edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/13/mideast -> edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/13/mideast/
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Israeli warplanes bombed Beirut's international airport and the navy blockaded Lebanon's ports in a sharp escalation of its military campaign Thursday. Hezbollah guerrillas fired scores of rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel in the most intense bombardment in years. The missiles killed one woman and at least 10 others were hurt in the attack on Safed, about 13 miles (20 kilometers) from the Lebanese border, which local officials said not been hit by Hezbollah rockets since 1972.
Watch the rocket's explosion and town chaos -- 1:45) Beirut's main airport was forced to close after Israeli fighter jets hit all three of its runways, leaving huge craters and making them unusable. Other airfields also were attacked Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said, but details were not immediately available. Israel said it targeted the airport in the capital's suburbs because it was used to transfer weapons and supplies to Hezbollah, the militant group that captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in raids earlier this week. Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat called the airport strikes a "general act of war," saying they had nothing to do with Hezbollah but were instead an attack against the country's "economic interests," especially its tourism industry. At least 45 people have been killed in Lebanon since the violence began Wednesday, Lebanon's health ministry said. After the airport attack, planes began dropping leaflets warning residents of an impending attack on an area of southern Beirut where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is believed to live.
Watch the first reports on the runway bombings -- 6:00) If that happened, Hezbollah said it would attack the northern Israeli city of Haifa, where 300,000 people live. Israel: 'We mean business' Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday he fears a "regional war is mounting" with Israel's two ongoing military campaigns in Lebanon and in Gaza, where forces were deployed after the capture of an Israeli soldier last moth. "This is not our interest and will not bring peace and stability to the region," Abbas said. President Bush warned Israel to take care not to "weaken" Lebanon's government. Bush also stressed during a visit to Germany that Syria "needs to be held to account." Hezbollah enjoys substantial backing from Syria and Iran and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel. Israeli Security Cabinet Minister Isaac Herzog said: "We are taking strong measures so that it will be clear to the Lebanese people and government ... The United Nations will send a team to the Middle East to urge both sides to use restraint, a spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday. Captives named Israeli airstrikes were aimed at targets used by Hezbollah for storing weapons, the Israel Defense Forces said. Warplanes also hit al-Manar television station because the station is used by Hezbollah to incite and recruit activists, the IDF said. Al-Manar continued to broadcast, a Lebanese security source said. Israel's Cabinet authorized a "severe and harsh" response to the abduction of the two soldiers, named Thursday as Ehud Goldvasser, 31, from Nahariya, and Eldad Regev, 26, from the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Motzkin. Hezbollah called for a prisoner exchange but, as in Gaza, Israel has rejected the call. Hezbollah chief Nasrallah told reporters that seizing the soldiers was "our natural, only and logical right" to win freedom for Hezbollah prisoners held by Israel. Nasrallah said the two soldiers had been taken to a place "far, far away" and that an Israeli military campaign would not win their release. More than 70 Katyusha rockets have hit Israel in the past 24 hours, the IDF said. Missiles hit the Jewish town of Carmiel and adjacent Arab village of Majd el-Krum in northern Israel, the army said, according to The Associated Press. Buildings in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya also were damaged by rockets, according to CNN's John Vause in the town. Journalist Anthony Mills in Beirut contributed to this report Copyright 2006 CNN. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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