Israeli helicopter gunships unleash a barrage of missiles on
Lebanon's only international airport in Beirut, July 13, 2006. (CCTV
Photo) |
Lebanon-based Hezbollah group attacked Israel's
third largest city, Haifa, July 13, 2006. The strike prompted Israeli
threats of further retaliation, raising the stakes in an already violent
cross-border confrontation. (CCTV
Photo) |
BEIJING, July 14 -- Israel is blaming the Lebanon-based
Hezbollah group for an attack on its third largest city, Haifa. The strike
prompted Israeli threats of further retaliation, raising the stakes in an
already violent cross-border confrontation.
Residents of Haifa had been told to stay indoors, and no
casualties were reported after the two rockets hit. Israel's ambassador to the
United States condemned the strike, calling it a major escalation in tensions
with Hezbollah. But Hezbollah's deputy leader has denied the group's fighters
attacked the northern Israeli city.
More than a hundred mortar rounds and rockets hit northern
Israel on Thursday, killing one woman and wounding more than thirty five people.
Fuel storage tanks set on fire after Israeli helicopter
gunships bombed the Lebanese only international airport Beirut
International Airport in Beirut's southern suburb in Thursday evening,
July 13, 2006. (CCTV Photo) | In the
evening, Israeli helicopter gunships unleashed a barrage of missiles on
Lebanon's only international airport in Beirut.
The violence follows a cross-border raid by Hezbollah during
which two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped.
Both sides are threatening more to come.
Israeli planes dropped leaflets on the southern suburbs of
Beirut near the airport, calling on residents to avoid areas where Hezbollah
operates.
Meanwhile, Lebanon's information minister is demanding Israel
cease its aggression, seeking international help in ending the conflict. Ghazi
Aridi said, "The Lebanese cabinet has called on the UN Security Council to take
immediate action to implement a ceasefire and stop Israel's naval embargo on
Lebanon. The cabinet has also called on Israel to end its attacks, which are
killing innocent civilians and destroying vital infrastructures. And it asks the
international community to work on finding an immediate solution to this current
crisis."
The violence is the fiercest since 1996, when Israel carried out
sustained airstrikes on Hezbollah's positions in southern Lebanon. The attacks
killed over fifty civilians and wounded a hundred and ten people.
(Source: CCTV.com)
Related stories:
Israel pounds Beirut's airport again
BEIRUT, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Israeli
warplanes bombed the fuel storage tanks of Lebanese Rafik Hariri International
Airport in Beirut's southern suburb after nightfall Thursday, Lebanese Future TV
reported.
One helicopter warplane raked the fuel
tanks with machine gunfire while three others fired air-to-surface missiles,
Lebanese security sources was quoted as saying.
The airport fuel storage tanks set on fire after
Israeli warplanes bombed the fuel storage tanks of Lebanese Rafik Hariri
International Airport in Beirut's southern suburb after nightfall
Thursday, July 13, 2006. (Reuters Photo)
|
The TV stations showed flames shooting
high up into the night air from the Lebanese only international airport, while
firemen were reluctant to reach the site because of continuing Israeli air
activity, according to the report.
Earlier Thursday morning, Israeli
warplanes launched at least two raids over the eastern and western runways in
the airport, forcing it to shut down, security sources said.
Israel intensifies
attacks in Lebanon
BEIRUT, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Israeli forces
intensified their retaliatory attacks in Lebanon Thursday and brought the death
toll to 55 civilians.
Israeli army is imposing a comprehensive
blockade on Lebanese air, sea and land in a response to Hizbollah's capture of
two Israeli soldiers on Wednesday morning.
A total of 55 Lebanese civilians,
including children, were killed in Israeli raids cross the country on Thursday,
Hizbollah's television channel al-Manar reported.
At Thursday morning, Israeli aircraft
bombed runways at Rafik Hariri International Airport, the country's only
international airport, forcing flights to divert to Cyprus. Later in the day,
Israeli aircraft also attacked two military airbases and gunboats fired shells
at fuel tanks at Beirut airport, witnesses said.
The Hizbullah's Al-Manar television
station in the group's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburb also hit by
Israeli missile on Thursday, wounding six people.
Meanwhile, Israeli Planes dropped leaflets
in a Beirut suburb, urging residents to stay away from Hizbollah offices,
witnesses said.
In order to retaliate for Israeli
"massacres", Hizbollah fired about 60 Katyusha rockets at Nahariya in northern
Israel on Thursday, killing a civilian and 21 others, al-Manar reported.
Israeli security sources said two Katyusha
rockets fired from Lebanon hit Israel's third largest city of Haifa Thursday
evening, while Lebanese Hezbollah denied launching rockets at the city. Earlier,
another rocket hit Israeli northern city of Safed. One woman was killed and 20
wounded, one of them in critical condition, the sources said.
The deterioration of the situation has
begotten International concerns.
The United Nation's Security Council will
hold an emergency meeting for Friday to discuss the dangerous situation at
Lebanese-Israeli border area.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
is sending a three-person team to the Middle East to try to defuse the crisis.
The European Union and Russia criticized Israel's strikes in Lebanon as a
dangerous escalation of the Middle East conflict. Arab foreign ministers agreed
to hold an emergency meeting in Cairo on Saturday to discuss Israeli attacks in
Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
|
