Israel suffers deadliest attack as rockets kill 15

HEZBOLLAH guerrillas unleashed their deadliest rocket attack on northern Israel yesterday, killing 12 reserve soldiers with a single missile at this kibbutz and killing at least three people and wounding dozens more with a barrage against Haifa.

Israel then attacked the Lebanese town of Qana, with the army saying it destroyed the launchers that fired the rockets against Haifa as fighting intensified despite a drive at the UN to pass a ceasefire resolution.

Jet fighters also demolished a second launching site north of the Lebanese coastal city of Tyre, from which more missiles were launched toward Haifa, said army spokesman Jacob Dallal.

Both strikes came within three hours after the rockets slammed into the port city in northern Israel.

Israeli warplanes and artillery also pounded other areas in Lebanon, causing at least 13 deaths. Loud explosions echoed across Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, when Israeli jets fired missiles into its southern suburbs in the afternoon.

Hezbollah and its allies rejected the US-French text of the UN resolution, saying its terms for a halt in fighting did not address Lebanon’s demands — a signal that the nearly four-week-old battle would burn on.

Both sides appeared to be aiming to inflict maximum damage in the few days before the resolution is expected to be voted on by the UN Security Council.