Lebanon shook under a new wave of air raids on Monday after Israel vowed a fierce response to Hezbollah guerrilla attacks with no sign of a let-up in a conflict that has killed about 200 people in six days.
At least 21 people, including Lebanese soldiers, were killed as fighter jets slammed missiles into the port of Beirut, a military base in the northern city of Tripoli, and Baalbek, a Hezbollah stronghold in the east.
Governments worldwide were scrambling to evacuate their nationals from Lebanon on the sixth day of the devastating tit-for-tat blitz of Israel air strikes and rocket attacks by the Lebanese Shi’ite Muslim militia.
United Nations and European Union envoys were also in the region holding urgent talks to try to contain the crisis amid fears it could spiral out of control and trigger another all-out war in the Middle East.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for a “cessation of hostilities” to allow a “stabilisation force” to be put together, in the first sign of action over a conflict that has exposed rifts in the international community.
“I appeal to the parties to focus their targets narrowly and to bear in mind that they have an obligation under international humanitarian law to spare civilian lives [and] to spare civilian infrastructure,” he said.
World powers demanded at their G8 summit in St Petersburg on Sunday both an end to Israeli military operations and attacks by militants on Israel.
Monday’s raids brought to at least 170 the number killed in Israel’s fiercest offensive on its northern neighbour since it launched a full-scale invasion in 1982, almost all of them civilians.
Twenty-four Israelis have been killed, including 12 civilians in a barrage of Hezbollah rocket fire across the border.
The onslaught has left Lebanon virtually cut of from the outside world and much of its infrastructure in tatters, with jets hitting roads, bridges and power stations as well as strongholds of Hezbollah, the militia Israel has vowed to crush.
Beirut’s International airport, already shut to traffic since last Thursday, was hit again late on Sunday by Israeli warplanes which fired 10 missiles on a runway and set the night sky ablaze.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had warned of retaliation after Hezbollah rockets hit Haifa, Israel’s third largest city, killing eight railway workers in the deadliest cross-border attack in decades.
“Nothing will deter us, whatever far-reaching ramifications regarding our relations on the northern border and in the region there may be.”
The Israeli military ordered residents to flee villages in southern Lebanon, warning of air and artillery operations, and put its commercial capital Tel Aviv and all towns further north on alert.
Israel unleashed its military might on Lebanon after the capture of two soldiers in a Hezbollah attack that also killed eight soldiers, opening up another battleground after a similar offensive launched three weeks against Gaza where militants are holding a third soldier hostage.
“We will use all means,” a defiant Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned in an address on Lebanese television. “As long as the enemy has no limits, we will have no limits.”
“Surprises are coming. Our forces are still intact, and we are the ones who are choosing the time and the place,” said Nasrallah, who has survived repeated attacks on his headquarters in Beirut’s Shi’ite dominated southern suburbs.
Foreign governments were swinging into action to evacuate their nationals and Israel, which has imposed an air and sea blockade around Lebanon, said it would liaise with them on the operations.
The disabled airport is one of many problems facing residents and foreign nationals seeking to flee Lebanon, with the increasingly dangerous land route to Syria the only available exit for many.
The United States on Sunday began airlifting its nationals out by military helicopter to neighbouring Cyprus, while two British warships were steaming towards Lebanon and a ferry chartered by the French government was due to start taking on board its first passengers on Monday.
Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has declared Lebanon a “disaster zone” and appealed for urgent international help for a country that was slowly rebuilding after a devastating 15-year civil war.
But diplomatic efforts finally began to gain momentum with a UN mission in Beirut for talks with Siniora on a possible ceasefire following a visit by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she is considering travelling to the region, while French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is also heading to Beirut to express “solidarity” with the Lebanese people.
The United States has maintained Israel had every right to defend itself and also urged restraint over the offensive, which split the international community and raised fears of dragging Syria and Iran into the conflict.
But the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States presented a united front in urging all parties to halt violence in a statement issued at their summit.
“The extremists must immediately halt their attacks. Those extremist elements and those that support them cannot be allowed to plunge the Middle East into chaos and provoke a wider conflict.”
Urging Israel “to exercise utmost restraint,” it demanded “an end to Israeli military operations and the early withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza”.
Israel says the aim of its operation is to destroy Hezbollah, the Party of God which has long been a thorn in Israel’s side and was instrumental in its withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 after a long and bloody occupation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was working “through all channels” to seek the release of the soldiers.
Israel’s arch-foe Syria, blamed by the United States and the Jewish state for backing Islamist militants, warned that any Israeli attack “will provoke an unlimited, direct and firm response using all means necessary”.
Iran also warned of “unimaginable losses” if Israel attacked Syria and accused the United States of playing a “destructive role by vetoing resolutions and hence encouraging the Israeli crimes”.
Israel is now fighting on two fronts after it launched a similar deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip over the capture of another soldier by Palestinian militants in late June.
Both Hezbollah and Palestinian militants holding the soldiers are demanding the release of prisoners from Israeli jails — something Israel has rejected outright.
Israel pressed on with its assault on Gaza, killing six more Palestinians in air raids and a ground incursion on Sunday and hitting the foreign ministry early on Monday. At least 85 Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed.
Another Israeli soldier was killed in an explosion in the West Bank town of Nablus. – AFP