Attack on Israel from Lebanon threatens 2nd front
Play Video AP – Gaza gets a brief break 
Reuters – Israelis take cover before a rocket fired by Palestinians in Gaza lands in Beersheba, after they attended … JERUSALEM – Lebanese militants fired barrages of rockets into northern Israel early Thursday, striking a nursing home and threatening to open a second front for the Jewish state as it pushed forward with its offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Two people were injured, and the rockets on Israel's north raised the specter of renewed hostilities with Hezbollah, just 2 1/2 years after Israel battled the guerrilla group to a 34-day stalemate. Hezbollah started the 2006 war as Israel was battling Palestinian militants in Gaza.
In new Gaza fighting, Israel killed at five people, including four militants, raising the death toll from its 13-day offensive to nearly 700, according to Palestinian medical officials. With roughly half the dead believed to be civilians, international efforts to broker a cease-fire have been gaining steam.
One of the Lebanese rockets went through the roof of a Nahariya retirement home and exploded in the kitchen as about 25 elderly residents were eating breakfast in the adjacent dining hall. One resident suffered a broken leg, another bruises, apparently from slipping on the floor after emergency sprinklers came on.
"The rocket entered through the roof, hurling the water heaters into the air. It went through bedrooms upstairs and then into the kitchen. There was a serious blast," said Henry Carmelli, the home's manager.
A second rocket barrage later struck northern Israel, though no injuries were immediately reported, Israeli radio and television stations reported.
Israel has repeatedly said it was prepared for a possible attack on the north since it launched its bruising campaign against Hamas militants in Gaza on Dec. 27. Israel has mobilized thousands of reserve troops for such a scenario, and leaders have warned Hezbollah of dire consequences if it enters the fighting.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rocket barrage from Lebanon. A Lebanese government official said that his country was trying to determine who was responsible and that Lebanon is committed to a U.N.-brokered truce that ended the 2006 war.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations.
Israeli Cabinet minister Meir Sheetrit said the government had no interest in renewing hostilities with Hezbollah and suggested that small Islamic groups, not Hezbollah, were behind the attack.
"Even though we have the ability to respond with great force, the response needs to be carefully considered and responsible," Sheetrit told Army Radio. "We don't need to play into their hands."
Shortly after the rockets fell around the town of Nahariya, five miles south of the Lebanese border, Lebanese TV stations reported Israeli mortar fire on open areas in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military confirmed it carried out "pinpoint fire" in response without elaborating.
Israeli defense commentators said they expected the incident to be a one-time show of solidarity with the Palestinians, not a declaration of war. Still, police said public bomb shelters throughout the north were opened.
Earlier, Palestinians reported some two dozen airstrikes around Gaza City before dawn Thursday. One militant was killed and 10 wounded.
An airstrike in northern Gaza killed three members of a rocket-launching cell, Palestinian medical officials said. The attack took place about 150 yards from a hospital and wounded 12 bystanders. The Israeli army has repeatedly said militants use civilian areas for cover.
Also, there were clashes between Israeli armored forces and Hamas militants in southern Gaza.
Israel had resumed its Gaza offensive Wednesday after a three-hour lull to allow in humanitarian aid, bombing heavily around suspected smuggling tunnels near the border with Egypt after Hamas responded with a rocket barrage. Israeli planes destroyed at least 16 empty houses.
"I feel like the ground is shaking when we hear the shelling. People are terrified," said Fida Kishta, a resident of the Gaza-Egypt border area.
The tunnels are Hamas' lifeline, used to bring in arms, money and basic goods. Israel says local homes are used to conceal the tunnels.
Israeli warplanes bombed the border area after leaflets were dropped warning residents to leave.
"Because Hamas uses your houses to hide and smuggle military weapons, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) will attack the area," the leaflet said, according a local U.N. official. More than 5,000 people fled to two U.N. schools turned into temporary shelters.
Despite the heavy fighting, strides appeared to being made on the diplomatic front with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying the U.S. supported a deal being brokered by France and Egypt.
While the U.N. Security Council failed to reach agreement on a cease-fire resolution, Egypt's U.N. Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz said representatives of Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority agreed to meet separately with Egyptian officials in Cairo.
Israeli defense officials said senior envoy Amos Gilad would fly to Egypt Thursday morning.
The latest casualties brought the total Palestinian death toll during Israel's assault to 692 — including some 350 civilians, among them 130 children - according to Palestinian health officials, and drove home the complexities of finding a diplomatic solution for Israel's Gaza invasion. Ten Israelis have been killed, including three civilians, since the offensive began.
In Turkey, a Mideast diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly said that country would be asked to put together an international force that could help keep the peace. And diplomats in New York worked on a U.N. Security Council statement backing the cease-fire initiative but failed to reach agreement on action to end the violence.
For Israel to accept a proposed cease-fire deal, "there has to be a total and complete cessation of all hostile fire from Gaza into Israel, and ... we have to see an arms embargo on Hamas that will receive international support," said government spokesman Mark Regev.
For its part, Hamas said it would not accept a truce deal unless it includes an end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza — something Israel says it is not willing to do. Israel and Egypt have maintained a stiff economic embargo on Gaza since the Hamas takeover.
The Palestinian Authority controls the West Bank while Hamas rules Gaza — two territories on opposite sides of Israel that are supposed to make up a future Palestinian state. Hamas took control of Gaza from forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007.
Growing international outrage over the human toll of Israel's offensive, which includes 3,000 Palestinians wounded — could work against continued fighting. So could President Bush's departure from office this month and a Feb. 10 election in Israel.
But Israel has a big interest in inflicting as much damage as possible on Hamas, both to stop militant rocket fire on southern Israeli towns and to diminish the group's ability to play a spoiler role in peace talks with Palestinian moderates.
The Israeli Cabinet formally decided on Wednesday to push ahead with the offensive while at the same time pursuing the cease-fire.
The military has called up thousands of reserve troops that it could use to expand the Gaza offensive. Defense officials said the troops could be ready for action by Friday.
Still, Israel briefly suspended its offensive Wednesday to allow humanitarian supplies to reach Gaza, and Israeli officials said such lulls would be declared on a regular basis.
The announcement came among growing warnings by the World Bank and aid groups of a humanitarian crisis. The World Bank pointed to a severe shortage of drinking water and said the sewage system is under growing strain.
In Geneva, the international Red Cross said it found four small children alive next to their mothers' bodies in the rubble of a Gaza home hit by Israeli shelling. The neutral aid group says a total of 15 dead were recovered from two houses in the Zaytun neighborhood of Gaza City on Wednesday.
A Red Cross spokesman said rescuers had been refused permission by Israeli forces to reach the site for four days. It said the delay in allowing rescue services access was "unacceptable."
The Palestinian Red Crescent said in a statement that one of its ambulance drivers was shot by Israeli soldiers during the lull. The Israeli military said it had no knowledge of the incident.
Also Wednesday, Israel released footage of suspected Hamas militants captured by Israeli troops. Israel's chief army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Avi Benayahu, said 120 suspected militants have been captured. He also said soldiers conducting searches have uncovered many explosive devices and tunnels.
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Weizman reported from Jerusalem and Barzak from Gaza City. Associated Press writer Sam F. Ghattas contributed to this report from Beirut, Lebanon.
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