He said his country badly needed international humanitarian aid, addint that there were 500,000 displaced Lebanese people, shortages of food and medical supplies, and the hospitals were crippled, he said.

"I hope you won't let us down," Mr Siniora said in a televised appeal.

The Israeli offensive continued as international sources told the Guardian that the Bush administration had given Israel a one-week window to attack Hizbullah before it would join international calls for a ceasefire.

In other developments today, two Israeli soldiers died and nine were wounded during clashes with Hizbullah on the Lebanese side of the border near the coastal town of Naqoura. One Hizbullah militant was killed during the Israeli raid, aimed at finding weapons and tunnels. At least nine Palestinian fighters were also killed in Israeli military operations as the violence escalated in Gaza and the West Bank. Five of the militants were killed after Israeli tanks entered the Mughazi refugee camp in central Gaza and one was killed in an air strike. In the West Bank city of Nablus, three fighters died when Israeli troops surrounded a prison where wanted militants were thought to be hiding. At least 107 Palestinian policemen were detained in the operation.

In the southern Lebanese village of Srifa, where at least 12 died in an Israeli air strike, the mayor told al-Arabiya television that a "massacre" had taken place. "There are dozens dead and massive destruction," he said. "Emergency services are putting out fires, they cannot reach the houses to recover bodies."

Outside Srifa, at least 29 other civilians were reported killed in air strikes on other parts of south and east Lebanon. Further north, Israeli jets hit Hizbullah's south Beirut stronghold and the Shweifat area outside the capital.

Three family members and a Sri Lankan maid were killed by a missile that struck the southern market town of Nabatiyeh, police and hospital officials said. The target was the office of a company belonging to Hizbullah.

Three Israeli Arabs, including two children, were killed when a presumed Hizbullah rocket slammed into a building in Nazareth, authorities said. Nazareth is inland from Haifa, around 25 miles south of the Lebanon border. More rockets hit Haifa this afternoon.

In Beirut, foreign nationals continued to leave. HMS York, a Royal Navy destroyer, left Beirut with more British evacuees bound for Cyprus. Around 80 Britons who arrived there this morning on HMS Gloucester were expected to fly out later today.

Tony Blair today told the Commons the violence was "tragic and terrible" for the Lebanese government and people but it could only stop "by undoing how it started".

The US government has denied it was playing any role in setting a timetable for Israeli action. The secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, was reported to be trying to drum up diplomatic support for what she called a ceasefire of "lasting value".

Such a plan would see the Lebanese army take over the south of the country, where Hizbullah guerrillas have operated. "The Middle East has been through too many spasms of violence and we have to deal with underlying conditions," Ms Rice said.

Israeli air strikes on Hizbullah militants in Lebanon had destroyed about half of the militia's arsenal, a senior Israeli military figure said today.

Brigadier General Alon Friedman said Israel had targeted Hizbullah rocket launchers in an effort to prevent the militants from aiming towards Tel Aviv. Israel believes that Hizbullah may have as many as 20 rockets that could reach Tel Aviv.

UN envoys were expected to suggest deploying Lebanese troops in southern Lebanon and enlarging an international force in the region to try to end the fighting between Israel and Hizbullah. The proposals will be presented to the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, in New York after talks this week between the envoys and senior Israeli and Lebanese officials.

In 2004, the US government also declared it a Terrorist Organization. Under US Executive Order 12334, Lebanon's Al Manar TV was the first television station ever to be legally designated a 'terrorist entity' equivalent to Al Qaeda. The Bush administration, at Israel's urging, silenced Al Manar satellite transmissions into the US. In 2006 the order was expanded to include Al Noor Radio, Al Ahed & Al Intiqad Newspapers and their parent company the Lebanese Media Group. On March 23, the US Treasury Department froze Al Manar's financial assets. On July 16, after five attempts, the Israeli Defense Forces blew Al Manar up. Eight employees were injured, but broadcasting continues elsewhere. IDF also bombed Al Noor Radio.

