Bombs Rain on Bunker in Beirut Hezbollah Says Leaders Weren't Inside; Militants Strike Nazareth By Megan K. Stack and Laura King July 20, 2006 Los Angeles Times Original Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-lebanon20jul20,0,4733925,full.story BEIRUT — Israeli warplanes dropped 23 tons of bombs on a bunker allegedly sheltering top Hezbollah leaders and hammered Lebanon's countryside Wednesday in the single deadliest day for Lebanese civilians in a week of fighting. Thunderous blasts echoed over Beirut before 9 p.m. as dozens of aircraft dropped their loads of explosives on the impoverished, Hezbollah-run neighborhoods south of the capital. Hezbollah, or Party of God, soon announced that its leaders, including Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, were elsewhere when Israel attacked, and were not hurt. At least 55 Lebanese civilians were killed Wednesday in Israeli airstrikes on the capital and countryside, pushing this country's death toll beyond 300, the Lebanese government said. Hezbollah also kept up its strikes, firing a torrent of rockets over the border into Israel. Two boys, 3 and 9, who were members of Israel's Arab minority, were killed when rockets slammed into the town of Nazareth as they played outdoors, authorities there reported. The deaths were the first from a rocket attack in the predominantly Arab town, about 25 miles south of the frontier. The intensity of the bloodshed in Lebanon has drawn fierce criticism of both Israel and Hezbollah, with the United Nations calling Wednesday for an immediate cease-fire and warning of a humanitarian crisis for civilians caught in the crossfire. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said both sides could bear personal criminal responsibility for their air assaults. Indiscriminate shelling of cities constitutes a foreseeable and unacceptable targeting of civilians, Arbour said in Geneva. Similarly, the bombardment of sites with alleged military significance, but resulting invariably in the killing of innocent civilians, is unjustifiable. Critics have said Israel's response to the killing of eight soldiers and capture of two others by the Shiite Muslim guerrillas last week is disproportionate. At the same time, Hezbollah has been blamed for placing its fighters and weapons in densely populated civilian neighborhoods, and near United Nations facilities. The Lebanese government did not break down Wednesday's deaths by city or target. Relentless attacks in the country's south and east killed dozens of civilians and one Hezbollah fighter, according to Lebanese television. An Israeli airstrike on homes in the southern village of Srifa killed at least 17 Lebanese, including children, residents told Reuters. There was a massacre in Srifa, Mayor Afif Najdi said. Israel's strikes also included an attack in Achrafieh, a stylish Christian neighborhood in Beirut that is popular with tourists and upper-class Lebanese singles. Strikes in such areas have been rare thus far. For the first time since the bombing began last week, Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops clashed in ground battles along the Israeli-Lebanese border. Two Israeli soldiers and one guerrilla were killed in the fights, the army said. The deaths pushed Israel's military losses to 14 soldiers and sailors over eight days. At least two soldiers were hurt in the fighting, which broke out near the Israeli border farming community of Avivim, north of Safat, and continued for several hours. Intense bouts of rocket fire, crashing missiles and shelling rendered the roads in Lebanon's borderlands impassable, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping forces in Lebanon's south said. Hezbollah guerrillas were setting up rocket launchers near U.N. positions, spokesman Milos Strugar said. Three of the U.N. stations along the border had been hit by Israeli artillery, and the organization was unable to move desperately needed aid convoys onto roads that were coming under heavy bombardment, he said. About half the civilian population remained in the south, Strugar said. Officials have warned that the villages are running out of food, and that babies are beginning to suffer from malnutrition. They are caught in the crossfire, Strugar said. They have suffered a very heavy toll in terms of casualties and fatalities, and now this humanitarian crisis is developing. In recent days, small contingents of Israeli ground forces have been operating along the frontier to demolish Hezbollah outposts and clear terrain, but there had been no large-scale movement of troops. On Wednesday, the border zone began to show more signs of an Israeli military buildup. Tank carriers lumbered toward the frontier. Israel has also begun calling up military reservists, an indication that it might be preparing to step up ground operations. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora appeared on Lebanese television to appeal yet again for relief. I call on you to respond immediately and without reservation to our call for a cease-fire, Siniora said, and to provide urgent international humanitarian aid. Similar pleas have fallen on deaf ears for the last week; the United States, Israel's most powerful ally, has opposed an immediate cease-fire. