LEBANON: More Israeli air strikes on Lebanon, civilians bear brunt of renewed bombardment

Israel unleashed more air strikes on Lebanon on Sunday (July 23) as a senior U.N. official demanded a halt to the violence to allow aid to reach desperate civilians. Civilians took the brunt of renewed bombardments in a 12-day war that has cost at least 368 lives in Lebanon and 37 in Israel. Half a dozen blasts echoed across the Lebanese capital Beirut as jets roared over the Shi'ite southern suburbs in the early hours. Air strikes also destroyed a Shi'ite religious centre in the southern port city of Sidon, wounding four people. The Al-Zahraa complex which housed a mosque and Shi'ite centre lay in ruins after the strike. Israeli planes also dropped anti-Hizbollah leaflets which were seen floating over Sidon. On Saturday (July 22) Israeli forces dropped flyers, urging residents of 14 villages in south Lebanon to leave ahead of more air raids and Lebanese civilians displaced from Tyre and other southern Lebanon villages have been taking shelter in Sidon. Families slept on mattresses on the floor of shelters after fleeing their homes. The war in Lebanon has displaced half a million people. Others are trapped by fighting, especially in border villages. "Many of them have spent days on the road. They have reached the city dehydrated, they have reached the city lacking any medication, many of them have chronic illnesses and need hospitalisation," said Abdul Rahman al-Bisri, the head of the Sidon municipality. Israeli warplanes bombed targets in Beirut and east and south Lebanon, killing at least five civilians and wounding about 80, many of them in the southern port of Tyre. A dozen Israeli air raids on the eastern Bekaa Valley destroyed three factories, a house and several bridges, killing at least one civilian and wounding seven. Two other civilians died in a raid on a southern village, security sources said. Residents inspected damage done to their homes and the surrounding areas as personal belongings lay amid the rubble. The southern city of Tyre has been a frequent target of Israel strikes. A car carrying a family, including two children, was hit by an Israeli rocket in the city of Tyre on Sunday (July 23). The two children, a 9-year-old boy and 1-year-old infant, were taken to a nearby hospital where they were treated for burn wounds. "Bring me my sons, bring me all my sons," cried the mother of the two children. A Lebanese photographer was killed near the southern village of Qana during an Israeli bombardment. She was the first fatality among journalists covering the war. Her body was brought to a hospital in Tyre. Families in the port city were evacuating the area by bus, fleeing to northern parts of the country for safety. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, leaving for the Middle East later in the day, has said she will pursue a lasting solution, not an immediate ceasefire. Washington blames Hizbollah and its allies, Syria and Iran, for the conflict. Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad said his country was ready for dialogue with the United States and wanted an immediate ceasefire, followed by diplomacy to end the war. Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel could accept a new international force in the south to keep Hizbollah guerrillas at bay and suggested that NATO could lead it.

ITN Source | July 24, 2006

Tags:. .urging. .trapped. .immediate. .conflict. .complex