THE Israeli Prime Minister vowed last night to continue his country’s offensive in Lebanon until Hezbollah’s ability to threaten his nation was destroyed and the captured Israeli soldiers were returned.

Ehud Olmert made his impassioned speech to the Israeli parliament as thousands of Westerners fled the onslaught. Britain, the United States, France, Germany and many other countries mounted operations to evacuate their citizens from Beirut as Israeli warplanes continued their bombardment of the Lebanese capital. More than 60 of the most vulnerable Britons were airlifted to the safety of a military base in Cyprus.

“This is a moment of truth for Israel,” Mr Olmert said. “We will fight with all the strength we are capable of. We will strike anyone who would strike at us.

“We shall seek out every installation, hit every terrorist helping to attack Israeli citizens, destroy all the terrorist infrastructure in every place . . . When missiles are launched at our residents and our towns, our answer will be war waged at full strength, with all determination, courage and sacrifice.”

Mr Olmert was speaking as the death toll from six days of Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon passed 200. More than forty people were killed across Lebanon yesterday, including ten civilians caught on a southern bridge. Nine bodies were pulled from a hospital in Tyre that was hit on Sunday. Three Israeli tanks crossed briefly into Lebanese territory for the first time, to hit Hezbollah targets.

An Israeli security source told Reuters that Israel believed that it had a week to inflict as much damage as it could on Hezbollah before the US, Israel’s strongest supporter, became unable to resist international pressure for a ceasefire. Israeli forces “will have to accelerate the bombardment”, he said.

Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese Prime Minister, said that Israel had now inflicted billions of dollars of damage and was trying to set his country back 50 years. Hezbollah retaliated with more missile strikes on Israeli towns, including a rocket attack that smashed into an apartment block in the coastal town of Haifa. So far 24 Israelis have been killed and hundreds injured.

Last night, Israeli security officials said that another barrage of Hezbollah rockets fired from southern Lebanon had hit more buildings in Haifa, a hospital in Safed and the border town of Kiryat Shemona.

As the day of violence unfolded, world leaders desperately sought ways to end the fighting. Speaking at the G8 summit in St Petersburg, Tony Blair and Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, led demands for an international force to be sent into southern Lebanon to stop Hezbollah attacks on Israel and Israeli retaliation.

“The only way that we are going to have a cessation of violence is if we have an international force deployed into that area,” Mr Blair said, but the idea received a lukewarm response from Israel and the United States.

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