HEZBOLLAH rained an unprecedented number of rockets on northern Israeli towns yesterday in an apparent reply to the seizure of five of its fighters in the Baalbek assault.

At least 230 Katyusha and longer-range rockets fell in Israel, killing one 52-year-old man as he cycled to a bomb shelter in Nahariya and injuring 123 others.

One missile landed in fields near Jenin, the first to hit the West Bank, and another — one of two long-range Khaibar-1 missiles that Hezbollah said it had fired — hit Beit Shean, 42 miles south of the Jordanian border and the deepest strike into Israel yet.

Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz, head of the Israeli army, said that the daring attack on Baalbek conducted by special forces showed that Israel could operate at will throughout Lebanon.

His briefing, given near the northern border to a background cacophony of exploding missiles and outgoing Israeli artillery, came as Israeli ground forces of up to 10,000 troops pressed their battle with Hezbollah in four areas along the Lebanese border. Artillery concealed in fields back from the front line continued to pound deserted villages a few miles away.

Shells kicked up huge clouds of dust and fires burnt near Kila, Taibeh, Rab al-Talatin and Hule. Israeli F16 jets screamed across the sky and dropped a bomb on a bunker above Adessa from which Hezbollah has fired rocket- propelled grenades at troops.

General Halutz said that Israeli forces were clearing a swath of territory north of the border and had dealt a mortal blow to Hezbollah, killing more than 300 of its fighters and destroying its long and medium-range rockets in “important numbers”.

He said that Israel had a “good success rate, though not 100 per cent”, of strikes against the smugglers supplying Hezbollah’s front line with ammunition. The partial suspension of Israeli airstrikes after the Qana tragedy had ended but the military was awaiting a political decision on the resumption of bombing runs on Beirut.

Diplomatic efforts at the United Nations to bring the fighting to an end are gathering pace. However, General Halutz refused to be drawn on how much longer the 22-day-old operation would last. “About timing,” he said. “I do not know how long it’s going to take. But it’s not going to be one or two days. For the whole operation we’re waiting for the politicians to decide how long it will run for.”

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