By Nadim Ladki
Beirut - Israel struck Beirut airport and military airbases and blockaded Lebanese ports on Thursday, intensifying reprisals that have killed 55 civilians in Lebanon since Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers a day earlier.
Hezbollah 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 Hezbollah, a group backed by Iran and Syria, denied it had fired on the port city.
| 'Israel has the right to defend herself' |
There were no reports of casualties 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.
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US President George 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 spokesperson Sean McCormack later said Iran and Syria were to blame for the escalation, calling Hezbollah "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 United Nations 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 on Friday 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.
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