Hezbollah leader declares open war on Israel

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, unharmed in the strikes, issued a taped TV statement telling Israelis: “You wanted an open war and we are ready for an open war.” He vowed to strike even deeper into Israel with rockets.

A rocket hit an Israeli warship off Lebanon’s coast in a strike timed to coincide with Nasrallah’s message.

“The surprises that I have promised you will start now. Now in the middle of the sea, facing Beirut, the Israeli warship … look at it burning,” Nasrallah said.

Israel said the hit caused only light damage.

Israeli warplanes and gunboats blasted the crowded Shiite neighbourhood around Nasrallah’s headquarters, damaging apartment buildings and roads and killing three people.

“If they kill us all, we will still not give them back the prisoners,” said one resident, Nasser Ali Nasser, as palls of smoke rose from fuel depots hit further south. “We have nothing left to lose except our dignity. We sacrifice ourselves for Sheik Nasrallah,” he said.

Hezbollah escalated its retaliation, raining dozens of rockets on towns in northern Israel. One rocket hit a home in Meron, killing a woman and her grandson. Some 220,000 people in northern towns hid in bomb shelters amid the barrage.

The death toll in three days of fighting rose to 73 killed in Lebanon and 12 in Israel, as international alarm grew over Israel’s onslaught and oil prices rose to above 78 a barrel.

The European Union accused Israel of using excessive force, and Russian President Vladimir Putin said both sides must “immediately cease military action".

The UN Security Council held an emergency session on the violence.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed the campaign would continue until Hezbollah guerillas are disarmed. But he agreed in a phone call with UN chief Kofi Annan to allow UN mediation for a cease-fire – but only if the terms for the truce included the return of the soldiers and the disarming of the guerrillas.

But there were fears – acknowledged by US President George W. Bush – that the Israeli assault could bring down the Western-backed, anti-Syrian government of Lebanon.

Bush, who has backed Israel’s right to defend itself, spoke by phone with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora from a G-8 summit in Russia and “reiterated his position” that the Israeli attacks should limit any impact on civilians, White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

But the promise fell short of the Lebanese leader’s request for pressure for a ceasefire.

Israel’s campaign – its largest in Lebanon in 24 years – appeared to have a two-pronged goal.

One was to batter Hezbollah and end its near control of the south on Israel’s borders.

“We know it’s going to be a long and continuous campaign and operation, but it’s very clear. We need to put Hezbollah out of business,” Brigadier-General Ido Nehushtan told the Associated Press.

Israel’s army chief, Brig-Gen Dan Halutz, said today that Hezbollah guerrillas have rockets that can reach as far as 43 miles or more, an admission that brings more major cities within their range.

The other goal was to seal off Lebanon by repeatedly striking its airport and main roads – including the coastal highway from north to south and the Beirut-Damascus highway, Lebanon’s main land link to the outside world. At the same time, it was gradually escalating the damage to the country’s vital infrastructure, painstakingly rebuilt since the civil war ended in 1990.

Israel holds Lebanon responsible for the snatching of its two soldiers in a surprise Hezbollah raid on Wednesday. The Lebanese government insists it had nothing to do with the move – but Israel wants it to take action to rein in the guerrillas – a move Lebanon has long resisted.

The level of damage inflicted by Israel appeared finely tuned. For example, a missile punched a hole in a major suspension bridge on the Beirut-Damascus road, but did not destroy it, unlike less expensive bridges on the road that were completely brought down. An Israeli strike hit fuel depots at one of Beirut’s two power stations – sending massive fireballs and smoke into the sky – but avoided the station itself.

Throughout the morning, Israeli fighter-bombers pounded runways at Beirut’s airport for a second day, apparently trying to ensure its closure after the Lebanese national carrier, Middle East Airlines, managed to evacuate its last five planes to Amman. One bomb hit close to the terminal building.

But the pain was mounting for Lebanese, with civilian casualties mounting faster than Israel’s last major offensive in Lebanon, the 1996 “Grapes of Wrath” offensive in 1996, also sparked by Hezbollah attacks. In that campaign, 165 people were killed – but that was over 17 days of fighting, and 100 of them died in a single shelling of a UN base.

Israel’s strikes in south Beirut were the first since the campaign began, toppling overpasses and sheering facades off apartment buildings. Concrete from balconies smashed into parked cars below, and car alarms set off by the blasts blared for hours later.

“We are on the right and we shall avenge every attack we endure,” said Fadi Haidar, an American-Lebanese who swept up the shattered glass outside his appliance store. “I have huge debts and now my store is damaged ... But as time goes by, they will all realize that Sayyed Nasrallah is right and is working in the interest of Muslims.”

But among many Lebanese, resentment was growing that Hezbollah had dragged them into a bloody fight with Israel. ”As long as Hezbollah has its weapons and acts according to its leader’s whims, there is pretext for Israel to keep on destroying Lebanon,” said Ibrahim al-Hajj, a Christian Maronite who owns a shoe shop in the southern Lebanese village of Qleia.

Hezbollah operates with near autonomy in south Lebanon, and the government has refused to move the military into the area to take control. It has long insisted Hezbollah is a legitimate force protecting Lebanon, but many fear a move against the guerrillas could tear the country apart.