Hezbollah Steps Up Barrage

Hezbollah fighters pounded northern Israel on Wednesday with their largest rocket barrage to date, defying three weeks of punishing air attacks and a ground offensive by thousands of Israeli troops, who have seized up to a quarter of southern Lebanon.

An Israeli man was killed on a kibbutz north of the coastal town of Nahariya by one of the more than 230 rockets that rained down on northern Israel, setting fires, smashing buildings and injuring dozens of people. Two rockets fell in the West Bank, about 40 miles south of the Lebanese frontier, the deepest such strike to date.

Across a sprawling northern front, Israeli forces shelled Lebanese border villages and launched more airstrikes after a 48-hour lull in attacks. Israeli planes hit dozens of targets before dawn today, including strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, the first in nearly a week.

On the ground, up to 10,000 Israeli troops were in action, military officials indicated. One Israeli soldier was killed Wednesday and four hurt in the massive operation, which is aimed at driving Hezbollah fighters from the border.

Columns of smoke and dust rose as shells hammered a hillside near the Lebanese village of Kafr Kila, across the border from the Israeli town of Metulla. A few miles away, three huge plumes billowed from what appeared to be the targets of Israeli airstrikes.

The Israeli military said early today that its probe of Sunday’s bombardment of a building in Qana, Lebanon, which killed dozens of civilians, had concluded that Israel’s action fell within guidelines.

The army repeated regrets over civilian deaths but said it had no reason to believe civilians were in the area, and pointed out that noncombatants had been told to leave. Human rights groups, however, have denounced the strike as a possible war crime.

The Israeli campaign in the Gaza Strip heated up as well. Troops and tanks made their deepest push into southern Gaza in the nearly 6-week-old offensive there. At least five Palestinians were reported killed today.

Diplomacy continued to founder. France, which wrote a draft U.N. cease-fire resolution and could provide troops for any international force deployed in southern Lebanon, announced that it would not take part in a meeting today of countries that might contribute soldiers. The meeting was eventually canceled. In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI appealed for a halt to the conflict, which has killed at least 540 Lebanese and 55 Israelis.

In Malaysia, the Organization of the Islamic Conference met today to muster support for a cease-fire, peacekeeping missions and humanitarian relief efforts, the Associated Press reported.

Hezbollah said Wednesday that it had used Syrian-made Khaibar 1 rockets in the strikes that hit the West Bank near the Israeli town of Beit Shean in the Jordan Valley, fueling fears that it possesses long-range rockets.

With the fighting in its fourth week, Hezbollah’s ability to keep firing rockets has been a source of surprise and dismay to Israel. The more than 2,000 rockets fired amount to the most concerted attack on Israeli towns and cities since the country’s war of independence in 1948.

It was unclear how many rockets remained or whether the guerrillas were getting fresh supplies despite the constant Israeli bombing.

The stepped-up rocket attacks by Hezbollah came hours after an early-morning raid by helicopter-borne Israeli commandos in the northern Lebanese town of Baalbek, in the Bekaa Valley.

The raiders captured five Hezbollah members and killed at least 19 fighters, the Israeli military said.

Lebanese authorities reported civilian casualties in the strike and it was not immediately clear whether those fatalities were included in the toll reported by Israel.

The first rocket attack fatality in eight days on the Israeli side was identified as a 52-year-old man who had emigrated from Boston about 20 years ago. He was hit while riding his bicycle home in the tiny community of Kibbutz Saar after warning sirens sounded, Israeli media reported.

Israeli warplanes Wednesday mounted wide-ranging airstrikes, hitting about 100 targets described as Hezbollah structures, rocket launchers and launch sites. The Israeli army said it had no information on reports that a Lebanese military base in the village of Sarba was hit, killing a soldier.

Commanders say they are focusing on a strip several miles deep, but they also have said that some troops have pushed north past the Litani River, as far as 12 miles into Lebanon.

Israeli forces have established control over one-fifth to a quarter of southern Lebanon, said Brig. Gen. Guy Zur, who commands a combined armored and infantry division deployed in the area. Zur told reporters that Israeli troops were fighting Hezbollah guerrillas in about half a dozen villages along a 25-mile stretch of the border, and that the resistance was stiff.

Clashes broke out in Aita Shaab, on the western end of the front, as well as in Bint Jbeil, the scene of fierce fighting a week earlier, and Taibe, a few miles from the border near Metulla. The Israeli army said that five soldiers were wounded in the day’s fighting, and that most of the injuries were minor.

Although U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other mediators had expressed hopes that a cease-fire could be in place by this week, commanders and senior Israeli officials said fighting could go on considerably longer.

Zur said it could take the army “a few weeks” to meet its goals.

“We have the time,” he told reporters at a base near the northern town of Safat.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni made an implicit appeal for more time to hammer away at Hezbollah.