The Lebanese Media Group is affiliated with the Arab League, the Arab Federation of Journalists and the Union of Arab Audiovisual Media. It complies with Lebanese law and some of its staff are also democratically elected Ministers in Parliament.The organization has won dozens of awards from media associations around the world, and Al Manar footage has been shown by such western outlets as Reuters, AP, C-SPAN,BBC, EuroNews, FOX and CNN.

In Lebanon, each major religious sect has its own broadcasting outlet. But only LMG has been targeted. LMG's Al Manar TV is the broadcasting outlet for Hezbollah. On April 21, 2006 I asked Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora about the distinction. "Well of course we would prefer that all media be treated equally democratic, but we do not make American laws so I can not comment."

Responding to the State Department 's decision on December 17, 2004, local and international press demonstrated in Beirut to support Al Manar. The National Audiovisual Media Council denounced the US decision. Competing MBC TV producer/director Suzen Moussa challenged the decision's fairness, and Ghassan Hajjar, an Editorial Director for New TV told me: "International law protects the right of free speech equally to all world press- American, Israeli and Arab. No one has the right to accuse Al Manar of terrorism for speaking their minds."

In America's losing battle for Arab hearts and minds, Al Manar propaganda is as effective as American propaganda is impotent. Lebanon's Daily Star quoted an estimate that Al Manar has up to 200 million viewers via satellite, correspondents worldwide, and a nightly news program that often outranks Al Jazeera. It broadcasts in Arabic, English, French and Hebrew. An American AUB professor in Beirut, Dr. Judith Harik, told me that Al Manar often features video not seen elsewhere. "Many people here tune into Al Manar whether they are Christian, Druse, Sunnis or what, because Al Manar has very good reporting. Their analysis is very precise and very well thought out. They're very shrewd, forthright and are taken very seriously."

Especially in Israel. It was Al Manar's Hebrew broadcasts and images of IDF casualties during the occupation that galvanized Israeli public opinion against the war. The Israeli military had portrayed its losses as minimal, until Al Manar exposed the toll. Speaking to Adnkronos International, Hezbollah media director Hassan Ezz Eddine summarized the Israeli response: "We have to watch Al Manar to learn the truth about our boys in Lebanon."

As a "fair & balanced" Arab TV network, Al Manar TV dubs itself 'the Medium of resistance' to Israeli and American occupations. Al Manar's blunt, relentless criticism of US-Israeli policy has been called hate speech and incitement to violence. The US State Department deems Hezbollah and its TV station, "the A team of terror" and more dangerous than the "B team Al Qaeda." Ironically, the US-sponsored Tolo TV in Afghanistan regularly features Taliban/Al Qaeda interviews along with Taliban chanting. Attempts to halt such broadcasts were condemned by the international community as censorship.

In the Haret Hreik district of south Beirut, Al Manar headquarters are in a packed, threadbare neighborhood of family-owned shops and apartment buildings. The streets are marked by blue and yellow Zakat donation boxes decorated with upturned hands over an AK-47 raised in the fist of the Shia martyr Hussein, relative of the Prophet Muhammad. It is the Party of God's trademark, and it adorns everything from Hezbollah's yellow flags and pennants (Hezbollah owns exclusive rights to Lebanon's soccer league), to its coffee mugs for sale at area souvenir shops.

In 2005, I visited Al Manar's high tech offices. The state-of-the- art facilities included an extensive video archives/library, modern recording studios, sound booths and edit bays. In the Green Room I spoke to Sheikh Khoury Noor Ad Dine of the Hezbollah Political Council. He denied that the TV station committed atrocities or waged war on civilians. In fact, a large percentage of Al Manar employees are female. "Hezbollah differs from many Islamic groups in our treatment of women. We believe women have the ability like men to participate in all parts of life."

From its founding in the 1980s, Hezbollah women have headed education, medical and social service organizations. Most recently Hezbollah nominated several women to run in the Lebanese elections. It named Wafa Hoteit as a Chief of Al Noor Radio (also recently bombed), and promoted 37-year old Rima Fakhry to its highest ruling body, the Hezbollah Political Council. Part of Fakhry's duties include interpreting Islamic feminism in Sharia law for the Committee for Political Analysis.

