Israel also kept up pressure in the Gaza Strip as it searched for a kidnapped
soldier, bombing the empty Palestinian Foreign Ministry building for the second
time in less than a week in what it said was a warning to the ruling Hamas
party.
Israel launched the offensive June 28 after Hamas-linked militants carried
out a cross-border attack on a military outpost, killing two soldiers and
capturing another. Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas joined the fray last week,
attacking a military patrol in northern Israel, killing eight soldiers and
capturing two.
Israel said its planes and artillery struck 60 targets in Lebanon overnight
as its military sought punishment for the barrage of 20 rockets on Haifa, the
country's third-largest city and one that had not been hit before the current
round of fighting began July 12.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed "far-reaching consequences" for the
Haifa attack. The eight deaths made it Hezbollah's deadliest strike ever on
Israel.
Israeli officials accused Syria and Iran of providing Lebanese guerrillas
with sophisticated weapons, saying the missiles that hit Haifa had greater range
and heavier warheads than those Hezbollah had fired before.
Speaking on the margin of the Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg,
Russia, Blair said the fighting would not stop until the conditions for a
cease-fire were created.
"The only way is if we have a deployment of international forces that can
stop bombardment coming into Israel," he said.
Annan appealed to Israel to spare civilian lives and infrastructure. The G-8
nations, who had struggled to reach a consensus on the escalating warfare
between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, have expressed concern on
the "rising civilian casualties" and urged both sides to stop the violence.
President Bush, not realizing his remarks were being picked up by a
microphone, also bluntly expressed his frustration with the actions of
Hezbollah, a militant Islamic group believed backed by Iran and Syria that is
engaged in escalating warfare with Israel.
"See, the irony is what they really need to do is to get Syria to get
Hezbollah to stop doing this (expletive)," Bush told Blair before the Group of
Eight leaders began their lunch.
Foreigners continued to flee and several nations moved to get their citizens
out. Russia sent an airliner to Jordan on Monday as it prepared to evacuate its
citizens from Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. Britain also airlifted 40
of its citizens from Lebanon over the weekend and another group was taken out
Monday, Ambassador James Watt said. A French ship was due to arrive in the port
later Monday to evacuate Europeans.
In their raids on Beirut Monday, Israeli planes killed two people in the
harbor and started a large fire that was later extinguished.
The Israeli jets also set fire to a gas storage tank in the northern
neighborhood of Dawra and another fuel storage tank at Beirut airport, sending
up plumes of smoke. The airport has been closed since Thursday, when Israeli
jets blasted its runways.
