Israel stepped up its crippling military offensive in Lebanon tonight, hitting Beirut's airport and its Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs as the UN Security Council began an emergency meeting to discuss the conflict and avert all-out war in the Middle East.
More than 60 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in Lebanon since Israel launched the offensive two days ago, after Hezbollah guerrillas abducted two Israeli soldiers and killed eight more two days ago.
Meanwhile an Israeli mother and daughter were reported to have been killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack on northern Israel, tonight bringing the Israeli civilian death toll to four.
Overnight and today, the Israelis hit key infrastructure targets including fuel depots and also cut off the main Beirut-Damascus highway, forcing thousands of fleeing tourists to take mountain side roads into the Syrian capital.
This evening Israeli bomber planes failed in an attempt to kill Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, in an airstrike on a building in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood where he has an apartment. The militant group put out a statement saying that he was not hurt. "Hezbollah’s secretary-general, family and bodyguards are safe and sound," the statement read.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli Defence Force said that it had struck two buildings in southern Beirut used by the Hezbollah leadership, including the group's headquarters. She added that civilians had been advised to leave the area.
A team of senior UN negotiators was heading to the region tonight and Russia and the European Union were also sending peace envoys.
Among Israel's fiercest critics was President Chirac, who said in his traditional Bastille Day television interview that he thought it wanted to destroy Lebanon. He said the Israeli actions were "totally disproportionate" to the Hezbollah provocation.
But President Bush, who arrived in Russia today for a G8 summit likely to be dominated by the crisis, told the Lebanese Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora, in a telephone call that while he would pressure Israel to limit civilian casualties and contain the damage, he would not demand a ceasefire. "The President is not going to make military decisions for Israel," the White House spokesman said.
Israel, apparently taken aback by the extent of the criticism, said that its Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, has set three conditions for a ceasefire: the release of soldiers whose capture by Hezbollah guerrillas triggered the crisis, a halt to rocket fire and the disarmament of Hezbollah already demanded by the Security Council.
"If these conditions are met, we are ready to cooperate with a delegation from the United Nations," a spokeswoman said.
Mr Olmert ordered the army to intensify its offensive after a barrage of rockets hit towns in northern Israel, including the Mediterranean port city of Haifa, killing two people. As the Security Council meeting got under way in New York, Israel's UN ambassador, Dan Gillerman, said that Hezbollah had sent 500 missiles into Israel in the past 48 hours.
"Israel will not be held hostage to terror," Mr Gillerman told Council members as he blasted Hamas and Hezbollah militants for acting as "executioners" for Iran and Syria.
The US wielded its Security Council veto yesterday for the first time in almost two years, to defeat a draft resolution calling on Israel to end its attacks in Gaza, where another Israeli soldier has been held for almost three weeks.
Israel has pointed the finger of blame at Syria and Iran as Hezbollah’s main backers and a Government minister gave warning of Israel's determination to eliminate Sheikh Nasrallah, the charismatic leader of the Shia fundamentalist movement.
"Nasrallah, I think, has pronounced sentence on himself but we will settle the account with him fully somewhere, sometime," Ronnie Bar-On, the Israeli Interior Minister, told Israel Radio.
In a wave of air strikes today, Israeli jets hit an airport hangar and fuel tanks, pounded the area around Hezbollah’s command headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut and a Palestinian guerrilla base in eastern Lebanon, as well as bridges and roads.
Police said five people were killed today, bringing to 62 the death toll in Lebanon since Israel unleashed what the military has called "Operation Just Reward."
In northern Israel, where army ordered about half a million Israelis into bomb shelters, a volley of about 70 rockets was fired on the towns of Safed and Nahariya, injuring 11.
President Ahmadinejad, already locked in an international stand-off over its suspect nuclear programme, warned that Israel would receive a "stinging response" from the Islamic world if it committed any aggression against Syria. Saudi Arabia however indirectly accused Hezbollah of "adventurism" over its capture of the Israeli soldiers.
With Lebanon’s airport shut and Israeli blockading its ports, thousands of tourists, mostly Gulf Arab nationals, fled across the border to Syria.
A number of foreign states issued travel warnings, including Britain. The Foreign Office's updated advice said: "If you are currently in Lebanon you should stay put for the time being, exercise caution, keep in touch with the Embassy and heed local advice. We are keeping the situation under close review but you should get ready for departure at short notice if the situation changes, including by having travel documents in order."
Meanwhile Palestinian militants today forced open the border gate between Egypt and Gaza to allow hundreds of people stranded for up to three weeks on the Egyptian side of the border - many of them after seeking medical treatment in Egyptian hospitals - to get back into Gaza. There were reports tonight that Israeli helicopters had opened fire near the Rafah crossing.
A 26-year-old Palestinian woman suffering from cancer died at the border while waiting to be allowed into Gaza last week, and a teenage boy and a man in his 60s who suffered a heart attack have also died while stranded. The border was shut after the crisis began on June 25, when Palestinian militants raided Israel through a tunnel from Gaza and kidnapped a soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit.
PAST INCURSIONS
Operation Spring of Youth, April 1973 Israeli Special Forces raid West Beirut, assassinating three members of Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as revenge for the murder of Israeli athletes at 1972 Munich Olympics
Operation Litani, March 1978 Fatah militants kill 36 Israeli civilians. Israel responds by invading Lebanon
Operation Peace for Galilee, June 1982 Attempted assassination of Israeli Ambassador to Britain provides casus belli for invasion of Lebanon by Israeli Defence Force (IDF). Hezbollah forms as opposition to occupation
Operation Accountability, July 1993 Week-long artillery and air bombardment by IDF attempts to destroy Hezbollah and Palestinian militants' power-base in South Lebanon. Ceasefire brokered by US
Operation Grapes of Wrath, April 1996 Israeli jets strike Lebanese power stations and suspected Hezbollah bases