“This week, more than ever, it is imperative that the international community not waver from the joint path we have been on, and continue to see the broad picture and the common goal so that we may advance the processes,” she said.

After some bruising battlefield encounters earlier in the conflict, Israeli commanders appeared to be basking in the success of the first helicopter-borne raid deep inside Lebanon.

Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz said Israeli forces had gleaned what could be valuable intelligence during the commando strike in Baalbek, about 45 miles northeast of Beirut.

During the raid on a hospital building that served as a Hezbollah office complex, soldiers seized weaponry, documents and computer disks, commanders said.

The elite army and air force units, which swooped into the ancient city amid a volley of airstrikes, faced small-arms fire and antitank rockets from Hezbollah but managed to seize prisoners and search the complex before escaping unharmed.

Halutz denied reports that Israel had hoped to snare a senior Hezbollah figure, saying the raid was not aimed at any particular person.

He said the targeted facility had been built and run by Iranians. Much of Hezbollah’s military and financial backing comes from Iran and Syria.

“Our goal was to make clear that we can and will operate in the whole area of Lebanon if tactically it is necessary,” Halutz said during a briefing near the town of Kiryat Shemona in the northern Galilee.

Halutz said the Israeli offensive, which has combined withering airstrikes and the push by soldiers on the ground, had weakened Hezbollah.

In addition to hundreds of fighters, he said, the fighting had cost Hezbollah much of its rocket-launching capabilities, especially when it came to medium- and long-range projectiles.

But Hezbollah is believed to still have thousands of shorter-range Katyusha rockets. Israeli commanders said it would be impossible to eliminate Hezbollah’s ability to fire rockets into Israel.

“They can continue fighting, but when it comes to the ability to continue, we have the ability to continue as long as we need. And nothing is pushing us to stop our operation,” Halutz said.

Intelligence sources in Lebanon said the Israeli bombing campaign had destroyed much of Hezbollah’s infrastructure, including military sites, social service offices and medical facilities. Their assessment closely matches that of members of Amal, a Shiite party that is sometimes allied with Hezbollah.

A source with access to Lebanese intelligence reports said Wednesday that Israeli forces had destroyed hundreds of buildings connected to Hezbollah in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and the south. The source said the group had lost at least 200 fighters, far more than the 43 acknowledged by the militia.

Elias Hanna, a retired Lebanese general and security specialist, said that when the fighting began, Hezbollah had about 10,000 missiles obtained from Iranian and Syrian sources. Most are Katyushas, but the arsenal also includes modified and longer-range weapons.

Hanna speculated that the Israeli raid in Baalbek was partly a hunt for the bigger weapons, which can travel up to 300 miles.

“You can’t have these weapons on the front lines,” he said. “The Israelis may have been looking for them in Baalbek.”

The Lebanese intelligence source said much of Hezbollah’s weaponry was stored underground and thus difficult for Israel to hit. Hezbollah “suffered a big blow but probably still has missiles that can hit Israel,” the source said.

Israeli officials, meanwhile, continued to try to damp public expectations that Hezbollah would be crippled by the time the offensive ends.

“Nothing ends with a knockout,” Cabinet minister Meir Sheetrit told Israel Radio. “We can’t eliminate the last of Hezbollah’s fighters, nor the last of the rockets ... but I think the war’s objectives will be reached almost in full, even if the diplomatic hourglass is running out.”

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Ellingwood reported from Metulla and King from Jerusalem. Times staff writer Rone Tempest in Beirut contributed to this report.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Israeli offensive grows

Lebanon

The Israeli air force resumed a heavy schedule of attacks after a two-day lull, hitting about 100 targets in the southern portion of the country. A new ground assault brought the number of Israeli troops in action to 10,000, with fighting taking place mostly along a 25-mile stretch of the border. Israeli commandos borne by helicopter raided a hospital complex serving as Hezbollah offices in Baalbek, in the Bekaa Valley. Five Hezbollah members were captured and 19 killed, the Israeli military said.

Israel

Hezbollah fired more than 230 rockets into Israel, the biggest one-day total in the fighting, which is now in its fourth week. At least one Israeli was killed and many were wounded; buildings were destroyed. Two rockets fell in the West Bank, about 40 miles south of the Lebanese border, the farthest yet. The latest barrage of rockets occurred on the heels of the Israeli commando raid.

Humanitarian concerns

Convoys carrying medicine, food and other provisions set out for hard-hit areas of Lebanon. Ships arrived in Beirut and Tyre with relief supplies. The United Nations is ready to shift emergency supplies from stockpiles in Syria to Lebanon.

Diplomacy

A meeting, scheduled for today, of nations that could send peacekeeping forces to Lebanon was canceled again amid disagreements. The French, who administered Lebanon after World War I until 1943 and could have a major role in such a force, had refused to attend, saying they want an end to fighting before they will discuss peacekeeping.

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Sources: Associated Press, Bloomberg News, Reuters, Times reporting