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Smoke rises about the town of Khiam in southern Lebanon (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners July 23, 2006 |
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Large explosions shook Beirut in the early hours Sunday as Israeli warplanes again pounded Hezbollah's stronghold in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital.
The impact of five massive strikes reverberated through the city overnight.
After sunrise, Israeli bombs hit a textile factory in the border town of al-Manara, killing one person and injuring two, mayor Ali Rahal told The Associated Press.
Other air raids targeted the towns of Sidon in the south of Lebanon and Baalbek in the eastern Bekaa Valley as well as areas along the border with Israel.
Warplanes and helicopters bombed Nabi Sheet, in the hills near Baalbek, wounding at least five people, witnesses said. In Baalbek, strikes leveled an agricultural compound belonging to Hezbollah. Raids also targeted a factory producing prefab houses near the main highway that links Beirut to the Syrian capital of Damascus, witnesses said.
Early Sunday, Israel hit inside the southern city of Sidon for the first time in its campaign, destroying a religious complex linked to Hezbollah and wounding four people. More than 35,000 people streaming north from the heart of the war zone had swamped this southern port city, which is teetering under the weight of refugees.
Two civilians died in early morning air raids that hit villages along the border, witnesses said. A 15-year-old boy was killed at Meis al-Jabal, and a man was killed at Blida.
Fuel, food and some medicines were already tight for Sidon's own population of 100,000 and nearly impossible to replenish.
"There are no supplies reaching us, not from other nations, nor from the Lebanese government," said Mayor Abdul-Rahman al-Bizri, whose city was so packed that Palestinian refugees were taking in Lebanese refugees.
Sidon was only one face of the mounting humanitarian crisis across Lebanon. An 12-day-old Israeli blockade has prevented new supplies from coming in, and bombardment has made roads unusable or too dangerous to distribute supplies to the south, where Israel is battling Hezbollah guerrillas.
The Israeli military has announced that humanitarian aid could enter through Beirut's port and determined a coastal route to Tripoli as a land corridor for aid. But it did not define a safe passage route to the south -- where the bombardment is heaviest.
Aid supplies arrived on Friday and Saturday on ships that were picking up Europeans fleeing the country. The exodus of foreigners continues, with tens of thousands -- including 7,500 Americans -- taken out by sea the past week.
The U.N.'s top humanitarian official, Jan Egeland, was heading to Lebanon on Sunday, then to Israel for further coordination on opening aid corridors.
The need is expected to grow fast as the fighting heats up. The number of displaced people has grown to 600,000, according to the World Health Organization.
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