Hizbollah rockets killed 12 soldiers and at least three civilians in Israel last night, the deadliest day of the war for Israel, as Lebanon rejected a draft UN resolution to end the 26-day-old conflict.
Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon killed at least 19 civilians and a Lebanese soldier.
An Israeli soldier in the Israeli village of Kfar Giladi
In the Israeli village of Kfar Giladi, a rocket hit a group of Israeli reservists called up for the Lebanon offensive. Medics said 12 were killed and dozens were wounded.
Soldiers near the scene held their heads and one wept as a military ambulance pulled away. Helicopters landed nearby to fly the badly wounded to hospitals further from the war front.
"I don't recall so many dead ever. This is terrible," said Ron Valensi, head of the upper Galilee municipal council and a resident of Kfar Giladi, speaking on Channel 2 Television.
More Hizbollah rockets hit the northern city of Haifa, killing at least three people and wounding up to 121, medics said. A police commander told Israel Radio that a rocket slammed into two adjacent houses, causing them to partly collapse.
Lebanon's parliament speaker Nabih Berri said his country rejected the US-French draft Security Council resolution because it would let Israeli forces stay on Lebanese soil.
Berri, a Shia politician who has been the main channel between Hizbollah and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, said the draft ignored the Beirut government's seven-point plan calling for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the return of all displaced civilians among other things.
"All of Lebanon rejects any resolution that is outside these seven points," Berri told a news conference.
Lebanon submitted an amendment to the Security Council calling for an Israeli withdrawal to be added to the resolution.
The Syrian state news agency said President Bashar al-Assad had told UN Secretary General Kofi Annan by telephone that "any decision taken without a Lebanese consensus will complicate matters and deepen instability".