FOUR missiles from Israeli fighter jets struck a Lebanese fruit-packing warehouse near the Syrian border yesterday, killing at least 33 mainly Kurdish farm workers and wounding a dozen.

The attack in the Bekaa Valley came as Hezbollah again stepped up its barrage of rockets, raining down at least 220 on Israel — 45 in one hour — killing three Israeli civilians and wounding at least 44. Last night two rockets landed near Hadera, 50 miles (80km) from the border, the most southerly to date.

Three Israeli soldiers were killed in separate clashes in south Lebanon. Two civilians were killed after a Hezbollah rocket fell on the neighbouring Arab-Israeli villages of Majd al-Krum and Buana and a woman was killed when her house in Mghar, a mixed village of Druze, Muslims and Christians, was struck.

The mounting Israeli death toll and the army’s inability to prevent the deluge of Katyusha missiles have generated growing criticism.

There is frustration within Israel over its inability to crush Hezbollah. Amir Oren, writing in the Hebrew daily Haaretz newspaper, summed up the tone: “What happened to the Israel Defence Forces? What went wrong and why? Not only is the degree of Israel’s success in the campaign in dispute, but the campaign itself is not clear and in dispute.”

The failure of the international community to impose a ceasefire also inspired demonstrations across the region. Protesters took to the streets of Amman, Baghdad and Cairo, chanting anti-Israeli and antiAmerican slogans. A few demonstrators attacked the British Embassy in Tehran with stones and firebombs and burnt the Union Flag.

Officials in Tel Aviv, Israel’s largest city with a population of 1.5 million, began preparing bomb shelters after the Hezbollah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, threatened to target it with long-range missiles if central Beirut was bombed.

Hours after he spoke, the Israeli Air Force did exactly that. Jets flew more than

150 sorties in the morning, striking at targets across Lebanon, bombing the Christian heartland of north Beirut for the first time.

Four bridges on the northern coastal road from Lebanon to Syria were bombed, “cutting the umbilical cord for aid getting into Lebanon”, according to the UN.

Astrid van Gendern, of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, said: “Aid trucks are stranded now. We were already way behind in getting supplies into Lebanon and refugees and evacuees out, so this is disastrous.”

The bridge at Maameiltein, which spans a six-lane highway, was cut in the centre and several vehicles were caught in the attack. It took rescue workers six hours to uncover all the bodies. Lebanese officials said that 71 bridges have been destroyed. The damage to Lebanon’s infrastructure is put at more than £2 billion.

Israeli military sources said that the bridges were struck to deny Syria’s effort to resupply the Hezbollah fighters.

The military said that the attack on the warehouse in the village of Qaa had targeted two structures in which it believed weapons brought from Syria were being stored.

But Lebanese officials said that the Syrian Kurdish workers at the plant had been loading produce into a lorry when the missiles struck. Many of the injured were taken to Syrian hospitals as roads into Lebanon had been destroyed.

Last night there were also reports that 57 Lebanese civilians were trapped in the rubble of buildings hit by Israeli bombs in southern Lebanon.

As the Israeli Air Force continued its operations deep inside Lebanon, more than 10,000 Israeli troops were fighting in about 20 villages up to four miles over the border. Israeli military officials claim that 370 Hezbollah fighters have been killed.

The Israeli army was told to prepare to move deeper into Lebanon to take territory up to the Litani River as far as 18 miles from the border. The renewed offensive would require security cabinet approval.

Israeli military officials say that Hezbollah began the campaign with 13,000 short-range Katyusha rockets and still has nearly 10,000 rockets.

In other military action by the Israelis yesterday, four Palestinians were killed and five wounded in an airstrike on the town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army said that the aircraft had fired at armed Palestinians.

Times Recommends

• Rio Tinto four held as China prepares case
• Diplomats must keep heads down and trousers up
• When in Rome should one make like Berlusconi?