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Israel-Hizbollah

resume fighting

BEIRUT: Israeli forces and Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon resumed their long-range fighting early on Monday, exchanging rockets while France stepped in to try to secure a ceasefire.

Security forces in southern Lebanon said Israeli warplanes in action for the fifth day launched three raids, firing rockets at the villages of Mansouri, Hinniyeh and Yater near the port of Tyre. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Several hundred thousand Lebanese, driven from their homes by the bombardments and Israeli orders to flee, are moving northwards in an exodus that is emptying southern Lebanon.

About three hours later a rocket fell near a synagogue, causing damage but no casualties, Israel's army radio said.

Israel's five-day-old "Operation Grapes of Wrath" has failed so far to stop rocket attacks by the pro-Iranian Shi'ite Muslim group. Residents in northern Israel slept in air raid shelters.

On Sunday Hizbollah fired 45 Katyushas into the Jewish state in its heaviest assault in three years. The army said two people were wounded in the attacks. More than 40 Israelis were wounded in rocket attacks last week.

Israeli Foreign Minister Ehud Barak vowed to strike back until Lebanon reined in the guerrillas. The army said Israeli aircraft flew at least 242 sorties on Sunday.

At least 22 people have been killed and about 65 wounded in Lebanon since Thursday.

In Paris, France called for an immediate halt to Hizbollah rocket attacks on Israel and to Israeli bombardments of Lebanon.

President Jacques Chirac, who visited Lebanon this month and met Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in Paris on Sunday, urged all parties to show restraint as soon as possible.

Israeli Foreign Minister Barak has ruled out diplomatic activity at this stage, but de Charette was expected to try to clinch a ceasefire.

Israel's army intelligence chief, Major-General Moshe Yaalon, told a news conference on Sunday that Hizbollah might try to attack Israeli or Jewish targets abroad.

Hizbollah threatened on Sunday to hurl dozens of suicide bombers at the United States and Israel.

Hizbollah's al-Manar television showed about 70 comouflage-clad volunteers at a swearing-in ceremony for suicide bombers. Their commander ceremonially inserted fuses into explosive packs strapped to their bodies.

"We swear by the blood and severed bodies of our children and the struggles of our detainees that we will respond to the call and will detonate our bodies and shake the ground under the feet of our enemies, America and Israel," the militants declared.

The conflict poses a threat to the already deeply troubled Middle East peace process and to Lebanon's still vulnerable recovery from the political, economic and social disaster of the 1975-90 civil war.

The political stakes are high for Israel's peacemaker Prime Minister Shimon Peres, struggling to maintain his lead over right-wing challenger Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of May 29 national elections.-Reuter