I asked Sheikh Khoury if Sharia law liberated women to be recruited in the military or as 'suicide bombers'? "Not now. We don't need it at the present. If we need it in future we would." But the staff at Al Manar has no combat function. These sisters, daughters and mothers in the mujahedin shoot film, not bullets.

It was an issue I also raised with Al Manar film editor, Farah Noor Eddine, 30. Ms. Eddine has a B.A. in Journalism. She emphasized that she has relatives in the US and likes Americans. "Being Hezbollah doesn't mean that you are a military woman or a military creature. Hezbollah, the 'Party of God' is mentioned in the Qoran. It's a way of thinking or acting.We are ordinary persons." She is a vegetarian, plays ping pong, but has never fired a gun or seen a 'suicide vest.'

With Israel attacking Beirut, "Radical Islamic Terrorists" are again the demons of US media sensationalism. It was a charge that exasperated Health News anchor Mariam Karnib, so I asked her to define terrorism. "It is using excessive force or violence in a way that is not justified. They are calling us terrorist, but I know I am not like this. I was brought up here. We know our rights. We are not fools." Ms. Karnib, 29 has a B.A. in Political Science and a B.A. in Social Science and is now earning a Masters in the Sociology of Communication. I asked her if Hezbollah women are familiar with the notorious Saudi website, Al Khansaa that trains female jihadis. She was not aware of it, she said, and when off-duty preferred happier fare. "I love Danielle Steele, Barbara Cartland and Barbara Taylor."

Al Manar TV has been boycotted for inciting violence and suicide attacks against Israel in its MTV-inspired videos, and "Death to America" is a signature slogan. Ms. Karnib dismissed the idea that Al Manar clips were powerful enough to produce this result, and felt sloganeering could not be taken seriously. The most effective training for 'militants' was American cartoons, she explained, which "are filled with alot more violence, terrorism and hatred- and they are aimed specifically at children." She also criticized video games which promote brutal killings of 'Arab Terrorists' and 'Muslim fanatics'. In the game of dueling propaganda, Hezbollah has met its match. Israel's media features extermination, liquidation and elimination as frequent themes, especially regarding the Palestinians: "those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. So if we want to remain alive we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day. Every day." Jerusalem Post, 5/21/04 More recently, the Chairman of the Yisrael Beiteinu Party called for Arab Knesset members to be executed. Israel Koenig (from Israel's Al Hamishmar newspaper): "We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population." The Neocon state within a state has orchestrated its series of "Clean Break" Arab wars via the US-Israeli military/media complex, where the Fourth Estate doubles as a Fifth Column. The crusade against Al Manar TV originated with Israel's Natan Sharansky and former Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. The Israeli Defense Forces' Arab Media desk decided its propaganda leafletting of targeted areas prior to bombing them was inadequate. "Israel must concentrate on Arab media."

On the US side, Israeli Avi Jorisch wrote a book on Al Manar TV called "Beacon of Hatred" for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. It was endorsed by Dennis Ross and used to pressure Congress and the Pentagon (which had not previously known of the station) to censor Al Manar.The coalition also pressured commerical advertisers to boycott Al Manar.

Anti-Defamation League, CAMERA.org, American Jewish Congress and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies allied with AIPAC against Al Manar worldwide. The neocon Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) took credit for persuading world leaders in Germany, Sweden, Australia and France to outlaw Al Manar. The Netherlands and the EU followed suit, and Spain was coerced into removing Al Manar from Latin American programming. MEMRI has recently announced a new front- France has just agreed to silence Iran's Al Sahar TV.

This success has emboldened an expanding wish-list of opposition media "soon to be banned." Like a press version of Daniel Pipe's "Campus Watch", Israel's Foreign Ministry, the IDF and its US surrogates are blacklisting a number of Arab media- Palestinian TV, Egyptian televsion, Saudi Arabia's Al Majd and ART TV, and Iran's Al Alam. Bomb attacks on Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya are well known, and now Al Manar's facilities have been completely flattened.

