Eight thousand Israeli troops pressed the first full day of a massive new ground attack in southern Lebanon yesterday and said they seized five Hezbollah fighters in a dramatic raid on a north-eastern town.
Hezbollah retaliated with its deepest missile strikes yet, firing a record number of rockets into Israel as the conflict escalated.
Hezbollah rockets struck Israel in record numbers and deeper than ever as air raid sirens blared across the country's north.
The massive barrage, which followed a two-day lull, came despite the Israeli army chief's claim that the three-week offensive in south Lebanon had eroded Hezbollah's fire-power. Lt Gen Dan Halutz also threatened to resume air raids against the Lebanese capital.
The bombardment lifted the number of rockets fired into Israel over the 2,000 mark, as the fighting entered its fourth week.
Israeli military officials said their troops were going from village to village clearing them of Hezbollah guerrillas.
Hezbollah was putting up resistance, but the officials said they were confident it would not change their timetable of reaching a site four m iles into Lebanon by tomorrow.
They said they could easily dash inland to the Litani River - their final objective - but that they were proceeding methodically so as not to leave pockets of resistance behind.
Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets over south Lebanon, calling on Hezbollah guerrillas to surrender and warning them that "we will get you wherever you flee".
The leaflets were dropped a day after Israeli commandos stormed a Hezbollah-run hospital in Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, where Israel said it killed ten guerrillas and captured five. Hezbollah and residents said the casualties and prisoners were civilians and not members of the guerrilla group.
"Israeli Defence Forces last night worked courageously and strongly against the hideouts of your gang in Baalbek," read one leaflet found in the southern town of Nabatiyeh. "You should know that you will not be able to run away from our long arm and we will get you where you flee, whether underground."
"Your leaders have abandoned you and fled away after sending you to death for the sake of foreign interests," the one-page banner said. "What you still have is one alternative only: surrender."
Hezbollah guerrillas hit back, firing 160 rockets by mid-afternoon at towns across northern Israel, wounding at least 21 people and killing one, Israeli police said.
Israel medics said one of the rockets hit near the town of Beit Shean, the deepest rocket strike into Israel so far.
Witnesses in Israel also reported that a Hezbollah rocket hit the West Bank for the first time, striking between the villages of Fakua and Jalboun, near Beit Shean.
In an attack on the Lebanese army, Israeli jets fired at least one missile on a base in the village of Sarba, in the Iqlim al Tuffah province, a highland region where Hezbollah is also believed to have offices and bases.
One soldier was killed, bringing to 26 the number of Lebanese soldiers killed since the start of the Israeli offensive on July 12.
The Lebanese military has largely stayed out of the three-week-old conflict, though has said it will fight if Israel launches a wide-scale invasion, and Israeli warplanes have repeatedly attacked soldiers.
