Night raids shake Lebanon as Israel vows no let-up

Beirut, NU Online
Israeli jets pounded Lebanon with a blistering sequence of deadly overnight raids as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed no let-up in a "moment of truth" for the Jewish state.

Terrified foreigners and Lebanese scrambled to find a way to leave a country under an air and sea blockade and waking up each day to new scenes of devastation, with the first evacuation ship arriving in nearby Cyprus.

Amid a tit-for-tat cycle of violence, six people were injured when a Hezbollah rocket ploughed into a four-storey apartment building in Haifa and a barrage of rockets rained down on northern Israel in the late evening Monday, injuring at least three others.

In a combative and emotional address to parliament, Olmert declared the Jewish state was facing a "moment of truth" and vowed to continue the six-day-old offensive against the "terrorists" of Hezbollah.

"We will fight with all the strength we are capable of. We will strike anyone who would strike at us and any terrorist infrastructure, until Hezbollah and (Palestinian militant group) Hamas cease attacking us," he said.

Israel's deputy chief of staff Major General Moshe Kaplinsky told AFP that the international pressure will "allow" the offensive to last "at least" another week.

In the early hours of Tuesday, the Israeli action showed no sign of abating with four civilians -- a woman, her two daughters and Sri Lankan maid -- killed and four others wounded in an air strike on their villa in the coastal city of Tyre.

The corpses of six other civilians were pulled out from a house belonging to two couples from the same family after an Israeli night raid on the border village of Aitaroun. Three children remained buried in the rubble, said village mayor Salim Murad.

In an earlier attack, 12 people were reported killed when a missile hit a minibus south of Beirut. Barracks of the Lebanese army in the hills overlooking Beirut were bombed four times overnight by Israeli jets and rescue efforts were underway. The number of casualties there was unclear. In a similar attack early Monday nine soldiers were killed. (afp/dar)