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan pushed to station international troops in southern Lebanon to quell the violence. But John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said such a buffer force was premature. I think it's the cart before the horse to talk about applying force before we know what the overall military or political resolution is likely to be, he told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York. Spain, France and Italy on Wednesday urged prompt action to end the fighting, implicitly criticizing the muted response of the Bush administration to the intensity of the Israeli bombardment. The silences of today in light of what is happening in the Mideast could become the regrets of tomorrow, because waiting for time to pass costs human lives, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told a gathering of Socialists in Alicante, Spain. French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, in an interview to be published today, said, All means to result in a cease-fire must be exploited. In Italy, the center-left government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi, which came to office two months ago, said that Hezbollah's cross-border raid was unacceptable but that Israel's response had exceeded all reasonable proportion and was dangerous. Germany and Britain, however, hewed closer to the U.S. line, saying conditions were not right for an immediate cease-fire. In Washington, several members of Congress urged the Bush administration to change course. I'm calling for a cease-fire…. All parties are calling for a cease-fire, U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), said during an emergency meeting called by the Arab American Institute, an advocacy group in Washington. Israel has conditioned any cease-fire on the retreat of Hezbollah forces from the border region, and the return of the soldiers; Iran, a Hezbollah supporter, has called for a cease-fire followed by a prisoner exchange between the militant group and Israel. Looking on in Beirut, desperate Lebanese officials echoed pleas for a halt to the Israeli offensive. The ferocity and inhumane aggression has reached unbelievable proportions, said Sami Haddad, Lebanon's minister of economy and trade. Things are getting worse. In an emotional meeting with Western news agencies, Haddad pleaded with reporters to spread word of Lebanon's suffering, and he harshly criticized the United States for failing to push for an immediate cease-fire. My message to the American people is: Stop this barbaric attack, the finance minister said. If you think it's promoting the goals of the U.S. and the U.S. government, I think you're making a very big mistake. In Israel, more than 130 rockets had fallen in the north by nightfall. The near-constant boom of Israeli artillery could be heard in the frontier towns, where streets were deserted. It's nerve-racking, said Nati Dahan, a convenience store clerk in the northern Israeli town of Rosh Pina, which at this time of year would normally be crowded with tourists. It's completely quiet. Despite rising international criticism of the civilian death toll in Lebanon and the lopsidedness of the casualty counts on the two sides of the border, there was a broad consensus across the Israeli political spectrum that the offensive must go on until Hezbollah is crippled militarily. We must not do half of a job, and not stop now and bring in a multinational force that will only fall apart over time, but eliminate these rocket caches and free Israel from their threat, said former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the conservative Likud Party. Shimon Peres, Israel's dovish elder statesman, told Israel Radio: This is a just war. Defense Minister Amir Peretz pledged that attacks against Hezbollah would go on without letup and without a time limit. Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, head of the army's northern command, also said Israeli warplanes would continue to mount wide-ranging strikes. We have not exhausted anything yet, he said on Israel Radio. There remain many targets. The Israeli military said Wednesday's air raids included a strike on the launcher of a long-range Zelzal missile, as well as financial establishments allegedly tied to Hezbollah, in Beirut and Nabatiyeh. Even amid the onslaught, however, Israeli officials have increasingly been using language suggesting they anticipate a mediated solution. The harder we hit Hezbollah now, the better the basis for future negotiations will be, said Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. While fighting raged on in Lebanon, violence spilled over into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the West Bank city of Nablus, three Palestinian gunmen were killed in the midst of what Israel described as an arrest raid by army troops. Israel said the three were members of a cell activated by Hezbollah that had been planning attacks. Earlier, six Palestinians were killed and five Israeli soldiers injured in clashes in the central Gaza Strip. Three other Palestinians were killed in separate incidents in Gaza. Stack reported from Beirut and King from Jerusalem. Times staff writers Kim Murphy in Damascus, Syria; Ken Ellingwood in Rosh Pina; Tracy Wilkinson in Rome; Achrene Sicakyuz in Paris; Maggie Farley in New York; and Heather Gehlert in Washington contributed to this report.