AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
Beirut: Israeli forces unleashed fresh air strikes on southern parts of Beirut on Thursday while ground troops battled to seize strategic border hills in southern Lebanon from Hezbollah militants.
Hezbollah replied by firing 31 rockets into Israel from south Lebanon, but the intensity of the salvoes was far less than on Wednesday, when a record 231 rockets killed one person and wounded several dozens, Israeli police said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries from Thursday's missiles.
After a six-day lull, Israeli warplanes resumed bombing Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah which has suffered massive attacks since the start of the Israeli offensive three weeks ago.
As aircraft circled overhead, three overnight strikes rocked the battered suburbs, a once teeming district of half a million people which has turned into a ghost town since its residents fled the area.
Israeli jets also carried out a strike in the northern Lebanese region of Akkar, near the Syrian border, the second in 24 hours after two bridges, including an Ottoman-era stone bridge, were destroyed there early Wednesday, police said.
The strike cut the road linking the eastern regions of Baalbek and Hermel, both Hezbollah strongholds.
Israel called a 48-hour partial halt to air strikes on Sunday pending an inquiry into its raid that day on the southern Lebanese village of Qana where 28 civilians, including 16 children, died.
Qana residents and Lebanese Civil Defense officials say that 11 people are still missing, six of them children.
On Thursday, seven Lebanese civilians were wounded in a series of ground and air bombardments on southern Lebanon, police said.
Also in the south, Israeli forces were locked in intense clashes in four areas with Hezbollah guerrillas on the 23rd day of attacks launched after the Shiite group captured two Israel soldiers on July 12 to secure a prisoner swap.
Israeli troops were apparently trying to conquer three strategic hilltops which would give them a towering view on large parts of the south, from the coastal region of Naqura inland toward the Hezbollah strongholds of Bint Jbeil, Tebnin and Nabatiyeh.
Lebanese police said the Israeli advance had encountered heavy resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas in recent few days.
Israeli troops have already seized the hilltop village of Marun Al-Ras, an operation which last week helped them attack and briefly enter Bint Jbeil, Hezbollah's military command base in the border region.
After destroying much of the town's central area in fierce combat with Hezbollah guerrillas, the Israeli forces pulled back toward Marun Al-Ras where sporadic fighting continued to take place.
The Israeli army announced that one Israeli soldier was killed and four others were wounded during clashes with Hezbollah guerillas in the flashpoint border village of Aita ash-Shaab in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah said it had managed to rebuff “several attempts to advance” by the Israeli army in the area, causing “heavy losses amongst enemy ranks” and “destroying five Merkava tanks”.
Ali Akbar Mohtashami-Pour, Tehran's former ambassador to Syria and one of the Iranian founders of Hezbollah, said in remarks published on Thursday that the Shiite militia group had missiles which “leave no spot in Israel unreachable”.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israeli troops would carry on fighting Hezbollah until an international force is deployed in south Lebanon.
According to Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon the offensive will last “at the minimum” until the end of next week. “All those who aim to harm Israel's sovereignty now know that the price to pay will be extremely heavy,” he said.
On Wednesday, Israeli airborne commandos had captured five people they alleged were Hezbollah militants and killed 16 civilians near the eastern town of Baalbek, in the army's deepest ground operation in its northern neighbor.
During the night, seven civilians, including an 80-year-old couple, were killed in an intense Israeli bombardment of the Tyre region in south Lebanon from the air, sea and ground, police said.
Israel's offensive against Hezbollah has left over 900 Lebanese dead and 3,000 injured, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said on Thursday in a video address from Beirut to a meeting of Muslim countries in Malaysia.
