More dead after Israeli raids
Israeli strikes hit north Lebanon
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Sixteen people have died in the Lebanese town of Tyre after the port was hit by Israeli artillery, while at least seven were killed in a similar attack upon a border town, following on from eight civilian deaths in Haifa this morning. |  |
Monday, 17, Jul 2006 08:21
At least 25 people have died today following a series of powerful air raids by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) on Lebanese territory.
Ten were reported to have died when Israeli jets bombed a bridge over which civilians were crossing at the time, while around 15 people became fatalities during dawn raids over Tyre, Tripoli and Beirut.
Efforts from the international community to urge restraint met were ignored on either side of the Israeli-Lebanese border as both countries met fire with fire. The IDF reported that a Katyusha missile fired by Hizbullah militants hit a building in the town of Haifa, wounding six civilians, one severely.
Other missile attacks "struck Israeli communities including Ramot, Karmiel, Safed and Nahariya and beaches on the Sea of Galilee," the IDF said.
In response Israeli forces, turning into reality prime minister Ehud Olmert's threat of "far-reaching consequences" against Hizbullah's actions, hit nine bridges, roads and "primary structures of the terror organization".
"The sole thing that [we] are demanding from Lebanon [is] that terror events will not occur from the nation of Lebanon against the state of Israel, not against civilians and not against soldiers," said Major General Elyezer Shkedy, commander of the Israeli Air Force.
"Lebanon is a sovereign nation and from our point of view everything that happens in its domain is the responsibility of those who are in charge there."
Today's violence constituted the sixth day of hostilities between the two Middle Eastern countries, triggered last Wednesday by the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by the militant Lebanese group Hizbullah.
The present crisis between the two countries appears unlikely to be resolved in the immediate future, for the Israeli government is uncompromising in its attitude to the attacks.
But with the Lebanese government unable to tackle its militant Hizbullah faction because of the dangers of civil war and the movement's popularity in the south, the risk remains high that more innocent civilians will die before the current conflict abates.