El ejército israelí bloquea el Líbano por mar y aire y mata a 53 civiles. La ofensiva militar se produce apenas unas horas después del secuestro por parte de Hizbulá de dos soldados hebreos.

Dos cohetes Katiusha disparados desde Líbano han alcanzado esta tarde la ciudad israelí de Haifa, que se encuentra a unos cincuenta kilómetros de la frontera y que cuenta doscientos setenta mil habitantes, informa la policía local.

Según fuentes del ejercito israelí, el ataque no ha causado víctimas pero es considerado como un asunto grave por la importancia de la ciudad y porque los cohetes disparados desde Líbano nunca habían llegado tan lejos.

Hace unas horas, ante un comité parlamentario, un alto mando del ejercito israelí había adelantado que se calculaba que el grupo libanés Hizbulá disponía de cohetes capaces de llegar hasta Haifa. Éste grupo ha desmentido ser el autor del disparo de los dos cohetes.

Ataque al sur de Beirut y el aeropuerto

La marina israelí ha atacado esta noche el barrio Usai del sur de Beirut con tres proyectiles, según ha informado la televisión libanesa New TV, que no ha precisado si el ataque ha ocasionado víctimas.

Según la cadena de televisión, los barcos de guerra israelís también están lanzando proyectiles contra zonas próximas al aeropuerto internacional Rafic Hariri, en la capital, cerrado al tráfico desde esta mañana.

Por su parte, la televisión Futuro han asegurado que los ataques israelís contra el aeródromo se centran en los depósitos de combustible para evitar la salida de aeronaves.

La cadena News TV muestra imágenes de un gran incendio en el aeropuerto beirutí, y añade que la aviación israelí está lanzando pasquines a las calles de la capital.

Bloqueo del país

El ejército israelí ha confirmado esta mañana que ha impuesto el bloqueo por mar y aire sobre el Líbano con el fin de cortar las vías de suministro de la milicia chií libanesa de Hizbulá, que ayer secuestró a dos de sus soldados y mató a otros ocho.

La aviación israelí había bombardeado esta madrugada el aeropuerto internacional de Beirut, y posteriormente el ejército ha informado de que que también ha impuesto el bloqueo naval sobre el Líbano para cortar el suministro de armas a Hizbulá a través de Siria. Israel considera que Hizbulá es equipado y financiado por Irán con el respaldo de Siria.

Los bombardeos de Israel sobre el Líbano han causado hasta el momento cincuenta y tres civiles muertos y más de cien heridos, según ha informado el ministro de Salud Pública, Mohamed Jalife, que ha precisado que esta cifra no es definitiva. Entre los muertos hay al menos diez menores, pero se ignora si entre las víctimas se encuentran combatientes de Hizbulá y cuántos son civiles.

La zona más castigada por los bombardeos ha sido el sur del país, pero también el valle de la Bekaa, donde las bombas han alcanzado un templo chií.

Bombardeados el aeropuerto y la TV

El Ejército israelí había confirmado horas antes el ataque aéreo lanzado esta madrugada contra el aeropuerto internacional de Beirut Rafic Hariri, que ha quedado cerrado al tráfico aéreo.

También ha sido bombardeada la emisora de televisión de Hizbulá, Al Manar, en Beirut. Según el portavoz de la cadena, Ibrahim Farhat, un misil israelí ha alcanzado el edificio que alberga los estudios. La emisora ha seguido transmitiendo y ha informado de que el ataque israelí sólo había alcanzado "una unidad de transmisión menor".

Una fuente militar israelí ha dicho que la emisora televisiva ha sido atacada "porque ha sido utilizada durante muchos años como medio de propaganda e incitación, así como para el reclutamiento de nuevos mandos en Hizbulá". En el ataque han resultado heridas seis personas, según testigos presenciales y fuentes de seguridad libanesas.

Líbano pide ayuda a la ONU

El Gobierno israelí ha celebrado una reunión de emergencia durante la que se ha decidido responder con la fuerza al ataque de ayer de Hezbolá en la frontera en el que fueron secuestrados dos soldados, por cuya liberación se reclama la liberación de presos. El ministro de Agricultura, Shalom Simchon, ha afirmado: "El Gobierno quiere cambiar las reglas del juego en Líbano y hacer entender al Gobierno libanés que es responsable de lo que ocurre en Líbano".

Sin embargo, el Gobierno libanés había afirmado que no tenía conocimiento de la operación de Hezbolá, no lo justificaba y no tenía ninguna responsabilidad por lo ocurrido. Además, el gabinete, en el que hay dos miembros de Hizbulá, ha instado al Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU a intervenir.

By Nadim Ladki (Additional reporting by Alaa Shahine, Lin Noueihed and Laila Bassam, and Jerusalem bureau)

BEIRUT, July 13 (Reuters). Israel struck Beirut airport and military airbases and blockaded Lebanese ports on Thursday, intensifying reprisals that have killed 55 civilians in Lebanon since Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers a day earlier.

Hizbollah fighters rained more than 100 rockets on northern Israel in their heaviest bombardment in a decade, hitting Israel's third largest city, Haifa, the Israeli army said.

Hizbollah, a group backed by Iran and Syria, denied it had fired on the port city.

Two civilians were killed and 92 others wounded in rocket attacks, the Israeli army said. There were no reports of casualities in Haifa.

The violence was the fiercest since 1996 when Israeli troops still occupied part of south Lebanon. It coincided with a major Israeli offensive into the Gaza Strip to try to retrieve a captured soldier and halt Palestinian rocket fire.

U.S. President George W. Bush voiced concern about the fate of Lebanon's anti-Syrian government, but offered no direct criticism of the punishment Israel is meting out.