Trish Schuh writes about Middle East politics. She can be reached at: hsvariety@yahoo.com.

Lebanon's grim body count continued to mount as Israeli pressed on with its campaign to defeat fighters of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, killing 28 people in attacks that flattened homes and hit an army barracks.

And across the border in northern Israel, a civilian was killed when a rocket hit a park in the resort of Nahariya in the latest of hundreds of rocket attacks by Hezbollah.

Prime Minister Fuad Siniora accused Israel of "committing massacres against Lebanese civilians and working to destroy everything that allows Lebanon to stay alive."

"The intensifying aggression in this barbaric way proves that Israel has decided to push Lebanon back 50 years," he said.

But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert defended the relentless bombardment, saying it was aimed at obtaining the release of two Israeli soldiers and the disarmament of Hezbollah in line with an existing UN resolution.

He told visiting UN envoys trying to broker a ceasefire that "Israel will continue the battle against Hezbollah and will continue to strike targets belonging to the group until it obtains the release of its captured soldiers and restores the security of Israeli citizens."

Israel said it has not ruled out a massive ground offensive in a bid to crush Hezbollah, which it has branded part of an "axis of terror" along with arch-enemies Tehran and Damascus and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Amid continued fears the conflict could spiral into a regional war involving Israel's arch foes Syria and Iran, the Israeli army said it had destroyed four trucks travelling from Syria with weapons and munitions destined for Hezbollah fighters in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon.

"Our planes identified and destroyed these four trucks coming from Syria that were transporting weapons and munitions destined to replenish Hezbollah's stocks in south Lebanon," a spokeswoman said, adding that the contents and destination of the trucks were based on "intelligence".

Israel launched the all-out assault against Lebanon following Hezbollah's capture of two soldiers last Wednesday, battering the militant group's power base in Beirut's southern suburbs and hitting targets across the country.

The international airport has been knocked out, ports bombed, bridges destroyed, power stations set ablaze and houses turned to rubble in scenes reminiscent of the country's devastating 1975-1990 civil war.

Israel, which has sent ground troops back into Lebanon for the first time since it ended its occupation in May 2000, warned that its offensive could last at least another week -- emboldened by strong public support at home.

Foreign nations embarked on a massive operation to evacuate thousands of their nationals away from the bombing raids and devastation by air or sea to the nearby Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

Britain, which is hoping to evacuate some 5,000 of its nationals from Lebanon by the end of the week, started to pull out the first British citizens on board the destroyer HMS Gloucester.

The United States flew 120 citizens out of Beirut Tuesday on the third day of an air bridge that is to be followed by a mass evacuation by sea, amid criticism that Washington's reaction has been too slow.

Apparently agreeing to briefly halt Lebanon's sea blockade, Israel said it has made arrangements with several Western governments for a major evacuation of foreign nationals from Lebanon Wednesday involving 20 vessels.

The United Nations said it was evacuating all non-essential staff from the country.

The overall death toll now stands at at least 245, including 216 civilians and 23 soldiers, according to medics and police. More than 500 people have been wounded.

"I was at work at the time of the Israeli bombardments, and I went back home to find it in ashes," said one elderly woman who has fled her home in Beirut's southern suburbs.

"I was told to leave the area quickly, and for seven days now I've not known if my sons are under the rubble or safe somewhere."

Around 15 petrol stations have been blown up, along with fuel depots and water pumping stations. The highway from Beirut to the Syrian capital Damascus was cut on Tuesday after being repeatedly hit in recent days.

As the European Union and the United States prepared to send envoys to the region, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan outlined plans for an international force for Lebanon that he said should be "considerably larger" than the current 2,000-strong UN peacekeeping force.

But Israel -- which has always rejected the deployment of foreign forces in its conflict with the Palestinians -- said it was "too early" to discuss such a possibility.

The US State Department said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would travel to the region, while EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is also preparing for a trip.

The United States has maintained Israel has every right to defend itself and also urged restraint over the offensive, which has split the international community and raised fears of dragging Syria and Iran into the conflict.

