ISRAEL: Israeli troops enter southern Lebanon under dark

Israeli troops continued to push on with offensive in southern Lebanon on Wednesday (August 2), sending some injured soldiers to hospital in northern Israel. Tanks and troops continued to mass along the border between Israel and Lebanon while other units were operating inside southern Lebanon on the 22nd. day of the conflict. During the day, Hizbollah guerrillas fired around 190 rockets into Israel, its most-intense one-day barrage since the fighting began on July 12, killing one person and wounding more than a dozen, medics said. One rocket slammed into a house on a kibbutz near the Israeli city of Nahariya, close to the Lebanese border, killing a 52-year-old man as he was riding his bike. Another round struck the occupied West Bank, marking the furthest distance Hizbollah rockets have reached during the almost three-week-long conflict. Hizbollah has fired at least 1,700 rockets into Israel since the conflict broke out, killing at least 19 civilians and wounding hundreds. The guerrilla group claimed it had fired more than 300 rockets at Israel on Wednesday. In a statement issued in Lebanon, the group said it had stepped up attacks "after the enemy went too far in targeting civilians". Around 650 Lebanese, most of them civilians, have been killed by Israel air strikes and bombardments since Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. Israeli police said two rockets also landed just north of the West Bank, near the Israel city of Afula, located 50 km from Lebanon. Rockets have hit Afula before. Hizbollah said on Wednesday it had fired a volley of "Khaibar 1" rockets, a new type of weapon that it has employed recently. A suspected "Khaibar 1" rocket fired last week carried around 100 kg (220 lbs) of explosives. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday that Israel's offensive in Lebanon had "entirely destroyed" the infrastructure of the Hizbollah guerrilla group, citing the reduced number of rockets hitting Israel.

ITN Source | August 3, 2006

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