Israel says its air force has knocked out Hizbullah's missile command centre in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, which has been responsible primarily for targeting the northern Israeli city of Haifa, but the Shia organisation continued to fire dozens of rockets into Israel yesterday.
Hizbullah said it had fired what it called the Khaibar-1 missile, striking an open field near the town of Afula, 50km from Israel's northern border. The strike came just 48 hours after Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah threatened to hit areas south of Haifa.
Israeli military officials said the Hizbullah missile command centre in Tyre was located on the 12th floor of a building, which had been destroyed in an aerial strike on Thursday.
Two rockets landed yesterday in Haifa, much fewer than in previous days, but military officials said it was unclear the extent to which the strike in Tyre had depleted Hizbullah's longer-range rocket capability.
Israel yesterday continued its aerial and artillery bombardment in southern Lebanon from where the rockets are being launched. Lebanese officials said another 12 people had been killed, bringing the death toll in Lebanon since fighting erupted 17 days ago to more than 440.
The Israeli military said it hit over 100 targets in Lebanon overnight on Thursday and yesterday, including what it said were Hizbullah installations, missile launching sites and communications facilities. The military said it had destroyed the launcher that fired the missile at Afula.
The Lebanese state news agency reported that in one Israeli air strike a house in the village of Hadatha had been flattened and that six people inside were believed to be dead or injured. A convoy evacuating residents trapped in the fighting in south Lebanon was hit by Israeli artillery, lightly injuring a journalist and a driver.
The United Nations, meanwhile, decided to withdraw 50 unarmed observers from their posts yesterday and they were moved to bases manned by Unifil soldiers, who carry light weapons.
Several houses in northern Israel sustained direct hits in rocket attacks yesterday, with one rocket smashing into the fourth floor of a hospital in the town of Nahariya, causing extensive damage but no injuries. Nineteen civilians have been killed in the rocket strikes since the fighting began. More than 30 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting.
The Israeli military estimated that some 200 Hizbullah operatives have been killed in the fighting while it says that 35 of its members have been killed.
Israel's ambassador to the UN has ruled out any significant UN involvement in an international peacekeeping force that may be deployed in south Lebanon as part of a ceasefire deal. The purpose of the force, which is being discussed by US and European leaders, would be to police south Lebanon and ensure Hizbullah is kept far from the border.
Dan Gillerman said more professional and better-trained troops were needed than those that constitute the Unifil force now deployed in south Lebanon.
"It has never been able to prevent any shelling of Israel, any terrorist attack, any kidnappings," he said. "They either didn't see or didn't know or didn't want to see, but they have been hopeless, so obviously it cannot be a United Nations force.
"It will have to be an international force, a professional one with soldiers from countries who have the training and capabilities to be effective."
The Israeli ambassador also said that Israel would not consent to UN participation in an Israeli inquiry into an air strike on a UN post in Lebanon that killed four observers on Tuesday. Mr Gillerman apologised, but said that accidents happened in war.