Israel struck Beirut airport and military airbases and blockaded Lebanese ports today, in attacks that have killed 55 civilians in Lebanon since Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers a day earlier.
Hizbollah fighters rained more than 100 rockets on northern Israel in their heaviest bombardment in a decade, hitting Israel's third largest city, Haifa, the Israeli army said.
Israel's envoy to the United States, Daniel Ayalon, told reporters in Washington the strike on Haifa was a "major, major escalation"; but Hizbollah, a group backed by Iran and Syria, denied it had fired on the port city.
There were no reports of casualites in Haifa. Two civilians were killed and 92 others wounded in the other rocket attacks, the Israeli army said.
The violence was the fiercest since 1996 when Israeli troops still occupied part of south Lebanon.
It coincided with a major Israeli offensive into the Gaza Strip to try to retrieve a captured soldier and halt Palestinian rocket fire.
US President George W. Bush voiced concern about the fate of Lebanon's anti-Syrian government, but offered no direct criticism of the punishment Israel is meting out.
"Israel has the right to defend herself," he said in Germany. "Secondly, whatever Israel does should not weaken the ... government in Lebanon." US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack later said Iran and Syria were to blame for the escalation, calling Hizbollah "subcontractors" in terrorism for the two countries.
Sustained air strikes in south Lebanon killed over 50 civilians and wounded 110 people, security sources said. A Lebanese soldier was also killed.
Information Minister Ghazi al-Aridi said after an emergency cabinet meeting that Lebanon wanted an end to "this open-ended aggression" by Israel.
In New York, the United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution put forward by Qatar on behalf of Arab states that would have condemned Israel's two-week military incursion into Gaza.
The UN Security Council meets for an urgent session tomorrow at Beirut's request over the Israeli strikes on Lebanon.
Israel and Lebanon will be invited to address the 15-member council. US stocks dropped sharply as the fighting drove the oil price to a record. The violence also rattled financial markets in Israel and Lebanon with investors worried it might worsen, or spread to Syria.
Israeli aircraft bombed runways at Beirut's international airport, forcing flights to divert to Cyprus.
Later in the day, Israeli aircraft also attacked two military airbases and fired at fuel tanks at Beirut airport, setting one ablaze, witnesses said. "We attacked fuel containers near Beirut airport that were used by the airport. As with the runway attacks, this was aimed at preventing the transport of weapons and the hostages from the area," an Israeli army spokesman said.
Planes dropped leaflets in a Beirut suburb, urging residents to stay away from Hizbollah offices, witnesses said. A senior Israeli officer said the air and sea blockade would be maintained throughout what he said would be a prolonged offensive against Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
Israeli naval vessels enforcing the siege turned away three ships carrying fuel to Beirut, a shipping source said. A local shipping agent said seaborne trade was at a standstill at the port, which handles 95 per cent of Lebanon's commerce.
Three of Hizbollah's al-Manar television facilities in Beirut and elsewhere came under fire from Israeli helicopters.
One person was reported killed and 10 wounded. Tourists flooded out of Lebanon into neighbouring Syria, now the country's only outlet to the world.