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| By Associated Press August 4, 2006 |
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Israel's pounding of Hezbollah positions across Lebanon expanded Friday with missiles targeting bridges in the Christian heartland north of Beirut for the first time. A top U.N. aid official said air strikes on the main north-south highway risked cutting off Lebanon's "umbilical cord" to the world.
Four civilians were killed and 10 wounded in the air raid, the Lebanese Red Cross said. A Lebanese soldier and four civilians were also killed in air raids near Beirut's airport and southern suburbs, security officials and witnesses said.
Four Israeli missiles also slammed into a warehouse where -- according to officials -- "farm workers were loading vegetables" near the Lebanon-Syria border, killing at least 28, according to officials at the Syrian hospitals where the dead and wounded were taken.
The Lebanese and Kurdish farm laborers were in a field in a strip of no-man's land along Lebanon's eastern border with Syria, foreman Rabei al-Jabali said.
Meanwhile, 57 people were buried in rubble after Israeli attacks on the southern villages of Taibeh and Aita al-Shaab, security officials and the state news agency reported. The number of dead was not immediately known.
The destruction of four bridges in Lebanon on the main north-south coastal highway linking Beirut to Syria contributed to further seal Lebanon from the outside world, as the Israeli naval blockade _ along with earlier strikes against the road to the eastern boarder and the capital's international airport _ have largely closed off other access points.
The strikes against the northern highway hindered means of bringing relief supplies into Lebanon, international aid agencies said Friday.
"This is Lebanon's umbilical cord," Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Program told AP. "This (road) has been the only way for us to bring in aid."
A convoy that was meant to carry supplies and emergency personnel to Beirut is now stuck, she said, and U.N. teams have so far been refused permission to assess the damage caused by the bombing. She added that U.N. trucks might be able to take secondary roads, but this would slow down aid shipments.
Portugal put a cargo plane at the U.N.'s disposal, which will fly food and medicines from Italy to Beirut once a day for four days. Israel has given permission for these flights to start immediately, said Berthiaume. A Greek boat will ferry supplies from Italy, starting Saturday, she said.
An Israeli army spokesman, Capt. Jacob Dallal, said Israel targeted the bridges to stop the flow of weapons from Syria.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud accused Israel of waging a "war of starvation" against Lebanon.
"The Israeli enemy's bombing of bridges and roads is aimed at tightening the blockade on the Lebanese, cutting communications between them and starving them," Lahoud said in a statement.
He said Israel was trying to pressure Lebanon to accept its conditions for a cease-fire, which include Hezbollah's ouster from a swath of south Lebanon to put an international force in place.
Fierce fighting continued along the border, and Hezbollah said in a statement broadcast by the group's Al-Manar TV station that guerrillas had killed several Israeli soldiers near the villages of Aita al-Shaab and Markaba.
The Israeli army confirmed a Hezbollah anti-tank missile killed three soldiers and wounded two others in southeastern Lebanon.
The latest attacks in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh targeted Hezbollah facilities and a Hamas office, the Israeli military said. Beirut media said Israel launched 24 bombing runs in an hour.
South Beirut has been attacked repeatedly by Israeli warplanes since fighting began July 12. It is predominantly Shiite Muslim sector largely controlled by Hezbollah guerrillas, and Israel has not struck Beirut proper since the start of the war.
However, the strikes early Friday hit the affluent Christian locality of Jounieh, north of the capital, for the first time. The bombing against the picturesque coastal resort marked a sharp expansion of Israel's attack on Lebanon.
On the ground, six Israeli brigades -- or roughly 10,000 troops -- are locked in the battle with hundreds of guerrillas in south Lebanon.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz has told top army officers to begin preparing for a push to the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the border, according to senior military officials.
In the 24th day of Israel's punishing onslaught both on the ground and from the air, Hezbollah has shown surprising strength and has found its support in Lebanon -- and among the larger Arab world -- vastly bolstered.
There were more demonstrations around the region in support of Hezbollah on Friday, the biggest in Baghdad where hundreds of thousands of Shiites rallied in a protest organized by radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The Israeli army said it has taken up positions in or near 11 towns and villages across south Lebanon as part of an effort to carve out a smaller 5-mile-deep Hezbollah-free zone.
"We plan to carry out the whole mission," Peretz said. "Hezbollah must not have illusions that we plan to give in. (Hezbollah leader Hassan) Nasrallah shouldn't doubt that he faces a force that insists on completing its mission."
Ahead of the warehouse attack on Friday, an Associated Press count showed at least 530 Lebanese have been killed, including 454 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 26 Lebanese soldiers and at least 50 Hezbollah guerrillas. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said that 1 million people -- or about a quarter of Lebanon's population -- has fled the fighting. Others estimate some 800,000 Lebanese have been made refugee.
Since the fighting started, 74 Israelis have been killed, 44 soldiers and 30 civilians. More than 300,000 Israelis have fled their homes in the north, Israeli officials said.
At the United Nations, the United States and France negotiated under strict secrecy for another day over a Security Council resolution that seeks to end Israeli-Hezbollah fighting, but officials said the same disagreements that have prevented a deal for weeks still remain.
Security Council diplomats said one crucial sticking point was the timing of a halt to the fighting. France, reflecting wide international opinion, wants an immediate stop in the violence. But the United States, all but isolated except for Israel, does not want a halt without the immediate implementation of other steps, such as the deployment of peacekeepers.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has postponed his summer vacation to work toward a U.N. resolution to the crisis, believes the coming days are crucial for securing agreement to end the fighting, his office said.
On Thursday night, Blair spoke to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and early Friday to French President Jacques Chirac, a spokeswoman said.
Chirac called for an all-out effort toward a U.N.-backed cease-fire and a political agreement, which France wants ahead of any peacekeeping force.
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