Lebanon demands ceasefire as 25 killed

Israeli air strikes killed at least 25 people in Lebanon yesterday, prompting an emotional Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to demand a "quick and decisive ceasefire" to end the 27-day-old war.

Choking back tears in an emotional speech to an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Beirut, Siniora said more than 40 civilians were killed in an air raid in a southern village. But he later revised the toll to one.

As diplomatic efforts to end the 27-day-old war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas stalled, air strikes elsewhere in the south and the Bekaa valley killed at least 24 people.

Israel said it may expand its ground offensive and warned residents of south Lebanon to stay indoors after 10 pm (1900 GMT) on Monday, an Israeli military source said.

"Anyone who does travel is taking a high risk. There is no end period," the source said. "This will allow us to track anyone potentially trying to launch rockets."

Hezbollah says it will fight on until Israel stops bombing Lebanon and pulls out its forces.

Lebanese Health Minister Mohammad Khalifeh said the war had killed 925 people, mostly civilians, with 75 missing, presumed dead. The toll did not include yesterday's casualties. About one-third of the dead were children under the age of 13, he said. Ninety-four Israelis have also been killed.

Siniora demanded a ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon. He also called for a prisoner exchange and for Israel to show where it had planted landmines.

US President George W. Bush said he wanted a UN resolution as quickly as possible and called on Syria and Iran to rein in Hezbollah. "Syria and Iran sponsor and promote Hezbollah activities all aimed at creating chaos, all aimed at using terror to stop the advance of democracies," he said.

Hezbollah guerrillas fired more rockets into northern Israel, wounding one person, a day after rockets killed 15 Israelis in the deadliest day of the war for the Jewish state.

Aid lifeline cut

Israeli aircraft also hit the last coastal crossing on the Litani river between Sidon and Tyre, cutting the main artery for aid supplies to civilians in the south, aid agencies said. "We must be able to have movement throughout the country to deliver supplies. At this point we can't do that," said the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Lebanon, David Shearer.

"The deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure is a violation of international law."

International aid groups said Israel was providing no security guarantees, effectively paralysing its delivery of aid south of the Litani. About 22,000 people remain in the region, less than one fifth of the pre-war population, UN figures say.

In one Beirut building gutted by Lebanon's 1979-90 civil war, about 100 people seeking shelter shared one toilet that flowed into an open septic tank.

"I stayed in the bombing for three weeks but we finally had to leave. Today I found out my house is destroyed," said Ahmad Taube. "We tried everywhere else, but there was no room. We're out of money and want to go home. We don't want to stay here."

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said the ground offensive would be expanded if there was no diplomatic solution soon.

Source: China Daily