12 killed as Israel suffers deadliest day

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JERUSALEM -- Hezbollah rockets killed eight Israelis in their homes, cars, and fields yesterday, and four Israeli soldiers died in battle in the deadliest day for the Jewish state since it went to war with the Islamist guerrillas July 12.

Israeli troops pushed deeper into Lebanon, seeking to reinforce a newly declared security zone along the border, attacking Hezbollah missile-launchers, and making preparations for a possible advance to the Litani River, 25 miles into Lebanon.

There also was an ominous warning that the war could escalate in the next few days: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened to bomb Tel Aviv if Israel continued striking at Hezbollah sites in the Lebanese capital.

``If you bomb our capital, we'll bomb your capital. We'll bomb Tel Aviv, and we can do this," Nasrallah said last night on the Hezbollah television station, Al-Manar. Most Arabs refuse to recognize Jerusalem, the seat of the Israeli government, as Israel's capital.

Nasrallah also said his group would cease rocket attacks on Israeli cities if Israel stopped its bombardments in Lebanon.

Just hours later Nasrallah spoke, the Israeli Air Force renewed bombing in southern Beirut early today after a five-day lull. And Israel's Channel 1 quoted a senior Israeli defense official as saying that Israel will retaliate massively in Lebanon if Tel Aviv is bombed.

For the second straight day, Hezbollah unleashed a barrage of more than 200 Katyusha rockets on cities, towns, and farms across northern Israel, calling into question assertions by the Israeli government earlier this week that it has seriously dented Hezbollah's offensive capacity.

``It is a bad day, but we were expecting some bad days," said Daniel Seaman, director of Israel's government press office. ``It will not deter us from finishing this job."

Reflecting on the challenge Israel faces, Seaman said Hezbollah was estimated to have nearly 15,000 rockets when the conflict started and that means ``even if we destroy two-thirds of them, they've still got a lot of missiles to fire. . . . We have much left to do."

Military officials said that Israeli ground troops had succeeded in pushing back most Hezbollah fighters 3 to 4 miles from the border so far, but that this was an insufficient distance to keep Hezbollah from firing short-range Katyushas of the type that sowed so much destruction yesterday.

The rockets have a range of 6 to 8 miles.

The official said Israeli ground forces might advance as far as the Litani River, 25 miles north of the border. The river is small but deep and swift, and it could form a natural boundary between the two sides until an international peacekeeping force being discussed by the United States, France, and other countries could be dispatched.

Ha'aretz, a leading Israeli newspaper, reported on its website early this morning that Defense Minister Amir Peretz has instructed the military command to prepare to occupy all land south of the Litani.

Many Israeli politicians and military analysts favor such a move because most of the rockets in Hezbollah's arsenal then would not be able to reach the border. The newspaper said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had not yet agreed to the step, which also would require a vote of Israel's security Cabinet.

Hezbollah barrages began raining down before dawn yesterday -- the first night time launches since the fighting began.

The worst attack was in Acre, on the Mediterranean coast between Haifa and Nahariya, where five people were killed, some while riding in a car and others when they emerged from a shelter after a previous volley had caused no damage.

Three people, apparently Israeli Arab farmers, were killed in their fields in Maalot, in the center of the northern region. Israeli media reported that the farmers lay down in the fields when a rocket exploded nearby, then were killed by additional incoming rounds.

Nahariya and Kiryat Shmona also were hard-hit by the barrages, which were most intense between 4 and 5 p.m. Haifa, Rosh Pina, and Safed also were struck. At least 30 Israeli civilians were injured.

``We've been lucky so many times, and the fact that we have evacuated people, provided shelters and taken other steps also has helped to minimize casualties," said Captain Jacob Delal, a military spokesman, ``With more than 2,000 rockets fired into Israel, it is almost a miracle that so few people have been killed. It is practically a miracle . . . Today we were not lucky."

An Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman said that through yesterday Hezbollah had fired about 2,300 rockets into Israel since the conflict began. The rockets have killed 27 civilians, she said, and 41 soldiers have been killed in fighting along the border.

Gideon Meir, deputy director of Israel's Foreign Ministry, said the intensification of Hezbollah fire over the past few days was ``like the finale at Fourth of July fireworks. Nasrallah is trying to stage a grand finale to say to the world that he won."

But, Meir said, Israel has achieved its most basic goals of clearing the immediate border area of Hezbollah fighters, destroying guerrilla outposts in that area, and preparing the way for insertion of a force of international peacekeepers.

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