At least 11 civilians and 11 soldiers died in more than 50 Israeli air-strikes on Lebanon Tuesday. Warplanes launched waves of bombings on south Beirut, on a Lebanese army base and on a coastal road north of the Lebanese capital in the early hours Tuesday, witnesses and Lebanese media said.
Seven civilians, all from one family and including children, died and four injured during an air strike that razed a house in the south Lebanese village of Aitaroun. Four others were killed in strikes elsewhere in the south.
The first strikes caused a huge blast that reverberated across Beirut.
The planes returned 15 minutes later and launched three more missiles on the deserted neighborhood. The new raid caused three major explosions to shake the capital.
In a third overnight air raid on Beirut, Israeli aircraft again pounded the southern Shi'ite neighborhood, along with an area near Beirut's airport, witnesses and Lebanese media said. Four major explosions were heard. Israeli fighter-jets also hit a military base in Kfar Chima, a town just south of the capital, local television stations reported. At least 11 Lebanese soldiers were killed.
Shortly before daybreak, Israeli jets hit two trucks, one of them carrying concrete, on the coastal road in the port town of Byblos north of Beirut, local TV stations said.
A total of 53 Lebanese civilians were killed on Monday in 70 Israeli strikes. By nightfall Monday, 210 Lebanese had been reported killed in the six days of ferocious fighting between Israel and Hizbullah. The Shiite group announced four of its fighters were killed by Israeli fire.
Meanwhile, fresh waves of Katyusha rockets fired by Hizbullah gunners in Lebanon struck the northern Israeli towns of Haifa and Safed on Tuesday afternoon. There were no reports of casualties in Haifa, medics said. Israel Radio said that six rockets landed in Haifa, Israel's third largest city.
The alert was also heard in Tiberias on Tuesday afternoon.
Several rockets landed near the west Galilee town of Shlomi before noon, but no casualties or damage were reported. One Israeli was killed Tuesday afternoon as Hizbullah bombed Nahariya. Several other Israelis were wounded.
On Monday night, Hizbullah launched more than 50 rockets, including a barrage which landed after 10 P.M. in the northern towns of Safed, Rosh Pina,, Sakhnin, Hatzur Haglilit and Peki'in. Nine people were wounded in the rocket barrage, including eight hurt when a rocket hit a hospital in Safed.
