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AS Dudu Wiesel stared at the slick of blood and diesel at his feet, two men ran up to him, pleading for news. “Just tell me if my son was killed,” one said, desperate to know if his child was among the eight mechanics killed by a Hezbollah missile that smashed through the roof of their railway repair yard in Haifa.
“I told them to go to the hospital because I didn’t have the details. How could I tell them their sons were killed,” Mr Wiesel, 54, told The Times.
Hezbollah’s deadliest strike in Israel came after Israeli warplanes unleashed their fiercest bombardment of Beirut at midnight on Saturday, devastating apartment buildings and blacking out much of the city.
The Israeli bombers returned after the Haifa attack to bombard Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut and drop leaflets over southern Lebanon warning residents to leave.
Last night four missiles fired by an Israeli warship hit Beirut airport, setting a fuel storage tank ablaze. It was the fourth time the airport had been attacked since Wednesday.
Police in Lebanon said yesterday that 41 people had been killed in the preceding 24 hours, nearly all civilians. This brings the total dead in Lebanon to 148, against 24 in Israel.
Nine Lebanese soliders were killed and many more wounded in Israeli air strikes on two army bases in Tripoli and Abdeb on the northern Lebanese coast late last night.
Israel also targeted Beirut’s airport, launching eight raids in less than 15 minutes, firing ten missiles on a runway and setting a fuel storage tank alight. Other targets included Hezbollah strongholds in Dahiyah and the eastern city of Baalbek, and Jiyeh power plant in Beirut.
An air strike on a southern village killed eight civilians, including seven with dual Canadian-Lebanese citizenship.
Last night’s attacks came after the penetration of rockets deeper into Israel than ever before. They hit Afula, 33 miles (50km) south of the border, and a town near Nazareth.
In the southern city of Tyre, 16 people were killed and more than 100 wounded. Witnesses said most of the casualties were caused by an attack on a building used by rescue workers.
Tyre appeared almost deserted as residents took refuge in basements, much as their Israeli counterparts were doing a few dozen miles south.
“It’s very nerve-racking for us. The Israelis are bombing very close to the city,” said Raed al-Amine, aged 26.
In Beirut, Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy head, met Fouad Siniora, the Prime Minister. A United Nations envoy also visited the Lebanese capital.
Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister, said Israel welcomed a statement by the G8 leaders that placed responsibility for the conflict on “extremist elements”. But Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, vowed that there would be “far-reaching consequences” for the Haifa attack.
Pointedly brushing aside international concerns, he said: “My Government is determined to continue doing whatever is necessary to achieve our goals. Nothing will deter us, whatever far-reaching ramifications regarding our relations on the northern border and in the region there may be.”
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, said the guerrilla group’s launching of 20 long-range missiles on Haifa was retaliation for Israel’s killing of civilians and promised more “surprises”: “Hezbollah is not fighting a battle for Hezbollah or even for Lebanon — we are now fighting a battle for the (Islamic) nation.”
In the deserted streets of Haifa and other northern Israeli towns, sirens wailed yesterday as police ordered businesses to close and civilians to stay in their homes.
The deadliest strike came shortly after 9am, when the eight Israel Railways workers were killed by a direct hit on their maintenance depot.
The attacks came only a day after Israel had deployed Patriot anti-missile batteries around the city to little effect.
Dudu Wiesel staunchly supported Israel’s aggressive stance. “They should continue all the way until they finish off Hezbollah. This is our chance.”
Additional reporting by Yonit Farago in Haifa
TOWARDS WAR
JUNE 25 Militants from Hamas, Popular Resistance Committees and Jish al-Islam use a tunnel to cross the border between Gaza and Israel. Two Israeli soldiers are killed in the ambush, four injured and one, Corporal Gilad Shalit, kidnapped
JUNE 28 Israel launches airstrikes against Gaza, with its troops entering southern Gaza for the first time since the withdrawal 10 months before
JULY 12 Hezbollah launches rockets and mortars on Israeli towns along the Lebanese border. A force then moves into Israel, attacking two armoured Humvees near the Israeli village of Zar’it. Three Israeli soldiers are killed, two taken hostage.
Israel retaliates with airstrikes, destroying bridges and civilian infrastructure in southern Lebanon. Lebanese TV channel al-Manar reports 55 civilians killed
JULY 13 Israeli jets bomb Lebanon’s international airport near Beirut, forcing its closure. Hezbollah bombards Israeli towns Nahariya and Safed, killing two and wounding 29
JULY 14 Two Israeli civilians killed in rocket attacks in Meron. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Nasrallah declares “open war”
JULY 15 Three Patriot missile defence batteries deployed by in Haifa At least 15 Lebanese villagers, including nine women and children, are killed by an Israeli airstrike on vehicles fleeing a village in southern Lebanon
JULY 16 Eight people are killed after Hezbollah fire rockets at Haifa; an Israeli airstrike in response kills 23 Lebanese In five days of fighting, 148 Lebanese and 24 Israelis have been killed
THE WEAPONS AIMED AT ISRAEL
FAJR 3 State-of-the-art Iranian-made ballistic missile. Invisible to radar. Can hold multiple warheads capable of attacking several targets. Thought to be Hezbollah’s most powerful weapon, with a range of up to 60 miles
KATYUSHA Hezbollah’s favourite rocket launcher — racks of parallel tubes that can be fitted on to trucks, tanks and other vehicles. Not accurate but can be effective in saturation bombardment. Based on WWII Soviet launcher. Easily portable and used in numerous attacks. Hezbollah is believed to have about 5,000 Katyushas
RAAD 2/RAAD 3 155mm rapid-fire field gun, range of 19 miles. Can be moved with speed. Includes features such as a laser range-finder and semi-automatic loading system
ZELZAL-2 Little information available. Said to have a range of up to 120 miles. Missiles are unguided. Can carry 600kg of explosives
C802 Chinese-made radar-guided missile, used to attack the Israeli Saar-5 missile boat, one of its most sophisticated vessels