Twenty-five Israelis have been killed since last Wednesday, including 13 civilians in a barrage of Hezbollah rocket fire across the border, and 12 servicemen.

Israel's assault on Lebanon opened up another battleground after it launched a similar offensive three weeks ago against Gaza where militants are holding a third soldier.

At least 87 Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed since Israel sent troops back into the territory to try to free the captured soldier.

Wednesday's death toll reached 74, as Israeli strikes killed 72 people in Lebanon and a Hezbollah rocket attack left two Arab-Israeli children dead in the northern Israeli town of Nazareth.

More than 300 people have now been killed and 500,000 displaced during the week-long conflict.

'Bunker' bombed

Jets dropped bombs on an area of southern Beirut where Israeli commanders said senior Hezbollah leaders were sheltering.

Israeli military officials said dozens of aircrafts dropped 23 tonnes of explosives on what they described as a bunker in the Bourj al-Barajneh section of southern Beirut.

Three unusally heavy explosions were heard in the evening from the southern districts of the capital.

An army spokesman said Hezbollah's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, may have been hiding at the site.

Hezbollah said none of its leaders was killed during the air strike.

A statement from the group said: "Hezbollah denies that any of its leaders or personnel were killed during the latest bombardment ... in the southern suburb."

The statement said that the bombed building was a mosque under construction and not a bunker housing Hezbollah leaders.

Wave of attacks

Throughout Wednesday, Israel pressed on with a wave of attacks from air and sea against southern and eastern Lebanon, flattening houses, destroying roads and hitting trucks, police said.

Twenty-five people were killed and 26 wounded in one village where residents said 10 houses were reduced to rubble by shelling from Israeli gunboats and aircraft.

Eleven other civilians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a four-storey building in the eastern Lebanese village of Nabi Sheet.

Israeli helicopters also fired rockets at a residential Christian district in Beirut, the first direct strikes in the centre of the capital, raising concerns about the evacuation operation under way at the nearby port.

Talks scheduled

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, and Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, were to meet Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, in New York on Thursday.

Annan has proposed the creation of an international force to restore calm in Lebanon.

Solana said: "We will work very, very hard to see if we can have an end of hostilities and the beginning of something of a political nature before the end of next week."

Hezbollah later faxed a statement to Reuters news agency, saying none of its "leaders or personnel" were killed in the bombing, which the group said took place at a religious facility it had nothing to do with.

Israel has said that one of the objectives of its offensive in Lebanon is to eliminate top Hezbollah figures, including leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Earlier Wednesday evening, three large explosions rocked southern Beirut in one of the deadliest days so far in the eight days of violence between Israel and Hezbollah. The blasts were reported in Beirut's Dahiya district, home to Hezbollah's already flattened headquarters.

As many as 58 people in Lebanon were killed in Israeli air strikes on Wednesday, while four Israelis died in rocket attacks and clashes with Hezbollah militants.

Israel launched its military campaign against the Lebanese-based militant group eight days ago, following a Hezbollah attack on an Israeli army post. Eight soldiers were killed and two were seized.

Hezbollah has responded with rocket attacks in northern Israel.

The death toll has reached 300 in Lebanon, according to the government, and 29 in Israel.

Two of the Israeli deaths were soldiers killed in a clash with Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon. Israel had sent the military across the border to search for tunnels and weapons.

The Israeli military said the clash, which took place just inside the Lebanese border, killed two Israeli soldiers. Officials with the Lebanese-based Hezbollah said one of their fighters was also killed.

Hours later, Hezbollah fired a Katyusha rocket into northern Israel, killing three people, including two children, in the town of Nazareth. The Israeli Arab children, aged three and seven, were killed as they played on the street outside a house.

The strike marked the first direct hit on a holy town during the current conflict. Nazareth, located about 30 kilometres from the Lebanese border, is a holy place for Christians, who believe it is where Jesus grew up.

CBC's Peter Armstrong reported from Jerusalem that 70 rockets fell in the space of an hour on Nazareth on Wednesday. He said Nazareth is largely an Arab city in Israel and the home to many Israeli Arabs.

