Two rockets slammed into the northern port city of Haifa on Thursday evening. The rockets hit the Stella Maris area on Mt. Carmel, Israel TV reported. There were no reported casualties. Hizbullah denied firing the rockets.
On Thursday evening, Hizbullah renewed its bombardment of Israel's northern coastal town of Nahariya. Four rockets hit Safed Thursday evening, killing one person and wounding 11. Three of the wounded were in serious condition including two children.
All in all, two Israelis died on Thursday and more than 120 wounded. On Wednesday, eight Israeli soldiers died in border clashes. 55 civilians in Lebanon were killed since Hizbullah captured two Israeli soldiers on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Israeli jets dropped two bombs on the runway at the Rayak air base in the eastern Bekaa Valley, damaging it, police said. There were no reports of casualties. Rayak, 50 kilometers east of Beirut and about seven kilometers west of the Syrian border, is home to the country's main military air base and is military headquarters in eastern Lebanon.
Shortly afterward, Israeli warplanes also bombed the small military airport of Qulayaat in northern Lebanon, security sources and witnesses said. It was the third airport to be hit by Israel on Thursday, cutting off all of Lebanon's civilian and military air access.
In New York, the United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution put forward by Qatar on behalf of Arab nations that would have condemned Israel's two-week military incursion into Gaza Strip. The U.N. Security Council meets for an urgent session on Friday at Beirut's request over the Israeli strikes on Lebanon. Israel and Lebanon will be invited to address the 15-member council.
