MIDDLE EAST: Israel struck Beirut airport and military airbases and blockaded Lebanese ports yesterday, intensifying reprisals that have killed 55 civilians in Lebanon since Hizbullah captured two Israeli soldiers a day earlier.
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.
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.
In New York, the United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution put forward by Qatar on behalf of Arab states that would have condemned Israel's two-week military incursion into Gaza.
Israeli aircraft bombed runways at Beirut's international airport, forcing flights to divert to Cyprus.
Later in the day, they also attacked two military airbases and fired at fuel tanks at Beirut airport, setting one ablaze, witnesses said.
"We attacked fuel containers near Beirut airport that were used by the airport. As with the runway attacks, this was aimed at preventing the transport of weapons and the hostages from the area," an Israeli army spokesman 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 Hizbullah 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 Hizbullah's al-Manar television facilities in Beirut and elsewhere came under fire from Israeli helicopters.
One person was reported killed and 10 wounded.
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 Hizbullah 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".
Arab foreign ministers agreed to hold an emergency meeting in Cairo tomorrow to discuss Israeli attacks in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, the Arab League said.