Somewhere beneath the tangled mass of smashed concrete, steel rods, dust and the volcano-like crater left by an Israeli bomber lay the remains of Mrs Qudsi, her 30-year-old daughter-in-law and her three children aged from 4 to 11.

“They are under the rubble but no one will help me get them out,” Mr Jaafar said. He had taken the perilous journey from Sidon, 20 miles to the north, to recover the bodies of his relatives.

Throughout south Lebanon homes have been destroyed by massive aerial bombs, leaving the victims to rot in the summer heat beneath the debris.

A convoy of Chinese engineers from the United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, Unifil, was forced to abandon its mission of recovering the bodies when they found their path blocked by Israeli artillery shelling.

Most southerners willing and able to flee the onslaught have already done so. But hundreds of others are only now abandoning their homes on the orders of the Israeli military.

Israel is broadcasting warnings to the population of south Lebanon over the old radio station once operated by its Lebanese militia allies in the 1990s. The border village of Aitaroun and the market town of Bint Jbeil were ordered to be vacated by 3pm this afternoon, sending panicked residents streaming to the coastal city of Tyre.

“We left immediately when we heard the warning, not stopping to pack or even bring money,” said Ali Hijazi, who undertook the perilous trip from Aitaroun along cratered roads to the seafront Rest House hotel in Tyre which has become a refugee centre. Many people remained behind in Aitaroun, unable to leave due to lack of transportation or infirmity.

Mr Hijazi said: “We drove through Bint Jbeil and there were women standing in the street crying and begging with us to take them to Tyre. But our car was full and we had no room. There was nothing we could do for them.”

Mahmoud Hijazi, Ali’s 16-year-old son, said that the Israeli air strikes and artillery shelling was concentrated initially in open areas around the village.

“But the for the last two days they have been hitting the village centre,” he said.

Two families, comprising 20 people, were blown to pieces in air raids on their homes.

“My six year-old brother and eight-year-old sister have seen things that no child should see,” Mahmoud said.

Israel’s artillery and air blitz against south Lebanon continued uninterrupted today, with Tyre echoing to the thump of explosions. Three blasts close to the Rest House hotel sent panicked refugees scurrying for cover, ducking behind chairs and pushing and shoving each other to avoid the plate glass windows.

In the early evening, the hotel shook to a massive blast less than a mile away which sent a towering column of black smoke and dust into the air.

Further south along the coast, Unifil troops were forced to abandon their armoured personnel carriers and seek cover in the bomb shelters of a Unifil position when Israeli navy gunboats and warplanes unleashed a heavy barrage. Smoke rose up from the shelling, blanketing the orange groves and banana plantations along the seafront.

One Lebanese woman, her nerves frayed by the incessant explosions, screamed with anger at a Lebanese army officer when dozens of soldiers arrived to protect and escort to the north foreign nationals who were stranded at the Rest House hotel.

“The foreigners have everything. We are Lebanese and this is our land and we are cast into the streets,” she yelled at the officer.

But there appears to be no imminent cessation of the violence. Unifil’s own supplies are running perilously low. Isolated observation posts along the border are short on food and drinking water. Fuel to keep the few armoured relief convoys moving could run out by the weekend, one officer said, which will completely paralyze the force.

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