Armstrong said more rocket attacks are expected in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, which has been targeted repeatedly by Hezbollah missiles.

Crushed half of Hezbollah's arsenal: Israel

Israeli air strikes overnight levelled close to 20 houses and buildings in Lebanon, with the military saying it had crushed "about 50 per cent" of Hezbollah's arsenal. "It will take us time to destroy what is left," Brig.-Gen. Alon Friedman, a senior army commander, told Israeli Army Radio.

As many as 17 Lebanese were killed in an Israeli air strike in the southern village of Srifa.

As well, Lebanese security officials say up to 41 other people were killed in air strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon.

Also Wednesday, Israeli air strikes hit a Christian suburb of Beirut for the first time since the offensive began. The target was a water-drilling machine on the back of a truck.

And warplanes again bombed the runway of Beirut International Airport, a frequent target of the Israelis.

Deaths in Gaza, West Bank

At least nine Palestinians were killed Wednesday in violence in Gaza and the West Bank.

Four gunmen and two civilians were killed as Israeli tanks pushed into the Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. About 45 more people were injured, along with five Israeli soldiers, said the Israeli army.

In the occupied West Bank town of Nablus, Israeli troops shot three Palestinian gunmen in a raid on a security compound, said the army.

Israel moved tanks and troops along the Israeli border with Gaza in late June after Palestinian militants attacked an Israeli army post and seized a soldier.

Israel has fired on Palestinian targets, including offices of the governing Hamas party, and power stations, while Palestinians have fired rockets at Israeli communities.

For the second day in a row, there was ground fighting between Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops in Lebanese territory. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor says Israeli troops are reluctant to enter Lebanon where they could face a disadvantage against Hezbollah forces.

"We know exactly what this can bring about. We know what mayhem this can cause. And, this is precisely what we want to avoid," he said. "We do not want to be dragged into this. This is precisely what Hezbollah is trying to do, to drag us into a ground battle, because they know they have an advantage as a guerrilla organization."

Thursday's Israeli air strikes targeted Beirut's southern suburbs, where Israeli warplanes Wednesday dropped 23 tons of explosives on what Israeli officials say was a bunker used by senior Hezbollah leaders. Hezbollah says the target was a mosque - a charge denied by Israeli officials.

Lebanon's prime minister says the bombing has "torn the country into shreds." Nearly all of the casualties in Lebanon have been civilian casualties. Yigal Palmor of Israel's foreign ministry says that is because Hezbollah has based its operations in civilian areas.

"We never target civilian objectives. However, Hezbollah has been using the population as a human shield," he said. "They have been storing weapons and rockets in civilian homes and buildings and they have been firing rockets from within villages and civilian population centers."

Lebanese officials say more than 500,000 people have been displaced as a result of the fighting. Lebanon is appealing for international assistance. A small contingent of U.S. Marines is in Lebanon to help evacuate more than 1,000 American citizens. Other Western nations are continuing to evacuate their citizens to Cyprus.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says the bombing will continue, as long as Hezbollah continues to hold two Israeli soldiers it captured last week, and until the Lebanese Army moves into southern Lebanon - into positions now occupied by Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, Israel dropped leaflets across the Gaza Strip, Thursday, warning Palestinians that anyone hiding weapons will be targeted. Shortly afterwards, Israeli troops exchanged fire with Palestinian militants in central Gaza. Israel also carried out an air strike in the area. Palestinian authorities say several Palestinians were killed in the exchange.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israeli troops met fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas Thursday as they crossed into Lebanon to seek tunnels and weapons for a second straight day, and Israel hinted at a full-scale invasion.

Israeli warplanes also launched new airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, shortly after daybreak, followed by strikes in the guerrillas' heartland in the south and eastern Bekaa Valley.

The strikes followed bombings Wednesday that killed as many as 70 people, according to Lebanese television, making it the deadliest day since the fighting began July 12.

Russia sharply criticized Israel over its onslaught against Lebanon, now in its ninth day, sparked when Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Israel's actions have gone "far beyond the boundaries of an anti-terrorist operation" and repeating calls for an immediate cease-fire.

