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Hezbollah chief vows 'open war' after Beirut attack
BEIRUT (AFP) - Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed "open war" after Israel bombed his home on the third day of relentless attacks on Lebanon that have killed at least 66 people and raised fears of a devastating regional conflict.
A defiant Nasrallah emerged unscathed after air strikes on his home and office in Hezbollah's stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut that were followed up by an unprecedented Hezbollah attack on an Israeli warship.
The conflict has left Lebanon virtually cut off from the outside world after Israel imposed an air and sea blockade, attacked the only international airport and bombed the main highway to neighbouring Syria.
"You wanted an open war, you will get an open war," the Shiite militant leader said in an audio message after the evening raid.
"It will be war at all levels... to Haifa, and beyond Haifa," Nasrallah said, referring to Israel's third largest city which came under unprecedented rocket fire from Lebanon on Thursday.
An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed an attack on the "Hezbollah terror organisation headquarters in southern Beirut" but would not elaborate on whether it was an assassination attempt
In an apparent new tactic, a Hezbollah missile then hit an Israeli naval vessel patrolling off the Lebanese coast in the evening, both sides said, igniting a fire on board that forced the navy to tow it back to home waters.
An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed only that the ship was lightly hit while Arab television reported that four Israeli service personnel were missing.
The international community has issued urgent appeals for calm and is sending envoys in a bid to avoid another full-scale Middle East war, with Israel under fire in some quarters for using "disproportionate force".
In a wave of strikes Friday, Israeli jets hit the main highway linking Beirut and Damascus and an airport hangar and fuel tanks, pounded Hezbollah's command headquarters in Beirut and a Palestinian guerrilla base in eastern Lebanon, as well as bridges and other roads.
Police said nine people were killed on Friday, bringing to 66 the death toll in Lebanon since Israel unleashed what the military has called "Operation Just Reward."
"It's sparing nobody, in no area of Lebanon. Actually it is cutting the country into pieces, whereby more than 20 bridges in the country have been destroyed," Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora told CNN.
Army chief Dan Halutz warned that Israel would continue to strike Hezbollah and other infrastructure targets in Lebanon.
"Lebanon is paying a very heavy price because of Hezbollah: bridges, roads and airports destroyed -- and it could yet be deprived of other infrastructure," he said.
In one of the strongest statements from a world leader on the conflict, President Jacques Chirac of France, the former colonial power in Lebanon, said Israel appeared to "wish to destroy" Lebanon.
World powers are due to discuss the crisis at the Group of Eight meeting starting Saturday in Moscow after the deadliest violence between Israel and Lebanon in a decade opened up a dangerous new front in the Middle East conflict following the massive Israeli onslaught against Gaza.
But US President George W. Bush, preparing to attend the summit, is not pressuring Israel to halt strikes on targets in Lebanon, his spokesman said. "The president is not going to make military decisions for Israel," Tony Snow said.
The latest crisis was triggered when Hezbollah guerrillas seized two Israeli servicemen in a deadly attack on the volatile Lebanon-Israel border Wednesday, leading to Israel's first ground incursion since it withdrew in 2000.
The abduction came less than three weeks after a similar raid by Palestinian militants, including members of the ruling Islamist movement Hamas, on the Gaza border that resulted in the capture of an Israeli corporal.
All three captured Israeli soldiers were alive and in a "reasonable" state of health, Halutz said.
In northern Israel, where army ordered about half a million Israelis in northern towns into bomb shelters, scores of rockets were fired on more than a dozen towns Friday.
Another two people were killed, a grandmother and child from the same family, bringing the toll over two days to four dead. Two rockets fired from south Lebanon also penetrated deeper than ever inside Israel on Thursday, hitting its third largest city of Haifa.
Israel has pointed the finger of blame at Syria and Iran, saying its two arch-foes formed an "axis of terror" along with Hezbollah and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak refused to rule out military strikes by Israel against Syria but said in an interview with a German newspaper that he hoped this will not be necessary.
With Lebanon's airport shut and Israeli blockading its ports, thousands of tourists, mostly Gulf Arab nationals, fled across the border to Syria and a number of foreign governments issued travel warnings.
Lebanon has been mired in its own political crisis since the murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri in 2005 and is still rebuilding after the devastating 1975-1990 civil war.
The Lebanese government -- which includes two Hezbollah ministers but is led by anti-Syrian politicians -- denied any involvement in the Hezbollah action and demanded a "complete and immediate ceasefire".
The UN Security Council debated the violence in Lebanon in an emergency meeting but the session that ended with no action on Beirut's demand for an immediate end to Israeli airstrikes on its territory.
The debate highlighted divisions in the Council, with the United States standing alone in refusing to even caution restraint from Israel over its military offensives in both Lebanon and Gaza.
US Ambassador John Bolton laid sole blame for the escalating violence in the region on Iran and Syria and their support for militant groups like Hezbollah and the armed wing of Hamas.
Israel also pressed on with its air assault on Gaza but withdrew ground troops from the centre of the territory after the United States vetoed a UN resolution calling on Israel to halt its military operations there.
Palestinian militants blew a hole in a wall on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, allowing 2,000 people to cross into the Palestinian territory Friday, security sources said.
Gunmen believed to be from the armed wing of Hamas blew a hole in the wall around 70 metres (yards) from the Rafah border terminal, Gaza's sole gateway to the world that bypasses Israel, witnesses said.
At least 76 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed since Israel launched its assault on Gaza, which the United Nations has warned is causing a humanitarian crisis in one of the most densely populated areas on earth.
