An Israeli missile hit farm workers loading vegetables into a refrigerator truck near the Lebanon-Syria border today, killing or wounding as many as 40 people, the workers’ foreman said.

AS thousands of civilians trapped for nearly three weeks in south Lebanon’s war zone streamed north yesterday by truck, car and on foot, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert vowed there would be no ceasefire in the fight against Hezbollah.

Israel will “expand and strengthen” its attack on Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, the defence minister said today, diminishing hopes that a 48-hour halt in air strikes could be turned into a longer-term ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today said that the village of Qana, where Israeli airstrikes killed at least 50 people today- including scores of children - was used as a Hezbollah base for launching hundreds of rockets at Israel.

Up to 50 people were killed today – more than half of them children – when Israeli missiles struck a southern Lebanese village early today, flattening houses on top of sleeping residents.

Israeli Cabinet ministers today decided not to expand the country’s Lebanon offensive, but ordered the call up of tens of thousands of reserve soldiers to boost the campaign, officials said.

Three explosions rocked a residential area of a northern Israeli town tonight, the army said. No injuries were reported.

LEBANON yesterday protested to the UN Security Council over Israeli violations of its sovereignty and the “aggression and threats” of its southern neighbour, the foreign ministry said.

Israeli warplanes attacked suspected guerrilla positions in southern Lebanon today, hours after Hezbollah militants shelled an Israeli town, killing a 16-year-old boy and lightly injuring five others, including a baby.

Hezbollah guerrillas fired shells over northern Israel, killing one person and injuring four, officials said today.