The Lebanese Prime Minister tonight called on the international community to intervene in the Israeli assault on his country and rush in badly needed humanitarian aid.
In a televised appeal to the international community, Fouad Siniora said that more than 300 people had been killed and 1,000 wounded in the eight-day-old Israeli assault. More than 500,000 Lebanese had been displaced, he said.
"Is the value of human life in Lebanon less than that of the citizens of other countries?" he asked. "Can the international community stand by while such callous retribution by the state of Israel is inflicted on us?"
Mr Siniora spoke as Israel marked the second week of its military offensive by stepping up air strikes around the country and mounting cross-border incursions against Hezbollah positions in the south.
At least 56 civilians were killed as Israeli jets and gunboats pummelled towns and villages across Lebanon. Twenty-one people were killed in the southern village of Srifa, where ten houses were flattened in what the mayor described as a massacre.
"There was a massacre in Srifa," the village’s mayor, Afif Najdi, told the Reuters news agency.
On the opposite side of the border, two Israeli children and one adult were killed by Hezbollah rockets in the northern city of Nazareth, in the first attack on the largest predominantly Arab city in Israel.
Fierce firefights between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants also erupted this afternoon along Lebanon's southwestern border with Israel, leaving two Israeli soldiers dead, the army said.
Israel's response to the abduction of two soldiers by Hezbollah militia a week ago has provoked anger around the world, but there is no unified international pressure to stop the fighting. Neither the G8 summit last weekend, nor the United Nations has yet formally called for a ceasefire.
Louise Arbour, the United Nations human rights chief, said that the scale of killing in Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories could constitute war crimes.
"The obligation to protect civilians during hostilities was laid down in international criminal law which defines war crimes and crimes against humanity," she said in a statement.
"The scale of the killings in the region, and their predictability, could engage the personal criminal responsibility of those involved, particularly those in a position of command and control."
Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian President, also called on the international community to act quickly to arrange a ceasefire. His comments, the first by Syria on its desire for a ceasefire between its ally Hezbollah and Israel, were in a telephone conversation with Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister.
"The conversation covered the international stance and how the international community is procrastinating on imposing a ceasefire and ending the crisis," the state news agency SANA said.
The New York Times reported today that the Bush Administration had given Israel another week to weaken Hezbollah before the bombardment had to stop. The newspaper said that US officials had signalled that Condoleezza Rice would go the region after the deadline to establish a buffer zone in southern Lebanon, but was holding off to give Israel the time to achieve its military objectives.
Speaking yesterday, both President Bush and Tony Blair separately blamed Hezbollah for the conflict. Mr Bush said that Syria was "trying to get back into Lebanon".
Tony Blair insisted that Hezbollah must first free two captured Israeli soldiers and stop firing rockets at the Jewish state.
"This would stop now if the soldiers who were kidnapped wrongly ... were released," he said. "It would stop if the rockets stopped coming into Haifa, deliberately to kill innocent civilians."
Britain, which has been criticised for failing to remove its citizens to safety as quickly as other countries, announced that it would step up its naval evacuation.
An urgent notice from the British Embassy in Beirut invited those wanting to leave to gather at the Beirut Forum, a well-known conference centre, by 3pm today (1300 BST) for evacuation in two Royal Navy destroyers. If they could not make that deadline, they should gather at the same point by 9.30am tomorrow.
One of the two destroyers, the HMS Gloucester, started the British naval evacuation yesterday, carrying 170 "vulnerable" Britons and their dependents to the Cypriot port of Limassol. They were due to arrive back in Britain later today on a Government-chartered flight from Larnaca airport.
British officials are hoping to carry significantly more that that on each ship today, although it could be the end of the week before two much larger ships - the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious and the amphibious assault ship HMS Bulwark - can be deployed.
Among those landing in Limassol this morning was Joe Noujeim, a 49-year-old Lebanese evacuated with his British wife and their three children. "It’s hell on earth, it’s escalating day by day," Mr Noujeim said.
The organised evacuation of US citizens also finally got under way - of an 25,000 Americans in Lebanon, at least 8,000 want to leave. There were complaints, however, from those lined up to join the evacuation on board the Orient Queen, a luxury cruise ship, both at the length of time taken to organise their departure and because evacuees were being asked to sign promissory notes to pay for their trip.
"I can’t believe the Americans," said Danni Atiyeh, a 39-year-old civil engineer from Kansas City, Missouri, as he waited for a bus with his pregnant wife and two sons."Everybody else has gone home ... We’re still here."
More than 300 people have now been killed in the Israeli offensive, the vast majority civilians. At least 25 people have been killed on the Israeli side, many killed by Hezbollah rockets.
Arab television stations reported today that two Israeli soldiers had been killed in raids on Hezbollah outposts inside Lebanon. The Israeli army did not confirm the reports.
Israeli helicopters also fired rockets on a residential Christian district in Beirut, the first direct strikes in the centre of the capital, raising concerns about the evacuation operation underway at the nearby port.
Israeli forces also stepped up their offensive in the Gaza Strip today, killing seven people in raids. A total of 93 people have been killed in Gaza since the abduction of a young Israeli corporal on June 25.
"The security cabinet met this morning and decided on the continuation of the offensives in Lebanon and Gaza with no time limit," an Israeli official said, describing the military’s action in Lebanon as an "intensive war against Hezbollah".
Israel began talking for the first time yesterday of a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but insisted that its military offensive would continue, perhaps for weeks, until it had crushed the threat from Hezbollah.
"We are beginning a diplomatic process in parallel to the military operations, which shall continue," Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister, said after talks with a United Nations delegation.
"The diplomatic process is not intended to reduce the time available for the Israel Defence Forces’ operations, but as an extension of it in order to avoid the need for additional operations in the future."
