Israeli troops clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas on the Lebanese side of the border and warplanes flattened buildings yesterday, while fighting killed four Israelis.
Lebanon's prime minister said 300 people had been killed in his country as fighting entered a second week.
With the US signalling it will not push the Israelis to a cease-fire, civilian bloodshed was rising.
Residents in southern Lebanese villages were digging for bodies trapped under the rubble of homes crushed in airstrikes.
A Hezbollah rocket killed two Israeli brothers, aged 3 and 9, in Nazareth.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora put the death toll in Lebanon at 300 dead, 1,000 wounded and half a million homeless. Speaking at a gathering of ambassadors, he chided those who said Israel was acting in self defence.
"Is this what the international community calls self defence? Is this the price to pay?" he told the gathering, w hich included the US ambassador. He called for a cease-fire and vowed to seek compensation from Israel for "unimaginable" infrastructure damage.
On the Israeli side, 29 have been killed, 14 soldiers and 15 civilians.
With Hezbollah fighters at the border, Israel was trying to pound sources of rocket fire. Bombers, focusing on Hezbollah strongholds in southern Beirut, hit a Christian suburb on the eastern side of the capital for the first time - targeting a truck carrying a machine used to drill for water that could have been mistaken for a missile launcher.
Israeli troops crossed the border before dawn to look for tunnels and weapons, and clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas near the coastal border town of Naqoura. The Israeli army said two soldiers were killed and nine wounded, Hezbollah said one guerrilla was killed.
Israel, which has mainly limited itself to attacks from the air and sea, had been reluctant to send in ground troops because Hezbollah is far more familiar with the terrain and because of memo-ries of Israel's ill-fated 18-year occupation of south Lebanon that ended in 2000.
Israel declared it was ready to fight Hezbollah guerrillas for several more weeks, raising doubts about international efforts to broker an immediate cease-fire.
