Islamic militants used the funeral of one of the world’s most wanted terrorists to threaten all-out war on Israel today.

Lebanese guerrillas used human shields in their recent war with Israel, according to a report from an Israeli think tank.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said “serious negotiations” were under way over the fate of two Israeli soldiers whose July 12 capture by the militant group sparked a month of brutal fighting in Lebanon.

Israeli warplanes staged mock raids over Hezbollah strongholds in south Beirut today in the heaviest show of aerial power since the August 14 ceasefire.

UN chief Kofi Annan said he would appoint a mediator for indirect talks between Israel and Hezbollah on the release of two abducted Israeli soldiers, the first public word of negotiations between the bitter enemies since fighting in Lebanon ended.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon today, a day after Italy and Turkey moved to join the international force there.

Lebanon’s defence minister today warned that any group breaking the ceasefire with Israel would be “decisively dealt with” and considered a traitor.

THE Israeli military and Hezbollah were trying last night to inflict as much damage as possible ahead of an expected ceasefire this morning.

Israeli warplanes struck several targets in north and south Lebanon early today, hours after the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution calling for an end to the war with Hezbollah.

Israeli airstrikes pounded south Beirut and border crossings to Syria, killing at least 13 people across Lebanon as ground fighting picked up intensity.

Israel’s security cabinet today decided to vastly expand its ground offensive and send troops deeper into Lebanon, in an attempt to deal more blows to Hezbollah and score quick battlefield victories before a Middle East ceasefire is imposed.

Israel’s military struck Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp early today, killing at least two people and wounding five, officials said. In the eastern Bekaa Valley five people were killed and two feared dead in an Israeli raid.

Israel and Hezbollah sharply intensified fighting with punishing airstrikes, scores of rocket attacks and brutal ground fighting – an apparent bid to inflict maximum mutual damage in the few days remaining before a draft UN cease-fire resolution takes hold.

Israel pounded Hezbollah’s southern Beirut strongholds with missiles early today and, in a sharp expansion of its bombing of Lebanon, blasted highway bridges for the first time in the Christian heartland north of the capital during morning rush hour.

An Israeli missile hit a house in a Lebanese border village early today, killing a family of three, Lebanese security officials said.

Israel will not be able to disarm Hezbollah by broadening its military offensive and instead must stop shooting and start talking, President Emile Lahoud said today.

The top UN humanitarian official today denounced the Israeli airstrikes that have devastated Beirut and southern Lebanon and appealed for safe passage for aid, saying civilians were paying a ”disproportionate price” in the attacks targeting Hezbollah strongholds.

Israeli forces resumed attacks on Lebanon at daybreak today, pounding the country’s main road link to Syria with missiles and setting passenger buses on fire.

ISRAELI troops met fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas yesterday as they crossed into Lebanon to seek tunnels and weapons after warning residents in a 20-mile swathe of the south along the border to flee.

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah tonight said that the group’s leadership remained intact, appearing an interview on Al-Jazeera a day after Israel claimed to have bombed a bunker where he may have been hiding.

Israeli warplanes dropped 23 tons of bombs on a bunker in south Beirut where the army believed senior Hezbollah leaders were hiding, a senior army official said today, but the guerrilla group denied the site was a bunker or that its leadership had been hurt.

Westerners fled by land, sea and air as Israel launched waves of bombings that hit south Beirut, the border and the eastern city of Baalbek in the early hours today.

ISRAELI air strikes killed 42 people across Lebanon yesterday, including 10 civilians hit on a southern bridge, on the sixth day of a bombardment that has wreaked the heaviest destruction in Lebanon for over 20 years.

ISRAELI air strikes reduced entire apartment buildings to rubble and plunged parts of the Lebanese capital of Beirut into darkness in a ferocious response to a Hezbollah attack.

Israeli warplanes repeatedly blasted Beirut’s southern suburbs today, causing a series of huge blasts, Hezbollah’s Al Manar television reported.

Israeli warplanes renewed attacks on Lebanon early today, targeting bridges and fuel storage tanks and petrol stations in the east and south, security officials said.

Israeli warplanes have destroyed the building housing the headquarters of Hezbollah guerrillas in south Beirut today, the group’s TV station reported.

Israel tightened its seal on Lebanon today, blasting air and road links and bringing its offensive to the capital for the first time.

An Israeli hang glider inadvertently floated into south Lebanon today, sparking renewed clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli troops as the guerrillas tried to grab him and the soldiers covered his dash back across the border.

Hezbollah guerrillas clashed with Israeli soldiers on the southern Lebanese border today, reviving a two-day old confrontation that saw some of the heaviest fighting in years.

Angry demonstrators set fire to Lebanon’s Labour Ministry in Beirut today after soldiers shot and killed five people and wounded 12 others during protests against the government’s economic policies, security and hospital officials said.

In carefully choreographed moves, airliners carrying swapped prisoners landed almost simultaneously in Israel and Lebanon tonight.