Israeli air raids kill 40 civilians in Lebanon

Beirut, Aug 5: Israeli air strikes killed at least 40 civilians in Lebanon today and Hizbollah launched its longest-range rocket attack of the war as world powers tried to overcome their differences on how to end the fighting.

One Israeli air strike hit a farm near Qaa, close to the Syrian border in the Bekaa Valley where workers, mostly Syrian Kurds, were loading plums and peaches on to trucks, local officials said. They said 33 people were killed and 20 wounded.

An Israeli army spokesman said air strikes in the area had targeted two buildings that military intelligence had showed were used by Hizbollah to store weapons.

However, television footage showed bodies of what appeared to be farm workers lined up near the ruins of a small structure in fruit groves. Strewn nearby were fruit baskets.

''I was picking peaches when three bombs hit. Others were having lunch and they were torn to pieces,'' said Mohammad Rashed, one of the wounded. Syria's official news agency said 17 of the dead were Syrian workers, five of them women.

It was one of the deadliest air strikes in 24 days of war.

An air raid on a house in the town of Qana on Sunday killed up to 54 civilians, Lebanese officials say. Human Rights Watch says it has confirmed 28 dead in that attack with 13 people missing.

Several Hizbollah rockets landed in or near the Israeli city of Hadera, about 80 km from the Lebanese border -- the deepest rocket attack of the war so far.

Hizbollah said in a statement issued later it had fired Khaibar 1 rockets at Hadera, partly in response to the Israeli attack on Qaa.

The United States and France inched closer to a deal on a UN resolution calling for an end to the fighting. Once they reach agreement, which officials said could happen over the weekend, a Security Council vote could be held within 24 hours.

''There are still some issues that we have not resolved, but I think we have come a little bit closer this morning. We will keep working on it,'' US Ambassador John Bolton told reporters.

Bridges Bombed

Another air strike on a house in the front-line Taibeh village in south Lebanon today killed seven civilians and wounded 10, a security source said. The source said the civilians had sheltered in the house during fierce battles.

Israeli aircraft destroyed four bridges on the main coastal highway north of Beirut, disrupting efforts to aid civilians displaced or trapped by the conflict in Lebanon.

Fighting raged in the south as Israeli troops tried to expand seven small border enclaves they control.

Hizbollah guerrillas fired more than 100 rockets into northern Israel, killing three people and wounding several, medics said. Rockets killed eight Israelis yesterday.

Hizbollah fighters killed three Israeli soldiers with an anti-tank missile near Markaba, Israel's army said. Al Arabiya television said five Israeli soldiers had been killed. Israeli media said seven Hizbollah guerrillas also died in the battle. The bombing of bridges in the Christian heartlands north of Beirut cut off the coastal highway to Syria, which the United Nations called its ''umbilical cord'' for aid to Lebanon.

The bridge at Maameltein, north of Beirut, was split by a huge crater which partially engulfed a crushed minivan. Further north, another bridge lay in the valley it once spanned.

''The whole road is gone,'' said Astrid van Genderen Stort of the UN refugee agency. ''It's really a major setback because we used this highway to move staff and supplies into the country.'' Israel said it had destroyed the bridges to prevent Syria from re-arming Hizbollah, which is also backed by Iran.

The European Commission said Israeli bombing of routes north of Beirut had made it harder to deliver humanitarian aid.

''We will need guarantees for the safety of our people on the ground if we are to successfully continue the provision of aid,'' said the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel.

Air strikes

More than 150 Israeli air strikes hit south Lebanon and artillery pummelled border areas as Hizbollah tried to stop new Israeli incursions near Markaba and the coastal town of Naqoura.

Hizbollah said its fighters had destroyed eight Israeli tanks and an armoured troop carrier in fighting around the southern villages of Markaba, Aita al-Shaab and Taibeh.

Israel has put more than 10,000 troops into Lebanon and says it has carved out a zone containing 20 villages up to seven km (four miles) from its border. The defence minister has ordered the army to prepare for a possible push further north.

At least 727 people in Lebanon and 74 Israelis have been killed in the conflict, ignited by a cross-border raid in which Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12.

US Assistant Secretary of State David Welch will visit Beirut on Saturday for talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on ways to end the war, Lebanese political sources said.

Once a UN resolution is agreed to halt the fighting, a second resolution is envisaged a week or two later setting down conditions for a permanent ceasefire and authorising an international force.

Israel has also launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip to recover another captured soldier and stop Palestinian rockets.

Its forces killed three Palestinians in the Strip on Friday amid air strikes on militant targets that also wounded four people.

Reuters

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