"Israel has the right to defend herself", he said in Germany.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was also in Germany, urged Israel to exercise restraint in its attacks and demanded Syria put pressure on Hizbollah guerrillas to stop attacking Israel.

"It is extremely important that Israel exercise restraint in its acts of self defence", she told reporters.

The European Union and Russia criticised Israel's strikes in Lebanon as a dangerous escalation of the Middle East conflict.

Sustained air strikes in south Lebanon killed over 50 civilians and wounded 110 people, security sources said. A Lebanese soldier was also killed.

Information Minister Ghazi al-Aridi said after an emergency cabinet meeting that Lebanon wanted an end to "this open-ended aggression" by Israel.

King Abdullah of Jordan reacted pessimistically to the rising violence.

"This may be an exaggeration, but the situation now seems much like what happened just prior to the beginning of the war in 1967", the king was quoted by a Japanese Foreign Ministry official as telling visiting Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

In New York, the United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution put forward by Qatar on behalf of Arab states that would have condemned Israel's two-week military incursion into Gaza. The council meets for an urgent session on Friday at Beirut's request over the Israeli strikes on Lebanon.

U.S. stocks dropped sharply as the fighting drove the oil price to a record. The violence also rattled financial markets in Israel and Lebanon with investors worried it might worsen, or spread to Syria.

AIR AND SEA BLOCKADE

Israeli aircraft bombed runways at Beirut's international airport, forcing flights to divert to Cyprus.

Later in the day, Israeli aircraft also attacked two military airbases and fired at fuel tanks at Beirut airport, setting one ablaze, witnesses said.

Planes dropped leaflets in a Beirut suburb, urging residents to stay away from Hizbollah offices, witnesses said.

A senior Israeli officer said the air and sea blockade would be maintained throughout what he said would be a prolonged offensive against Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

Israeli naval vessels enforcing the siege turned away three ships carrying fuel to Beirut, a shipping source said. A local shipping agent said seaborne trade was at a standstill at the port, which handles 95 percent of Lebanon's commerce.

Three of Hizbollah's al-Manar television facilities in Beirut and elsewhere came under fire from Israeli helicopters.

Tourists flooded out of Lebanon into neighbouring Syria, now the country's only outlet to the world. Lebanese officials at the Masnaa border post said at least 15,000 foreign-registered vehicles, mostly from the Gulf, had crossed into Syria.

Israel has rejected Hizbollah demands that it release Arab prisoners in exchange for the captive soldiers, named by the Israeli army as Ehud Goldwasser, 31, and Eldad Regev, 26, but says it fears the soldiers could be spirited to Iran.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Israel was "talking absurdities".

BEIRUT, 13 Jul 2006 (IRIN). The Lebanese Red Cross and other aid agencies are readying themselves to provide humanitarian assistance in the case of further attacks by Israel in Lebanon.

The Red Cross has so far sent 350 first aid workers and 36 ambulances to the impoverished south. "The situation is very bad because there's been a lot of bombardment and some bridges have been destroyed", said Red Cross spokesman Ayad Mounzer. "We've been meeting to discuss the situation and a plan of action, including a new appeal".

The current crisis, the worst since the Israeli retreat from Southern Lebanon in 2000, erupted when the "Party of God" known Hezbollah staged a successful cross-border assault on an Israeli army post, killing three soldiers and capturing two. In an attempt to rescue the hostages, another four Israeli soldiers died when their military vehicle hit an explosive device.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday called the Hezbollah attack "an act of war" and held the Lebanese government responsible for failing to implement UN Resolution 1559, which demands that all militias on Lebanese territory be disarmed. The Lebanese government, meanwhile, announced it had no previous knowledge of the attack.

The overwhelming Israeli military response has so far killed 47 and injured 100, most of them civilians, the Ministry of Public Health announced on Thursday. Most casualties were reported near the border in the south of the country, with the Israeli army continuing to launch artillery fire and air strikes at Hezbollah positions and at civilian infrastructure.

Roads, bridges and the Beirut International Airport were all targeted within the last 24 hours . While the Israeli army has amassed thousands of soldiers on the border, no Israeli ground troops have been reported within Lebanese territory so far, according to Richard Morzynski, spokesman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

Many Lebanese fear that Israel will reinstall a buffer zone along the border, as it did from 1982 to 2000. "UNIFIL is in the process of establishing facts on the ground", said Morzynski. "We've been trying to establish a ceasefire, but for that you need two parties. The Israeli position is clear: no discussion until the two soldiers are freed".

The action by Hezbollah was strongly condemned by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who said it breached existing Security Council resolutions. He also called for the immediate and unconditional release of the Israeli captives. "This incident, and subsequent developments, which endanger an already volatile region, demonstrates once again how urgent it is that the Lebanese government extends its control over all Lebanese territory and prevents such attacks across the Blue Line", Annan said.

The secretary-general's personal representative in Lebanon, Gier Pedersen, added: "The Hezbollah attack is to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. The action escalates the already tense situation along the Blue Line and is an act of very dangerous proportions".

According to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, the aim of the operation was to capture Israeli soldiers who will only be released in exchange for Lebanese and Arab prisoners currently languishing Israeli prisons.

Many experts however, believe there is more at stake than the release of prisoners. Peter Haenni of the International Crisis Group claimed there was a connection with the current crisis in the Gaza strip, which has been "largely ignored by the rest of the world".

He added: "Since the Israeli retreat in 2000, Hezbollah has found it difficult to change from a resistance to a more civic movement, both on the national and regional levels. With this attack, it hopes to re-establish itself as a national and regional player, not least in the eyes of Sunni Islamic parties".

El Periódico de Catalunya

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