Israeli raids kill several in Lebanon

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.

Israeli airstrikes levelled a two-storey building in Mashghara early today, trapping seven people from the same family under debris, security officials said. Five bodies were pulled out and the remaining two relatives were feared dead, officials said.

The family’s sole survivor was the 80-year-old father, Ahmed Ibrahim Sader, who suffered serious wounds, they said.

Security officials have reported that the death toll in Monday’s Israeli air raid on a south Beirut neighbourhood now stands at 41 killed and 61 wounded.

Today, Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets over the southern port city of Tyre again, and over Beirut proper for the first time. The identical flyers criticised Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, saying he was “playing with fire” and that the Lebanese people were “paying the price”.

A Hezbollah statement said the group killed or wounded 10 Israeli soldiers today and destroyed a tank as it advanced towards the village of Qantara, north of the Israeli border. The Israeli army said 15 soldiers were wounded in overnight clashes.

Another statement on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said guerrillas fired a barrage of Khaibar-1 rockets at Beit Shean, deep inside Israel, in response to “Zionist aggression and massacres against unarmed civilians.” But Palestinian security officials and witnesses said five Hezbollah rockets landed in the West Bank town of Arabani, about 10 miles from Beit Shean.

Israeli troops landed by helicopter around 4am (2am Irish time) in the village of Kharayeb, southeast of Sidon, and searched three houses there, Mayor Hatem Akkoush and security officials said. They did not harm the occupants and took no prisoners, but their sniffer dogs bit one resident, who was taken to hospital.

An Israeli airstrike hit the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, Ein el-Hilweh, this morning.

Israel said it targeted a house used by Hezbollah guerrillas. Al-Manar reported two Palestinians were killed and eight others were wounded, saying the victims’ bodies were pulled from the rubble of a destroyed house.

The attack was the first against the camp since the fighting between the Jewish state and Hezbollah began more than four weeks ago.

Palestinian and Lebanese officials said Israeli warplanes fired two missiles, one landing in the camp on the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon and the other hitting the city’s amusement park.

Artillery crashed into a location manned by the Palestinian Fatah militia, which used to train guerrillas in the camp, officials said.

Ein el-Hilweh has witnessed years of bombings, assassinations and shootings as rival factions vie for control of the camp. It is also believed to be a haven for militants and a hideout for many fugitives wanted by Lebanese authorities.

The Lebanese army does not enter the camp but maintains positions at the camp’s entrances to keep guerrillas in check.

The camp is home to about 75,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants who were displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Some 350,000 Palestinians live in refugee camps in Lebanon. Which have developed over the years into shanty towns.

In Tyre, Israeli helicopters were seen flying overhead, dropping flares. Explosions were heard on the edge of the city.

Israeli warplanes also targeted roads and overpasses near the Lebanese-Syrian border in the northern province of Akkar at dawn, security officials said.

Two Lebanese soldiers suffered minor injuries during a series of Israeli air raids late yesterday that struck main roads in several villages in the southern part of the eastern Bekaa Valley, a corridor that links Lebanon’s eastern region with the south, security officials said.

Israeli jets returned to the same region early today and fired eight more missiles on suspected Hezbollah hideouts, the officials said. No casualties were reported.

Israel also struck Beirut’s southern suburbs – a Hezbollah stronghold that has been devastated by Israeli bombing – late yesterday, security officials said. No injuries were reported.