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BEIRUT, Aug 4: Israeli air strikes killed 60 civilians in Lebanon and a Hezbollah rocket barrage into Israel killed three people on Friday as world powers tried to agree on a resolution to halt the fighting.
One air strike hit a farm near Qaa, close to the Syrian border in the Bekaa Valley where workers, mostly Syrian Kurds, were loading plums and peaches on to trucks. Thirty-three people were killed and 20 wounded.
An Israeli army spokesman said air strikes in the area had targeted two buildings that military intelligence had showed were used by Hezbollah to store weapons.
But television footage showed bodies of what appeared to be farm workers lined up near the ruins of a small structure in fruit groves. Strewn nearby were fruit baskets.
Another air strike on a house in the frontline Taibeh village, in south Lebanon, killed seven civilians and wounded 10. The civilians had sheltered in the house during fierce battles.
The United States and France worked on a UN resolution calling for an end to the fighting. Once they reach agreement, which officials said could happen over the weekend, a UN Security Council vote could be held within 24 hours.
Once a UN resolution is agreed to halt the fighting, a second resolution is envisaged a week or two later setting down conditions for a permanent ceasefire and authorising an international force force more robust than the UN peacekeepers already in south Lebanon.
US Ambassador John Bolton, after several hours of talks with France’s UN ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said progress had been made but a text was being sent back to Washington and Paris for review.
In Beirut, an official said US Assistant Secretary of State David Welch would visit the Lebanese capital on Saturday for talks with Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on ways to end the war.
4 BRIDGES DESTROYED: Israeli aircraft destroyed four bridges on the main coastal highway north of Beirut, disrupting efforts to aid civilians displaced or trapped by the conflict in Lebanon. Fighting raged in the south as Israeli troops tried to expand seven small border enclaves they control.
Hezbollah guerillas fired more than 100 rockets into northern Israel, killing three people and wounding several, medics said. Rockets killed eight Israelis on Thursday.
Hezbollah fighters killed three Israeli soldiers with an anti-tank missile near Markaba, Israel’s army said. Al Arabiya television said five Israeli soldiers had been killed. Israeli media said seven Hezbollah guerillas also died in the battle.
The bombing of bridges in the Christian heartland north of Beirut cut off the coastal highway to Syria, which the United Nations called its ‘umbilical cord’ for aid to Lebanon.
The bridge at Maameltein, north of Beirut, was split by a huge crater which partially engulfed a crushed minivan. Further north, another bridge lay in the valley it once spanned.
Astrid van Genderen Stort of the UN refugee agency said: “It’s really a major setback because we used this highway to move staff and supplies into the country.”
Israel said it had destroyed the bridges to prevent Syria from rearming Hezbollah.
The European Commission said Israeli bombing of routes north of Beirut had made it harder to deliver humanitarian aid.
“We will need guarantees for the safety of our people on the ground if we are to successfully continue the provision of aid,” said European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel.
The UN World Food Programme called off planned convoys to the southern port city of Tyre after air raids on a Beirut suburb prevented drivers from reaching the assembly point.
AIR STRIKES: More than 150 Israeli air strikes hit southern Lebanon and artillery pummelled border areas as Hezbollah tried to stop new Israeli incursions near Markaba and the coastal town of Naqoura.
Hezbollah said its fighters had destroyed eight Israeli tanks and an armoured troop carrier around the villages of Markaba, Aita al-Shaab and Taibeh.
Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in Gaza Strip.—Reuters
