Israel Air Force planes struck a Hezbollah stronghold, a bridge in the southern suburb of Beirut, and the fuel stores of the Jiyyeh power plant south of the city early Friday, witnesses and security sources said.
The Lebanese Army responded with anti-aircraft fire. Al Manar television reported that two people were killed and 17 were wounded as a result of the strike.
The Israeli attack came after a rocket slammed into the northern port city of Haifa on Thursday evening. Earlier, two Israelis were killed and another 120 were wounded when scores of Katyusha rockets fired by Hezbollah guerillas rained down across northern Israel.
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The Hezbollah stronghold is "the place where the Hezbollah leaders, including Hassan Nasrallah, are located on a regular basis," said Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman Miri Regev on Friday.
"I wouldn't say that the IDF is hunting Nasrallah," she told Israel Radio. "The IDF is hunting, or the IDF will harm, anyone who uses terror to target the State of Israel and its citizens."
Also Friday, IAF jets bombed a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine base in eastern Lebanon, several kilometers west of the Syrian border, security sources said.
IAF aircraft also struck the main highway linking Beirut to the Syrian capital Damascus early Friday, a Lebanese security source said. The jets struck at least five separate times along different points of the international route, the source said.
It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties, and witnesses said the road was clear of traffic after earlier congestion as tourists fled Lebanon to neighboring Syria.
The impact of at least four missiles were heard. Anti-aircraft fire from the ground echoed in other suburbs of Beirut as the planes roared over the Lebanese capital.
Israeli officials have said that south Beirut, a densely populated neighborhood of Shi'ite Muslims where Hezbollah has its political headquarters, could be targeted. Leaflets dropped in the evening warned people to stay away from Hezbollah offices.
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has his office and residence in the district of Haret Hreik in south Beirut. Hezbollah's Shura Council, its decision-making body, and the TV station are also located in that area, a section heavily guarded by Hezbollah.
Israel has intensified its attacks on Lebanon, striking bridges, roads, and the runways of the international airport and two major army air bases to put pressure on the government and force Hezbollah to free two Israeli soldiers the group captured Wednesday.
IAF planes struck the main highway to Beirut's international airport and the south of the country early on Friday, security sources said.
The Lebanese Army responded with anti-aircraft rounds. The airport had already been closed due to an Israeli aerial assault on its runways on Thursday.
Israeli officials said on Thursday that Israeli forces planned to strike the key highway as part of an assault aimed at retrieving two soldiers seized by Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.
Israel had already bombed Lebanon's airports and blockaded the country from the sea, bring trade and tourism to a halt.
IAF helicopter gunships late Thursday unleashed missiles on Beirut international airport, setting fuel tanks ablaze, in the second attack on Lebanon's only international air facility, Lebanese security
officials and the Israel Defense Forces said.
One helicopter gunship raked the fuel depots with machine gun fire while three others fired air-to-surface missiles, the officials added.
TV footage showed flames shooting up from the airport.
"We attacked fuel containers near Beirut airport that were used by the airport. As with the runway attacks, this was aimed to prevent the transport of weapons and the hostages from the area," an IDF spokesman said.
The attack came after a rocket slammed into the northern Israeli port city of Haifa.
Israel Air Force warplanes earlier blasted runways at the main Lebanese army air base in eastern Lebanon near Syria's border Thursday evening, Lebanese police said.
Jets dropped two bombs on the runway at the Rayak air base in the eastern Bekaa Valley, damaging it, police said. There were no reports of casualties. Rayak, 50 kilometers east of Beirut and about seven kilometers west of the Syrian border, is home to the country's main military air base and is military headquarters in eastern Lebanon.
Shortly afterward, the IAF also bombed the small military airport of Qulayaat in northern Lebanon, security sources and witnesses said.
It was the third airport to be hit by Israel on Thursday, cutting off all of Lebanon's civilian and military air access.
These were the first IAF strikes on the Lebanese army in Israel's fight with Hezbollah guerrillas.
IDF not ruling out ground incursion Israel has hit hundreds of targets in Lebanon since Wednesday night, as part of its effort to force the release of two soldiers kidnapped by
Hezbollah guerrillas, a top Israel Defense Forces general said Thursday.
Speaking to reporters, GOC Northern Command Major General Udi Adam said Israel was targeting infrastructure in Lebanon that held rockets and other arsenals belong to Hezbollah. Hezbollah guerrillas launched more than 80 rockets and mortars into Israel as well on Thursday.
