Alonzo
08-10-2006, 07:38 PM
Israel Air Force warplanes dropped leaflets over downtown Beirut on Thursday, threatening a "painful and strong" response to Hezbollah rocket attacks and warning residents of three southern suburbs to evacuate immediately.
"The Israel Defense Forces intend to expand their operations in Beirut," the single-page leaflet read. It said the move came after statements from "the leader of the gang" - an apparent reference to Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, who made a taped television address the night before.
"To the residents of Hay el-Sulloum, Bourj el-Barajneh and Chiah: For your own safety, you must evacuate those neighborhoods immediately, and evacuate every place where Hezbollah members or aides exist or carry out terrorist operations," it read.
"You must know that the expansion of Hezbollah terrorist operations will lead to a painful and strong response, and its painful results will not be confined to Hassan's gang and criminals," it added.
The leaflets were signed, "The State of Israel."
Radio tower hit
An IAF helicopter earlier fired at least two rockets at a disused radio broadcast tower in the heart of Beirut, lightly wounding two people and damaging a number of cars, Lebanese security sources said.
Minutes later, Israeli helicopters rocketed old antennas belonging to Lebanon's official radio station in the coastal village of Amsheet, north of Beirut.
The attack on the tower in Ras Beirut is the deepest Israeli strike into the Lebanese capital in a month-old campaign against Hezbollah. The tower, next to the Lebanese American University, had not been in use for many years.
At least three people were killed in air strikes and ground fighting across south Lebanon.
An IAF drone fired a missile into a minibus near Rayak, in the eastern Bekaa Valley, killing one person and wounding 12, residents said.
Another missile hit a motorcycle and killed its driver near a hospital on the southeast edge of Tyre, civil defense officials said. It was the second motorcycle hit there in the past week, they said.
In the southern village of Kfar Tibnit, one man was killed and his wife wounded when an Israel Defense Forces artillery shell hit their house, security officials aid. Several villages around the market town of Nabatiyeh came under heavy artillery shelling, residents and officials said.
IAF bombing severely damaged a road linking the city of Baalbek, traditionally a Hezbollah stronghold, with the Syrian city of Homs, witnesses said.
Lebanon hospitals cut off, running out of supplies
Hospitals were running out of food, fuel and other supplies in southern Lebanon on Thursday and aid groups said fighting and a ban on movement meant they could not reach thousands trapped in the area.
Medecins Sans Frontieres said that since an IAF strike destroyed the last coastal river crossing for trucks to the south on Monday, aid agencies had been reduced to carrying supplies by hand over a log across the Litani river.
It said Israel's warning that it might attack any vehicle south of the Litani that was not part of an aid convoy with Israeli clearance significantly undermined the chances of the tens of thousands of people still believed to be trapped in the region.
"The people in the south are afraid. They are terrified to move," Rowan Gillies, president of MSF International, said in Beirut. "To forbid all forms of movement, without distinction, will lead to even more civilian deaths and suffering."
MSF said it had suffered close calls with shelling and air strikes close to two of its convoys earlier this week. On Monday, warplanes attacked two cars travelling near a UN Nations convoy, killing three people.
The United Nations World Food Program said it sent a 15-truck convoy to the eastern town of Baalbek but was still waiting for two planes carrying about 10 tons of supplies each which had been delayed since Tuesday.
The agency was also trying to send a 10-truck convoy to the battered town of Nabatiyeh in the south, but had not received security guarantees.
"We had hoped to get down to Nabatiyeh [Thursday], but were denied clearance," WFP spokesman Robin Lodge said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/749081.html
"The Israel Defense Forces intend to expand their operations in Beirut," the single-page leaflet read. It said the move came after statements from "the leader of the gang" - an apparent reference to Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, who made a taped television address the night before.
"To the residents of Hay el-Sulloum, Bourj el-Barajneh and Chiah: For your own safety, you must evacuate those neighborhoods immediately, and evacuate every place where Hezbollah members or aides exist or carry out terrorist operations," it read.
"You must know that the expansion of Hezbollah terrorist operations will lead to a painful and strong response, and its painful results will not be confined to Hassan's gang and criminals," it added.
The leaflets were signed, "The State of Israel."
Radio tower hit
An IAF helicopter earlier fired at least two rockets at a disused radio broadcast tower in the heart of Beirut, lightly wounding two people and damaging a number of cars, Lebanese security sources said.
Minutes later, Israeli helicopters rocketed old antennas belonging to Lebanon's official radio station in the coastal village of Amsheet, north of Beirut.
The attack on the tower in Ras Beirut is the deepest Israeli strike into the Lebanese capital in a month-old campaign against Hezbollah. The tower, next to the Lebanese American University, had not been in use for many years.
At least three people were killed in air strikes and ground fighting across south Lebanon.
An IAF drone fired a missile into a minibus near Rayak, in the eastern Bekaa Valley, killing one person and wounding 12, residents said.
Another missile hit a motorcycle and killed its driver near a hospital on the southeast edge of Tyre, civil defense officials said. It was the second motorcycle hit there in the past week, they said.
In the southern village of Kfar Tibnit, one man was killed and his wife wounded when an Israel Defense Forces artillery shell hit their house, security officials aid. Several villages around the market town of Nabatiyeh came under heavy artillery shelling, residents and officials said.
IAF bombing severely damaged a road linking the city of Baalbek, traditionally a Hezbollah stronghold, with the Syrian city of Homs, witnesses said.
Lebanon hospitals cut off, running out of supplies
Hospitals were running out of food, fuel and other supplies in southern Lebanon on Thursday and aid groups said fighting and a ban on movement meant they could not reach thousands trapped in the area.
Medecins Sans Frontieres said that since an IAF strike destroyed the last coastal river crossing for trucks to the south on Monday, aid agencies had been reduced to carrying supplies by hand over a log across the Litani river.
It said Israel's warning that it might attack any vehicle south of the Litani that was not part of an aid convoy with Israeli clearance significantly undermined the chances of the tens of thousands of people still believed to be trapped in the region.
"The people in the south are afraid. They are terrified to move," Rowan Gillies, president of MSF International, said in Beirut. "To forbid all forms of movement, without distinction, will lead to even more civilian deaths and suffering."
MSF said it had suffered close calls with shelling and air strikes close to two of its convoys earlier this week. On Monday, warplanes attacked two cars travelling near a UN Nations convoy, killing three people.
The United Nations World Food Program said it sent a 15-truck convoy to the eastern town of Baalbek but was still waiting for two planes carrying about 10 tons of supplies each which had been delayed since Tuesday.
The agency was also trying to send a 10-truck convoy to the battered town of Nabatiyeh in the south, but had not received security guarantees.
"We had hoped to get down to Nabatiyeh [Thursday], but were denied clearance," WFP spokesman Robin Lodge said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/749081.html