, warning of air and artillery operations, and put its commercial capital Tel Aviv and all towns further north on alert. Foreign governments raced to send in boats and military helicopters to evacuate their nationals from Lebanon, cut off by an Israeli air and sea blockade on the sixth day of the conflict.
Wiping away tears and hugging loved ones they were leaving behind, hundreds of foreigners were fleeing Lebanon, packed into buses to head across the border into Syria or waiting to be shipped or airlifted out by their government.
Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has declared Lebanon a “disaster zone” and appealed for urgent international help for a country that was slowly rebuilding after a devastating 15-year civil war. But diplomatic efforts are finally beginning to gain momentum.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she is considering traveling to the region and French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin arrived in Beirut to express “solidarity” with the Lebanese people.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki of Iran, one of Hezbollah’s main backers along with Syria, proposed a “cease-fire” and an exchange of prisoners between Israel and Arabs. “We need to reflect in a reasonable and just manner so that we can put an end to the crisis,” Mottaki said after talks with Syrian Vice President Farouk Shara.
The United States has maintained Israel has every right to defend itself and also urged restraint over the offensive, which has split the international community and raised fears of dragging Syria and Iran into the conflict.
Israel says the aim of its operation is to destroy Hezbollah, which was instrumental in its withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 after a long and bloody occupation.