At least 306 people have been killed in Lebanon since the Israeli campaign began, according to the security forces control room that collates casualties. In Israel, 29 people have been killed, including 14 soldiers. The U.N. has said at least a half-million people have been displaced in Lebanon.

About 40 U.S. Marines landed in Beirut to help Americans onto the USS Nashville, which will carry 1,200 evacuees bound for Cyprus in the second mass U.S. exodus from Lebanon. Thousands of Europeans also fled on ships - continuing one of the largest evacuation operations since World War II. An estimated 13,000 foreign nationals have been evacuated.

Israel's series of small ground forays across the border have aimed to push back Hezbollah guerrillas who have continued firing rockets into northern Israel despite more than a week of massive bombardment - raising the question of whether air power alone can suppress them. Guerrillas fired 25 rockets into Israel on Thursday, which caused no casualties.

But the guerrillas have been fighting back hard on the ground, wounding three Israeli soldiers Thursday, a day after killing two. An Israeli unit sent in to ambush Hezbollah guerrillas also had a fierce gunbattle with a cell of militants.

In another clash, just across the border from the Israeli town of Avivim, guerrillas fired a missile at an Israeli tank, seriously wounding one soldier. Hezbollah said its guerrillas destroyed two tanks trying to enter the Lebanese border village of Maroun al-Ras, across from Avivim.

Israel has mainly limited itself to attacks from the air and sea, reluctant to send in ground troops on terrain dominated by Hezbollah.

But an Israeli army spokesman refused to rule out the possibility of a full-scale invasion. Israel broadcast warnings Wednesday into south Lebanon, telling civilians to leave the region - a possible prelude to a larger Israeli ground operation.

"There is a possibility - all our options are open. At the moment, it's a very limited, specific incursion but all options remain open," Capt. Jacob Dallal, an Israeli army spokesman, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Leaflets dropped Wednesday night warned the population that any trucks traveling in Lebanese towns south of the Litani River would be suspected of carrying weapons and rockets and could be targeted by Israeli forces.

The Lebanese government is under international pressure to deploy troops in the south to rein in Hezbollah guerrillas _ but even before the fighting, many considered it too weak to do so without deeply fracturing the country.

An Italian newspaper quoted Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora on Thursday as making his strongest statement yet against the Shiite militant group. But Saniora's office quickly said he was misquoted.

The Milan-based Corriere della Sera quoted him as saying in an interview that Hezbollah has created a "state within a state," adding: "The entire world must help us disarm Hezbollah. But first we need to reach a cease-fire."

Saniora later issued a statement denying the remarks. He said he told the paper the international community must help press Israel from Chebaa Farms, a small border area that Lebanon claims and Hezbollah points to as proof of the continued need for armed resistance.

Saniora told the paper that "the continued presence of Israeli occupation of Lebanese lands in the Chebaa Farms region is what contributes to the presence of Hezbollah weapons. The international community must help us in (getting) an Israeli withdrawal from Chebaa Farms so we can solve the problem of Hezbollah's arms," the statement said. There was no immediate comment from the newspaper.

On Wednesday, Saniora appealed for a cease-fire, saying Lebanon "has been torn to shreds." Warplanes pounded southern areas where Hezbollah operates, but civilian residential neighborhoods bore the brunt, with dozens of houses destroyed.

Dallal said Israel had hit "1,000 targets in the last eight days - 20 percent were missile-launching sites and the rest were control and command centers, missiles and so forth."

Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan insisted the Israeli army never targets civilians but has no way of knowing whether they are in an area it is striking. "Civilians might be in the area because Hezbollah is operating from civilian territory," Nehushtan said.

He said that Hezbollah has fired more than 1,100 rockets at civilian areas in Israel since the fighting began and that 12 percent - or about 750,000 people - of Israel's population lives in areas that can be targeted by the guerrillas.

Israel said its airstrikes so far have destroyed about half of Hezbollah's arsenal - and it has been trying to take out its top leaders.