"I imagine over time that we will be able to rid ourselves of this threat
entirely," he said.
He also said the IDF was not ruling out sending ground troops into Lebanon, but was not planning a massive call up of reserves.
He also did not rule out targeting Nasrallah.
"All operations are legitimate to wipe out terror," he said.
Israel threatens to hit Beirut neighborhood Israel threatened Thursday to strike at Hezbollah offices in a residential area of Beirut in response to scores of Katyusha attacks on population centers inside Israel. An Israeli woman was killed and dozens were wounded across Israel's north in the Hezbollah shellings.
Following the rocket attack on Haifa, IAF planes dropped leaflets in a Beirut suburb Thursday night, urging residents to stay away from Hezbollah offices, witnesses said.
At least 60 Lebanese have been killed in IAF retaliatory air strikes.
IAF jets Thursday morning carried out flybys over the area of Beirut, which is home to senior members of Hezbollah, as well as some of its supporters.
In response, Hezbollah said that it would target the major northern port city of Haifa.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that several rockets landed some 15 kilometers south of the border with Lebanon on Thursday morning, signaling that Hezbollah is becoming increasingly successful in expanding the reach of the crude projectiles. This is the furthest that Hezbollah rockets have managed to penetrate inside Israel.
A senior Israel Defense Forces officer said Thursday that Hezbollah has missiles that could reach the cities of Haifa and Tiberias.
Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, the commander of the research arm of military intelligence, told a parliamentary committee Thursday that Hezbollah had about 100 missiles with a range of between 40 kilometers (25 miles) and 70 kilometers (44 miles), a participant in the meeting said. That would put the cities of Haifa and Tiberias within range.
Hezbollah also has thousands of Katyusha rockets that have a range of about 20 kilometers (12 miles), Baidatz said, according to the participant, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.
The government is working on the assumption that Hezbollah will use rockets with a longer range than they have previously had to strike civilians areas in Israel. Should that happen, the IDF will then consider sending ground troops into Lebanon.
The IAF is prepared to strike anywhere in Lebanon, including the capital of Beirut, if the Lebanese government fails to rein in Hezbollah guerrillas, IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said Thursday.
Halutz noted that all senior Hezbollah leaders live and have offices in the southern Beirut neighborhood of Dahiya. He said Beirut could be included among the targets if Hezbollah rockets continue to hit northern Israel. "Nothing is safe [in Lebanon], as simple as that," he said.
He said the residents of Dahiya should understand the situation and draw the proper conclusions if concerned about their safety.
"We are not at war, but we are in a very high volume crisis, and we have an intention to put an end to the situation here along the northern border," Halutz told reporters Thursday.
"We are taking the Lebanese government as the one who is carrying all the responsibility on its shoulders regarding this area and regarding the future of Lebanon," said Halutz.
"The Lebanese government needs to understand that there is a price for its inaction. They need to understand that if they are not able to deal with terror, we will have no choice but to fight with them," he added.
The IDF began preparing Wednesday night for a widespread aerial assault on Lebanon, after the cabinet approved a "severe" response to the Hezbollah attack on the northern border earlier in the day, which ended with eight soldiers dead and two kidnapped.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz said following the late-night meeting that Israel would not allow Hezbollah return to its positions along Lebanon's border with Israel.
"Beirut is paying the price for its small-minded attitude that has lasted for years," Peretz said during a special meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in Tel Aviv on Thursday morning.
In southern Lebanon, at least 36 civilians were reported killed in overnight IAF attacks, including a family of 10 and another family of seven in the village of Dweir, Lebanese officials said.
Defense officials said Thursday that Israel intended to impose a sea and air blockade on Lebanon. Overnight, the IAF struck Beirut International Airport, and Thursday morning naval vessels entered Lebanese territorial waters and blocked access to the country's ports.
"Since this morning Israeli naval vessels have enforced a full naval closure on Lebanon, because Lebanon's ports are used to transfer both terrorists and weapons to the terror organizations operating in Lebanon," an IDF spokesman said.
The airport, in the suburbs of Beirut, was forced to close when a shell crashed shortly on the eastern runway after 6 A.M., airport employees said. Another impact was heard shortly afterward.
A senior airport official announced the facility had been closed and diverted scheduled flights to Cyprus. Cyprus's Larnaca airport is one of the closest to Beirut, with an estimated 25 minutes flight time.
The IDF confirmed it had struck Beirut airport, saying the facility is "a central hub for the transfer of weapons and supplies to the Hezbollah terrorist organization.
