LEBANON: Israeli warplanes bomb village of Kofor Jouz near Nabatieh killing four people

Israeli warplanes killed four people in Kofor Jouz, near Nabatieh on Friday (July 28), as the Jewish State continued its offensive in southern Lebanon. Residents identified the dead as civilians and said that the four were killed in their home. Security forces searched through the three-storey building which was reduced to rubble by the bombardment. Intense Israeli bombardment killed at least 13 people in Lebanon on Friday as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delayed a possible return to the region despite growing world calls for Israel's war with Hizbollah to stop. Waves of air raids struck hill villages near the southern port of Tyre and hundreds of artillery rounds crashed across the border, killing at least 10 people, including a Jordanian. Three died in overnight air strikes in the eastern Bekaa Valley. The pounding of Lebanese villages, where some civilians remain trapped, resumed a day after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet opted to intensify air strikes and ground attacks against Hizbollah, rather than invade Lebanon. Heavy fighting and the destruction of roads in the south have created terrifying conditions for civilians, and a U.N. official said lack of clean water posed a fresh threat. An Israeli military source said the army believed it had killed at least 200 Hizbollah fighters in the conflict. The Shi'ite guerrillas have acknowledged only 31 dead. Hizbollah has fired more than 1,500 rockets into Israel since the conflict erupted following a cross-border raid into Israel by the Shi'ite militia on July 12. Israel's offensive against Hizbollah has killed 458 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians. A total of 51 Israelis have died, including 18 civilians.

ITN Source | July 29, 2006

Tags:. .hundreds. .across. .residents. .hill. .region