Beirut (Lebanon): Israeli warships and aircraft were clamping down on Lebanon's air, sea and land infrastructure on Friday, three days after Hezbollah guerrillas kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.
Israeli warplanes destroyed a building housing the headquarters of Hezbollah guerrillas in south Beirut late on Friday, The Associated Press (AP) reported. The AP said the group's TV station reported the strike.
Hezbollah says its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, and his family are safe after Israeli airstrikes, according to AP.
Israeli rescue services report a large barrage of rockets hitting northern Israel late Friday. Also, three explosions have been heard in Beirut.
The rocket attacks on Israel have prompted Israel's Cabinet to approve continued military operations in Lebanon, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said.
In the past two days, about 200 rockets have been fired from Lebanon at Israeli targets, according to The Associated Press.
On Thursday, two missiles fired from Lebanon hit the center of Haifa, Israel's third-largest city - extending beyond the range of any missiles fired at Israel from Lebanon in the past.
Israeli ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman said many missiles that have been fired from Lebanon toward the northern Israel were made in Iran.
"Many of the long-range missiles fired into Israel in the recent days were Iranian missiles made by the same regime that is now trying to possess nuclear weapons," Gillerman said at the UN on Friday.
When asked by CNN what role Syria or Iran may have played in the current crisis, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said it would be "strange" for Hezbollah to have "done this alone."
However, Hezbollah guerrillas denied firing the two rockets, which had a range longer than previous missiles fired at Israel from Lebanon.
Haifa residents have been urged Friday to seek safety in bomb shelters, The Associated Press reported.
Siniora called the crisis a "controlled war," and described it as an opportunity for the region to address the Israeli-Palestinian problem that has existed since 1948, when Israel was created.
Israeli forces Friday hit Lebanese highways and renewed attacks on Beirut's international airport, crippling a runway.
Israeli aircraft also carried out more airstrikes on a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut and an airstrike on Hezbollah's radio station, Reuters reported, wounding at least one person. The radio station, al-Nour, remained on the air, the news agency said.
Siniora called on President Bush and other world leaders to press Israel to halt the attacks.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said Friday that Bush declined Siniora's request, adding: "The president is not going to make military decisions for Israel," Reuters reported.
Bush "believes the Israelis have the right to protect themselves and that in doing that they should limit as much as possible so-called collateral damage not only to facilities but also to human lives", Snow said, according to Reuters.
Olmert said Israel would not halt its offensive until Hezbollah was disarmed, AP reported.
He made the comment in a telephone conversation with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Israeli government officials said.
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Rockets on Friday hit the town of Yesod Hamaalah, the army and Israeli rescue services said.
Police reported that Katyusha rockets were hitting towns in northern Israel -- five rockets hit Nahariya, five struck Safed, two hit Hatzor and four hit Pqui'in.
Also, the IDF reported a barrage of Katyusha rockets had hit Kiryat Shmona.
Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel have killed two people, the IDF said, and more than 100 Israelis have been wounded in the attacks.
Israel launched the military operation against Hezbollah after the group's militants killed three Israeli soldiers and kidnapped two others from northern Israel on Wednesday. Five more Israeli soldiers have been killed since.
Since the fighting began, Israeli attacks on what it sees as Hezbollah targets in Lebanon have killed at least 63 Lebanese people, including two soldiers, and wounded 167 others, Lebanon's internal security forces told CNN on Friday.
Diplomatic efforts to calm the crisis resumed at the United Nations Security Council in New York, at the convening of an "urgent meeting."
Before Friday's bombing of Beirut airport, the United States helped broker an unusual deal that allowed a runway at the Beirut airport to be repaired long enough to allow a private aircraft carrying former Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Nakati and five planes from Middle East Airlines to take off.
Israel's navy continued its blockade of Lebanese ports, including Tripoli, Sidon and Tyre.
Overnight, IDF warplanes attacked 18 targets in Lebanon, including the headquarters for the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in east Lebanon.
Israeli planes also attacked Hezbollah headquarters in southern Beirut overnight, according to IDF. Bridges and roads leading to the offices were destroyed in the operation.
Along the Israel-Lebanon border, IDF attacked two Hezbollah outposts, a weapons storage facility used by militants and three fuel stations south of Sidon.
Despite several countries - including the United States and Lebanon - contending that Lebanon doesn't have the capacity to extend its authority into Hezbollah-held territory, Israel has blamed the Lebanese government for the violence and charged it with the safe release of the soldiers.
Hezbollah, which enjoys substantial backing from Syria and Iran, is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel.
The group holds 23 of the 128 seats in Lebanon's parliament.
Palestinian militants forced open a border gate between Egypt and Gaza on Friday, AP reported, wounding an Egyptian officer before letting hundreds of people who had been trapped on the Egyptian side of the border to get into Gaza.
Egyptian police Captain Mohammed Abdel Hadi said masked Palestinian militants firing guns broke into the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, clearing the way for the trapped Gazans, according to AP.
The report came after Israel Defense Forces said it withdrew troops from central Gaza Friday but Israeli troops remained in the southern part of the territory.
The army had been in central Gaza trying to find an Israeli soldier kidnapped June 25 and to quell rocket attacks against Israeli citizens.
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