But other reports quoted medics as saying that at least two people were killed and eight others, including five children, were wounded in the Israeli attack.

This is the first time Israel has bombarded the home to some 50,000 refugees since the start of the Israel-Lebanese Hezbollah conflict on July 12.

According to the sources, one Israeli gunboat shell landed in the Ain Al Hilweh camp, located on the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon, and another one slammed into the city's amusement park.

The shells targeted the area around the home of Colonel Munir Maqdah, military chief of Palestinian Fatah movement in Lebanon,said the sources.

Violence between Israel and Hezbollah erupted on July 12 when Lebanon's Hezbollah guerillas kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed eight during cross-border attacks. It has left over 1,000 Lebanese and 100 Israelis dead.

The international community has stepped up calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah to end the 28 days of fighting.

The WHO says power is needed to operate services including theatres, babies' incubators and fridges for vaccines.

Lebanon has 12,000 hospital beds. The WHO estimates that about 80 litres of fuel is needed per bed each week for electric power.

Up until now, fuel deliveries have been severely hampered because of the ongoing military operations.

The WHO says one hospital in Marjayoun, in south Lebanon, has said it is due to run out of fuel by Wednesday.

'Fuel is key'

Dr Ala Alwan, a spokesman for the WHO Director-General for Health Action in Crises, said: "Based on available information, if there is no fuel delivered in the next few days, more than half of the hospitals will not be able to operate by the end of this week and the situation will be much worse next week.

"Fuel is key in any basic infrastructure. The provision of fuel is a matter of life or death in a hospital setting.

"We urge all parties to ensure safe passage of fuel supplies to hospitals."

The WHO says it has fuel shipments are ready to be sent to Lebanon as soon as the security situation allows.

Fuel tanks are also ready to be sent from Beirut to other areas in Lebanon in convoys, provided security is ensured, the WHO has said.

The snipers, between 35 and 40 years old, immigrated to Israel at the beginning of the 90s and in the past few years have been considered excellent fighters. They were active in the past in operational activity in the Gaza division, but at a certain point finished their service in the division once the impression was created that they were "trigger happy." The snipers were stationed Tuesday at one of the entrance points to Lebanon alongside Golani fighters. They displayed high motivation. They are soon expected to join the operations of the brigade inside Lebanon.

The meeting, expected to be held on Thursday or Friday in Geneva, is likely to hear denunciations of Israel over the conflict. The group's letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, was presented by Tunisia on behalf of 16 countries, the required one third of the Council's 47 member states needed to call a special session.

Tunisia's ambassador Samir Labidi submitted the request, seeking a special session "to take action on the gross human rights violations by Israel in Lebanon, including the Qana massacre, country-wide targeting of innocent civilians, and destruction of vital civilian infrastructure"

The proposed operation was expected to take 30 days, Cabinet minister Eli Yishai said. However, an internationally backed cease-fire was expected to be imposed well before then.

"The assessment is it will last 30 days. I think it is wrong to make this assessment. I think it will take a lot longer," he said.

The decision, approved by nine ministers with three abstaining, gave authorization to Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to order the wider offensive and to decide its timing. However, it did not obligate them to act.

Such a decision is risky. Israel would set itself up for new criticism that it is sabotaging diplomatic efforts, particularly after Lebanon offered to deploy its own troops in the border area.

Meanwhile, Arab satellite TV Al-Jazeera reported Wednesday that 11 Israeli soldiers were killed in heavy fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas near the border in southern Lebanon.

More Hezbollah rockets were fired at northern Israeli towns -- including several medium-range missiles that landed near the West Bank town of Jenin and south of the Israeli city of Afula -- bringing the total during the conflict to 3,333, police said.

By mid-afternoon, the guerrillas had fired 132 rockets, but no casualties were immediately reported, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

Five of the rockets landed near a Palestinian town in the West Bank on Wednesday, Palestinian security officials said. There were no casualties.

The rockets landed near the village of Arabani, on the Israel-West Bank frontier, the officials said. Clouds of smoke from the rockets could be seen 12 miles away in the town of Jenin, witnesses said.