BEIRUT (AFP) - Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed "open war" after Israel bombed his home on the third day of relentless attacks on Lebanon that have killed at least 66 people and raised fears of a devastating regional conflict.
A defiant Nasrallah emerged unscathed after air strikes on his home and office in Hezbollah's stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut that were followed up by an unprecedented Hezbollah attack on an Israeli warship.
The conflict has left Lebanon virtually cut off from the outside world after Israel imposed an air and sea blockade, attacked the only international airport and bombed the main highway to neighbouring Syria.
"You wanted an open war, you will get an open war," the Shiite militant leader said in an audio message after the evening raid.
"It will be war at all levels... to Haifa, and beyond Haifa," Nasrallah said, referring to Israel's third largest city which came under unprecedented rocket fire from Lebanon on Thursday.
An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed an attack on the "Hezbollah terror organisation headquarters in southern Beirut" but would not elaborate on whether it was an assassination attempt
In an apparent new tactic, a Hezbollah missile then hit an Israeli naval vessel patrolling off the Lebanese coast in the evening, both sides said, igniting a fire on board that forced the navy to tow it back to home waters.
An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed only that the ship was lightly hit while Arab television reported that four Israeli service personnel were missing.
The international community has issued urgent appeals for calm and is sending envoys in a bid to avoid another full-scale Middle East war, with Israel under fire in some quarters for using "disproportionate force".
In a wave of strikes Friday, Israeli jets hit the main highway linking Beirut and Damascus and an airport hangar and fuel tanks, pounded Hezbollah's command headquarters in Beirut and a Palestinian guerrilla base in eastern Lebanon, as well as bridges and other roads.
Police said nine people were killed on Friday, bringing to 66 the death toll in Lebanon since Israel unleashed what the military has called "Operation Just Reward."
"It's sparing nobody, in no area of Lebanon. Actually it is cutting the country into pieces, whereby more than 20 bridges in the country have been destroyed," Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora told CNN.
Army chief Dan Halutz warned that Israel would continue to strike Hezbollah and other infrastructure targets in Lebanon.
"Lebanon is paying a very heavy price because of Hezbollah: bridges, roads and airports destroyed -- and it could yet be deprived of other infrastructure," he said.
In one of the strongest statements from a world leader on the conflict, President Jacques Chirac of France, the former colonial power in Lebanon, said Israel appeared to "wish to destroy" Lebanon.
World powers are due to discuss the crisis at the Group of Eight meeting starting Saturday in Moscow after the deadliest violence between Israel and Lebanon in a decade opened up a dangerous new front in the Middle East conflict following the massive Israeli onslaught against Gaza.
But US President George W. Bush, preparing to attend the summit, is not pressuring Israel to halt strikes on targets in Lebanon, his spokesman said. "The president is not going to make military decisions for Israel," Tony Snow said.
The latest crisis was triggered when Hezbollah guerrillas seized two Israeli servicemen in a deadly attack on the volatile Lebanon-Israel border Wednesday, leading to Israel's first ground incursion since it withdrew in 2000.
The abduction came less than three weeks after a similar raid by Palestinian militants, including members of the ruling Islamist movement Hamas, on the Gaza border that resulted in the capture of an Israeli corporal.
All three captured Israeli soldiers were alive and in a "reasonable" state of health, Halutz said.
In northern Israel, where army ordered about half a million Israelis in northern towns into bomb shelters, scores of rockets were fired on more than a dozen towns Friday.
Another two people were killed, a grandmother and child from the same family, bringing the toll over two days to four dead. Two rockets fired from south Lebanon also penetrated deeper than ever inside Israel on Thursday, hitting its third largest city of Haifa.
Israel has pointed the finger of blame at Syria and Iran, saying its two arch-foes formed an "axis of terror" along with Hezbollah and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak refused to rule out military strikes by Israel against Syria but said in an interview with a German newspaper that he hoped this will not be necessary.
With Lebanon's airport shut and Israeli blockading its ports, thousands of tourists, mostly Gulf Arab nationals, fled across the border to Syria and a number of foreign governments issued travel warnings.
Lebanon has been mired in its own political crisis since the murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri in 2005 and is still rebuilding after the devastating 1975-1990 civil war.
The Lebanese government -- which includes two Hezbollah ministers but is led by anti-Syrian politicians -- denied any involvement in the Hezbollah action and demanded a "complete and immediate ceasefire".
The UN Security Council debated the violence in Lebanon in an emergency meeting but the session that ended with no action on Beirut's demand for an immediate end to Israeli airstrikes on its territory.
The debate highlighted divisions in the Council, with the United States standing alone in refusing to even caution restraint from Israel over its military offensives in both Lebanon and Gaza.
US Ambassador John Bolton laid sole blame for the escalating violence in the region on Iran and Syria and their support for militant groups like Hezbollah and the armed wing of Hamas.
Israel also pressed on with its air assault on Gaza but withdrew ground troops from the centre of the territory after the United States vetoed a UN resolution calling on Israel to halt its military operations there.
Palestinian militants blew a hole in a wall on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, allowing 2,000 people to cross into the Palestinian territory Friday, security sources said.
Gunmen believed to be from the armed wing of Hamas blew a hole in the wall around 70 metres (yards) from the Rafah border terminal, Gaza's sole gateway to the world that bypasses Israel, witnesses said.
At least 76 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed since Israel launched its assault on Gaza, which the United Nations has warned is causing a humanitarian crisis in one of the most densely populated areas on earth.
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