The Israeli military said aircraft dropped 23 tons of explosives on what it believed was a bunker for senior Hezbollah leaders in the Bourj al-Barajneh neighborhood of Beirut between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Hezbollah said none of its members was hurt and denied a leadership bunker was in the area, saying a mosque under construction was hit. It has a headquarters compound in Bourj al-Barajneh that is off limits to Lebanese police and army, so security officials could not confirm the strike.

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman told CNN his country would not comment about the attack until it is sure of all the facts. But he added, "I can assure you that we know exactly what we hit. ... This was no religious site. This was indeed the headquarters of the Hezbollah leadership."

On Thursday, Israeli jets struck houses believed used by Hezbollah officials in the town of Hermel in the western Bekaa Valley, wounding at least three.

Israeli warplanes also destroyed a five-story residential and commercial building that reportedly once held a Hezbollah office in the Bekaa Valley city of Baalbek, a Hezbollah stronghold, witnesses said. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Two civilians were killed late Wednesday in strikes on bridges in Lebanon's far north, near Tripoli, the National News Agency said.

Israeli jets also raided a detention center in the southern town of Khiam Thursday, witnesses and local TV said. The notorious Khiam prison, formerly run by Israel's Lebanese militia allies during its occupation, was destroyed in four bombing runs, they said.

International pressure mounted on Israel and the United States to agree to a cease-fire. The destruction and rising death toll deepened a rift between the U.S. and Europe.

The Bush administration is giving Israel a tacit green light to take the time it needs to neutralize Hezbollah, but the Europeans fear mounting civilian casualties will play into the hands of militants and weaken Lebanon's democratically elected government.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour criticized the rising toll, saying the shelling was invariably killing innocent civilians.

"International law demands accountability," she said in Geneva. "The scale of the killings in the region, and their predictability, could engage the personal criminal responsibility of those involved, particularly those in a position of command and control."

Saniora's comment, made at a gathering in Beirut that included U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman, included the first official casualty figures out of Lebanon since Israel began military strikes after Lebanese-based Hezbollah militants conducted a cross-border raid on July 12.

Saniora also said he would "spare no avenue" to make Israel compensate for Lebanon's "unimaginable losses."

But Israel's cabinet said it has no plans to back down.

"The intensive fighting against the Hezbollah organization shall continue ... with the aim of returning the kidnapped soldiers to Israel, bringing about the cessation of rocket fire on communities and Israeli targets and to remove this threat," said a statement from the inner cabinet.

Rice continues diplomatic efforts

Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the violence continued as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke over the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

The U.S. has rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire, saying the captured soldiers must first be returned and the rocket attacks end.

Rice has said she is trying to build support for a ceasefire of "lasting value" that would see Lebanon's army take over control of the country's south.

A day earlier, she said she hoped for a ceasefire when conditions were conducive.

She will meet with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and Solana on Thursday evening in New York and could travel to the Middle East as early as this weekend.

A UN team is on its way back to New York to brief Annan, who will deliver the report to the Security Council on Thursday.

The team, sent earlier this week, was denied entry to Syria because Damascus objected to a member who has written previous reports demanding Syrian troops leave Lebanon.

World leaders have been split on their reaction to the crisis, with Canada and the United States defending Israel's military actions as a reasonable response while some other Western countries condemned it as an overreaction.

Arbour suggests killings could be war crimes

Meanwhile, UN human rights chief Louise Arbour said the scale of killings in the region could involve war crimes.

"International humanitarian law is clear on the supreme obligation to protect civilians during hostilities," said Arbour in a statement Wednesday.

"This obligation is also expressed in international criminal law, which defines war crimes and crimes against humanity. ...The scale of the killings in the region, and their predictability, could engage the personal criminal responsibility of those involved, particularly those in a position of command and control."

Arbour, a former Canadian Supreme Court judge and war crimes prosecutor, didn't single out any government.

Her comments come as UNICEF and the World Health Organization said the violence is hindering the movement of humanitarian supplies and warned of the serious psychological effects of the fighting.

"The psychological impact is serious, as people, including children, have witnessed the death or injury of loved ones and destruction of their homes and communities," the organizations said in a joint statement.