The Israeli army declined to comment on reports about the 11 soldiers' deaths but said earlier that 15 soldiers were wounded in overnight clashes.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in principle supports a wider offensive, but is hedging because of concern about rising Israeli casualties, his aides have said. However, stepping up the military campaign appeared to have strong support in the 12-member Security Cabinet.

The ministers met a day after the commander of Israeli forces in Lebanon was sidelined in an unusual mid-war shake-up -- another sign of the growing dissatisfaction with the military, which has been unable to stop Hezbollah's daily rocket barrages.

The army denied it was dissatisfied with Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, but military commentators said the commander was seen as too slow and cautious. The deputy chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky, was appointed to oversee the Lebanon fighting.

In attacks Wednesday, Israel's military struck Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, killing at least two people and wounding five. Lebanese and Palestinian officials said an Israeli gunship shelled the Ein el-Hilweh camp, but Israel's military said the attack was an airstrike that targeted a house used by Hezbollah guerrillas.

The camp is home to about 75,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants who were displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Israeli airstrikes also leveled a building in the Bekaa Valley town of Mashghara, trapping seven people from the same family under the rubble. Five bodies were pulled out and the remaining two relatives were feared dead, officials said.

Also Wednesday, Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets over Tyre again, and over Beirut proper for the first time. The flyers criticized Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, saying he was "playing with fire" and that the Lebanese people were "paying the price."

A Hezbollah statement said the group killed or wounded 10 Israeli soldiers Wednesday and destroyed a tank as it advanced toward the village of Qantara, north of the Israeli border. The Israeli army said 15 soldiers were wounded in overnight clashes.

Diplomatic efforts to halt the crisis continued in New York, where French and US diplomats at the UN began re-drafting their ceasefire plan.

The Arab League wants the text to be amended to include a demand for an immediate Israeli pullout from Lebanon once the violence has ceased.

It made a formal request for the change to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, backing Lebanon's objections to the original draft resolution.

France and the US do not want major changes to their text and diplomats say prospects for an early vote are fading.

But French President Jacques Chirac said a workable resolution was essential and called for an immediate ceasefire.

"Our objective is to achieve cessation of hostilities so that... the thousands of deaths, suffering and destruction should be put to an end. This is our absolute priority," he said.

Veto-wielding Russia has said it will not vote for any resolution which did not have the backing of Lebanon.

As discussions continued in New York, US Assistant Secretary of State David Welch held talks in Beirut with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

Nine ministers voted in favour of the new offensive, and three abstained, news agencies reported.

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz backed the deeper offensive, but reports in the Israeli media had suggested doubts on the part of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who was said to fear heavy Israeli casualties.

One of those who abstained, Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai, said after the meeting that weeks more conflict were anticipated.

"The assessment is it will last 30 days. I think it is wrong to make this assessment. I think it will take a lot longer," Mr Yishai said.

The 10,000 Israeli soldiers already in Lebanon are involved in fierce clashes with Hezbollah militants.


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Earlier, the Israeli military announced it was sending one of its most senior generals, Maj-Gen Moshe Kaplinsky, to co-ordinate the offensive.

Israeli media say this is a response to growing criticism of the conduct of the campaign.

Meanwhile, Israel's campaign continued, with 120 air strikes overnight and clashes with Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon.

At least six people were killed when a two-storey building in the Lebanese town of Mashghara in the eastern Bekaa Valley was hit and collapsed on top of them.

These sentiments are echoed by Assad Shanati, 50, the bereaved father of Shanati Shanati, who would have turned 20 in September. "I'll tell you the truth," he said. "I am against all the wars in the world. What are those who die for no reason guilty of?"

It is not hard to understand why so many Israeli Arabs maintain this neutral and politically correct stance. Minorities are usually caught between a rock and a hard place and try their best not to offend anyone.



And, truth be told, while they themselves are threatened by Katyushas and they may also have Jewish friends in the North or in the army whose lives are also in danger, many of them also have relatives in Lebanon, including Palestinians living in refugee camps in Beirut and southern Lebanon.

