The Lebanese prime minister rejected a UN ceasefire plan backed by President George Bush, demanding that Israel immediately pull out from southern Lebanon even before a peacekeeping force arrives to act as a buffer between Hezbollah and the Jewish state.

Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs and other parts of Lebanon early today, local media reported.

The Israeli military has imposed a naval blockade on Lebanon.

TWO suicide bombers blew themselves up minutes apart last night in a central Tel Aviv area crowded with foreign workers, killing at least 15 bystanders and wounding nearly 40.

ISRAEL was reeling yesterday after separate attacks by a suicide bomber and Palestinian gunman left at least 12 people dead.

At least eight people died and more than two dozen were injured when a bomb blast ripped through a packed bus in northern Israel during the morning rush hour, police sources and doctors said.