Israeli air raids kill 62, foreigners flee Lebanon

BEIRUT, July 19 (Reuters) Israeli air strikes on Lebanon killed 61 civilians and a Hizbollah fighter today, the deadliest toll of the eight-day-old war, as thousands of villagers fled north and more foreigners were evacuated.

Hizbollah rockets killed two children in the northern Israeli city of Nazareth, medics said. More Hizbollah rockets fell on the city of Haifa and one hit an empty seafront restaurant.

Israeli troops crossed the border to raid Hizbollah posts and the Israeli army said two of its soldiers were killed and nine injured in fighting with Hizbollah guerrillas.

Despite international concern, there was no sign Israel or its Lebanese Shi'ite foes were ready to heed the Beirut government's pleas for an immediate halt to a war that has killed at least 297 people in Lebanon and 29 in Israel.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said more than 500,000 people had been displaced and appealed for international help.

''I call on you to respond immediately and without reservation to our call for a ceasefire and to provide urgent international humanitarian aid,'' he said in a televised address.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the bombardment would last ''as long as necessary'' to free two soldiers captured by Hizbollah on July 12 and ensure its militants are disarmed.

Hizbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, wants to swap the two Israeli soldiers for Lebanese and Palestinians in Israeli jails.

At least 17 Lebanese, including several children, were killed and 30 wounded in an Israeli air strike that destroyed houses in the southern village of Srifa, residents said.

''There was a massacre in Srifa,'' the village's mayor, Afif Najdi, told Reuters. Rescuers were still looking for bodies.

At least 44 other civilians were killed in air strikes that hammered other parts of south and east Lebanon, security sources said. Hizbollah said one of its fighters was killed.

Israel also bombed the runway at Beirut international airport, which has been closed since Thursday. The runway and fuel tanks have been hit several times.

POSSIBLE WAR CRIMES United Nations human rights chief Louise Arbour said the scale and predictability of the killing in Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories could involve war crimes.

Indiscriminate shelling of cities and the bombing of sites where civilians would inevitably suffer were unacceptable, and those in command could bear criminal responsibility, Arbour said without pointing a specific finger of blame.

More Reuters YA GC0235