Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to wage "open war" on Israel yesterday after it bombed his home and headquarters in southern Beirut, while in Israel the army chief warned that the Shia organisation had rockets that could reach Israeli cities up to 20km (12 miles)north of Tel Aviv. Peter Hirschberg reports from Jerusalem
Nasrallah quickly ended speculation in Israel over whether he had been hit in the strike, issuing a defiant statement in a telephone message broadcast on Hizbullah television. "You wanted open war. We are going to (wage) open war," he declared.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has criticised the "disproportionate" Israeli response to the kidnappings of its soldiers,saying the crisis can only be resolved through dialogue.
He condemned the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers and citizens but said: "There are ways around dealing with that situation, not blowing ordinary civilians out of existence."
Mr Ahern said he would attend an EU foreign ministers meeting next Monday at which EU High Representative Javier Solana would report from weekend talks in Israel.
In his telephone address, Nasrallah said an Israeli vessel off the coast of Lebanon had been hit and was ablaze. "Look at it burn," he said. "It will sink and along with it dozens of Zionist soldiers."
Al Jazeera television reported that four Israeli sailors on the ship were missing and Israel confirmed that the ship had been badly damaged when it was hit by an explosives-laden drone. The army would not comment on whether there had been any casualties.
Two Israelis - a woman and her five-year-old grandson - were killed yesterday evening when a rocket fired from Lebanon struck their home in northern Israel. After firing over 100 rockets into Israel on Thursday, Hizbullah militants had fired a further 60 by yesterday evening, confining many residents in northern Israel to bomb shelters.
After rockets landed on Thursday evening in the port city of Haifa - the furthest south a rocket from Lebanon has ever landed in Israel - Israeli planes overnight bombed buildings in a suburb in south Beirut known as a Hizbullah stronghold. Planes also hit bridges in Beirut as well as the Beirut-Damascus highway, tightening an air and sea blockade Israel imposed on Lebanon after Hizbullah militants attacked an Israeli border patrol on Wednesday, killing three soldiers and seizing two, whom they are now holding captive.
Rockets fired by Hizbullah have killed four Israelis so far and injured dozens. Army chief Lieut Gen Dan Halutz revealed yesterday that Hizbullah had rockets "with a range of 70 kilometers, or maybe more". That would put cities like Netanya and Hadera, some 20 to 30 kilometers north of Tel Aviv, in range of the Shia group's rockets.
In his phone address, Nasrallah threatened to "reach Haifa, and believe me, even beyond Haifa".
Halutz said the Israeli operation would be ongoing and that the military would continue to strike "as much as is necessary, in order to clarify that the state of Israel cannot and doesn't want to continue with a reality in which rockets are fired at it daily."
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert outlined Israel's terms for a ceasefire yesterday when he told UN secretary general Kofi Annan that the military offensive would continue until Hizbullah had been disarmed and the Lebanese government had deployed its forces in the Hizbullah-controlled south of the country.
While Israel faced growing international opprobrium as civilian casualties in Lebanon mounted, the White House said yesterday that President Bush would not pressure Israel to halt its military operation.
"No. The president is not going to make military decisions for Israel," White House spokesman Tony Snow said when asked whether Mr Bush would accede to a Lebanese request to get Israel to halt its offensive.