Hizbullah threatens Tel Aviv attack
Hizbullah threatens Tel Aviv attack
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Thursday, 03, Aug 2006 07:40
Hizbullah's leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah helped escalate the conflict in the Middle East this evening by threatening to launch rockets against Tel Aviv if further Israeli air raids on Beirut took place.
In response Israel said it would respond to such attacks by attacking Lebanese infrastructure, according to media reports.
Today's war of words follows a day of extensive violence in which seven Israelis were killed following over 100 rocket attacks in the space of an hour.
Meanwhile Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora said that over 900 civilians had now been killed while an additional 3,000 had been injured by Israeli air raids.
"Right now Tony Blair can call for an immediate ceasefire. to put pressure on Israel, to give us back the detainees and to give us the maps for the landmines and to withdraw from all occupied territories that they have occupied during the past days," he told the BBC.
Although the UN hopes to pass a resolution enforcing a peace tomorrow, senior Israeli government officials do not appear in any mood to stop the fighting at present.
"Air Force planes attacked strategic targets in southern Lebanon," the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said.
"Among the sites targeted are three rocket launchers used in firing rockets against Israel, 37 structures, Hizbullah storages and headquarters, bridges and access routes leading to launching areas, as well as those close to Syria that may be used in smuggling weapons into Lebanese territory, and rocket launching sites used in the last days in firing rockets at Israel."
But human rights watchdog Human Rights Watch have criticised the IDF for their "indiscriminate" attacks on Lebanon, blaming Israeli forces for "having systematically failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign against Hizbullah in Lebanon".