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Israeli shelling goes on as Lebanon mourns dead

BEIRUT: Israel pounded Lebanon with artillery and air raids on Monday as prospects of an immediate ceasefire faded and Lebanon mourned its dead from the 12-day-old bombardment.

Pro-Iranian Hizbollah (Party of God) guerrillas struck back again, hitting Israel with salvoes of Katyusha rockets despite Israel's huge military effort to stop them.

Flags hung at half-mast across Lebanon and shops, banks and other businesses closed in response to the government's declaration of a national day of mourning. Beirut airport was due to close for one hour at 1 p.m. (1000 GMT).

Lebanon says Israel must be punished and must pay reparations for the deaths and destruction it has caused.

The bombardment has killed 155 Lebanese, wounded hundreds, caused heavy destruction of homes, other buildings, roads and other infrastructure and forced more than 400,000 people to flee their homes.

Israeli naval gunners firing shells near the coast road south of Beirut on Monday prevented a convoy of cars from Beirut from reaching the site of last Thursday's massacre of 102 civilians by Israeli shelling.

Reporters with the convoy said it turned back after eight shells exploded in the sea when they reached the village of Rmaileh on the coast road about 35 km (22 miles) south of Beirut and just north of the port city of Sidon.

The 15-car convoy headed by Habib Saadek, a leftist member of the Lebanese parliament, had planned to drive to the village of Qana where the massacre occurred to show solidarity with the bereaved.

U.S. officials in Damascus with Secretary of State Warren Christopher said he had failed to achieve his original plan of obtaining a ceasefire before working out a political deal to end shelling of civilians by both sides.

Christopher, who was to have more talks with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad on Monday, now had to work out a political deal and a ceasefire at the same time, U.S. officials said.

Christopher said negotiations would be "very difficult" but expressed confidence a deal would eventually be reached.

Government sources in Beirut, trying to cope with a huge influx of refugees from south Lebanon, said Beirut had opposed an immediate ceasefire without a political deal because it would have meant that the refugees would not be able to return home immediately because of the insecure situation.

They said Israel could have dragged out negotiations on a political deal until its parliamentary elections at the end of May, keeping the refugees away from their homes until then.

The Lebanese government is desperately short of money and supplies to help the refugees and says international aid so far has been insufficient.

Both Hizbollah and Israel say they will stop shelling when the other side stops.

U.N. sources in south Lebanon said Israel pounded the region with about 1,400 shells and 20 air raids in the 24 hours up to Monday morning and Hizbollah fired 24 Katyushas at Israel during the period.

About 15 air raids hit the south during the night after a relatively quiet Sunday with only five raids earlier in the day, the sources said.

Israel resumed its bombardment at about 7 a.m. (0400 GMT), firing 60 shells into south Lebanon in an hour and launching two air raids near the city of Tyre, U.N. sources and Lebanese security sources said.

Five warships also pounded the coast road to the south near Sidon, shelling cars trying to travel on it, witnesses said. The road is the only link between Beirut and Sidon and Tyre and the south.

Security sources said Hizbollah fired Katyusha rockets at Israel after midnight (0900 GMT Sunday). The Israeli army said they hit Israel but caused no injuries. Fifty Israelis have been hurt by daily Katyusha bombardments during the blitz, but most have been cases of minor injury or shock.-Reuter