Nevertheless, if you scratch beneath the surface, it becomes apparent that a majority of Israeli Arabs side with Hizbullah and Hassan Nasrallah. Or so, at least, believes Hazar Fa'ur, 26, a resident of Tarshiha and cousin of the rocket's third victim, Muhammad Fa'ur, 17. "Most people won't dare say it aloud, but I can see it in their eyes and hear it in their private conversations that they support Nasrallah," he said.

He said he blamed both sides for the war, but mentioned only Israel's alleged faults. "Lebanon was only missing one piece of land, the Shaba farms," he told The Jerusalem Post. "Had Israel given it back, no one would have justified Nasrallah's actions." He added that Israel should have negotiated with Lebanon instead of withdrawing its forces unilaterally in 2000.

On the other hand, Fa'ur said he regarded both Hizbullah and Iran as his enemies and said he strongly opposed religious fundamentalism.

Mahmoud, who declined to give his family name, is a relative of Assad Shanati and has been spending his days in the mourning tent since last week's tragedy. He also blamed Israel for the war. "The mistake began in 2003, when no one in Israel took Nasrallah's threats seriously that he would kidnap more Israelis unless it released [Palestinian terrorist Samir Kuntar,"] he said. "If they had released him then, this would not have happened."

It was somewhat strange, after hearing these sentiments, to enter the home of Ahmed Fa'ur, father of Muhammad, the third victim. There, fastened to the gate leading into the courtyard of the Fa'ur home, is an Israeli flag. Fa'ur explained that Muhammad had placed the flag in honor of Independence Day. He was looking forward to the day he would enlist in the IDF, his father said.

Muhammad's cousin said that many members of the family, which is Muslim, had served in the army. One was killed in 1974, when he volunteered to storm an apartment building in Kiryat Shmona after Palestinian terrorists broke into the building, killed some of its occupants and took others hostage.

Fa'ur did not want to talk politics. Muhammad was the eldest of his six children and the apple of his eye. He said he had done everything to protect his family. Instead of building an above-ground safety room in accordance with the minimum requirements of the law since 1994, he built a proper underground bomb shelter. When the sirens sounded in Tarshiha, everyone in his family went to the shelter. Even the upper floors were built with reinforced concrete.

"We didn't believe such a thing could happen," he said. "We thought we were protected and safe. But when fate wants to take a life, even 100 bomb shelters won't help."

Muhammad, said his father, took the Katyushas seriously. "He was a smart boy. He always wanted to be in a protected area. He understood this was no game. But on that day, when I asked him where he was going, he told me, 'What am I going to do, stay buried in the shelter all the time?'"

There was a terrible irony in the death of Assad Shanati's son as well. "I didn't let him work outside the house," he said. "I made sure that he was by my side all the time."

In fact, Shanati was almost by his son's side when he died. He was working in his brother's olive orchard, where he raised vegetables and grazed goats, when the rockets fell. He was standing 50 meters above the road where his son was riding. He actually saw the car from where he was standing and heard the explosion, but did not believe anything was wrong.

To make sure, he called his son four times on his cellphone but did not get a reply. Then he called one of the two friends who were with him. When he again did not receive a reply, Shanati sent a younger son to run down and see what had happened. When the boy ran back crying, Assad understood immediately.

Hazar Fa'ur said he was angry at the fact that only one minister, Ya'acov Edri, visited the bereaved families in Tarshiha. Edri came for a few minutes before the funeral on Friday. No one else came, said Fa'ur because the victims were Arabs, and because of the general neglect of the North by the government.

"We have no hotels, no government offices and poor roads," he said. "I escaped to Jerusalem for two days and people there asked me if I have a blue identity card. It's like a different country, here."

About 35 percent of the population of Tarshiha has left the area for safe havens in the South. Those who stayed behind could not afford to leave, according to Adnan Na'im. He charged that officials of the Ma'alot-Tarshiha Municipality had promised to take residents away for a break from the danger and stress, but had failed to do so so far.