Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said the strikes showed Israel was waging a "war of starvation" against Lebanon.
"The Israeli enemy's bombing of bridges and roads is aimed at tightening the blockade on the Lebanese, cutting communications between them and starving them," Lahoud said in a statement issued Friday.
He said the strikes showed Israel was trying to pressure Lebanon to accept its conditions for a cease-fire, which include Hezbollah's disarmament and ouster from a swath of south Lebanon.
FoxNews (link in "Press Coverage")
The broadened bombing came as Hezbollah hammered Israel with more than 120 rockets Friday, killing two people, a day after Hezbollah's leader offered to stop the attacks if Israel ends its airstrikes.
Israel's United Nations ambassador, Dan Gillerman, said that Sheik Hassan Nasrallah's offer of a truce was "a sign of weakness ... and he may be looking for a way out.".
AP/Yahoo (link in "Press Coverage")
Please donate to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, at www.ifrc.org, to assist the Lebanese. The United Nations also has a fundraising effort; the links are at http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
* * * * *
Press Coverage of Civilian Casualties
AP/Yahoo
An Associated Press count shows that at least 530 Lebanese have been killed, including 454 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 26 Lebanese soldiers and at least 50 Hezbollah guerrillas. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said that 1 million people -- or about a quarter of Lebanon's population -- has fled the fighting. Others estimate some 800,000 Lebanese have been made refugee.
Since the fighting started, 72 Israelis have been killed, 42 soldiers and 29 civilians. More than 300,000 Israelis have fled their homes in the north, Israeli officials said.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
CNN
I have inside information that CNN reads this diary closely. Finally my whining has worked, and they reveal to their readers how many Lebanese the Israel have killed. CNN, one more request: Could you now distinguish Lebanese civilians and soldiers, as you do with Israeli human beings?
CNN `forgot' to put in its main story the offer by Nasrallah to stop launching rockets into Israel if Israel stops hitting civilian areas in Lebanon. They did include the part where Nasrallah threatened to expand the rocket attacks down to Tel Aviv. On the other hand, the text of the leaflets Israel dropped onto Beirut, as reported by CNN, makes clear Israel's collective punishment intent.
As of midday Friday, 644 Lebanese civilians and soldiers have died in the three-week conflict, and 2,315 have been wounded, according to Lebanon's Internal Security Forces.
Israeli authorities are reporting at least 68 deaths -- including 27 civilians and 41 soldiers -- since the conflict started. They say there are more than 600 injuries. ...
Late Thursday, Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets over several Beirut neighborhoods warning residents to leave "for your own safety."
The leaflets warned of an expansion of the Israeli campaign in Beirut because Hezbollah continues to fire rockets into Israel and because of statements made Thursday by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. (Watch as the leaflets are dropped -- :43)
"The expansion of terrorist operations by Hezbollah will lead to a painful and harsh response and the results will be painful not only for Hassan's gang and its criminals," the leaflets read.
http://www.cnn.com/...
FoxNews (w/AP)
An Associated Press count shows that at least 530 Lebanese have been killed, including 454 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 26 Lebanese soldiers and at least 50 Hezbollah guerrillas. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said that 1 million people -- or about a quarter of Lebanon's population -- has fled the fighting. Others estimate some 800,000 Lebanese have been made refugee.
Since the fighting started, 68 Israelis have been killed, 41 soldiers and 27 civilians. More than 300,000 Israelis have fled their homes in the north, Israeli officials said.
http://www.foxnews.com/...
Reuters
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said the strikes showed Israel was waging a "war of starvation" against Lebanon.
"The Israeli enemy's bombing of bridges and roads is aimed at tightening the blockade on the Lebanese, cutting communications between them and starving them," Lahoud said in a statement issued Friday.
He said the strikes showed Israel was trying to pressure Lebanon to accept its conditions for a cease-fire, which include Hezbollah's disarmament and ouster from a swath of south Lebanon. ...
At least 720 people in Lebanon and 72 Israelis have been killed in the conflict ignited by a cross-border raid in which Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12.
http://today.reuters.com/...
BBC
Lebanon says more than 900 people have died since then, most of them civilians. Israel has lost 28 civilians and 40 soldiers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/...
AFP
The deaths brought official Israeli casualties to 43 soldiers and 29 civilians killed since the Jewish state launched its offensive in Lebanon on July 12. The Lebanese government says more than 900 of its civilians have died.
http://www.afp.com/...
UK Guardian
The main Guardian story does not report the number of Israeli casualties.
The Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora, said the war had killed about 900 people in Lebanon, more than 200 more than had been calculated by the western media, and had wounded 3,000; a third of the casualties were children under 12.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...