Hizbollah rockets killed eight people in northern Israel today and four Israeli soldiers died in combat in southern Lebanon, the highest number of Israeli dead in one day since fighting began on July 12th.
The eight civilian deaths, in the cities of Acre and Maalot, raised to 27 the number of people killed by rocket fire from Lebanon during the conflict.
Four Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, the Israeli army said. The 12 deaths were the highest number in one day for Israel in more than three weeks of war.
In a televised speech, Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the group would target Tel Aviv if Israel attacked central Beirut.
He said rocket attacks would cease if Israel halted its bombing campaign in Lebanon.
In his 45-minute address, Nasrallah said he held US President George Bush responsible for the war in Lebanon and said the US was blocking the path to a ceasefire. "Lebanon will never be pro-American or pro-Israeli. Lebanon will not be part of the 'new Middle East' that Bush and Condoleezza Rice want," he said.
The salvoes were another sign the militant group was still a potent threat to Israel despite comments yesterday by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that Israel had destroyed its infrastructure.
"Israel will actively seek out and pursue Hizbollah, until these murderous attacks cease and until quiet is restored to northern Israel," said an official in Mr Olmert's office.
Hizbollah fired more than 200 rockets into Israel yesterday, its most intense one-day barrage of the conflict.
Meanwhile Israel's Channel 10 television said the army had carved out a "security zone" of 20 Lebanese villages up to six km (four miles) from the border.
"They will remain until a multinational force arrives," the television said, quoting the army.
It did not specify whether this meant the military had completed its planned advance in south Lebanon.
Israeli jets continued pounding Hizbullah's Beirut stronghold, and troops battled the group's forces in the south today while world powers struggled to come up with a plan to stop a war now in its fourth week.
The United States, France and Britain hope for a United Nations Security Council resolution within a week that would call for a truce and perhaps strengthen the existing UN peacekeeping presence until a more robust force can be formed.
Ali Bajouk (39), is treated for burns in a Beirut hospital. He was wounded in an Israeli air strike as he tried to deliver supplies to elderly relatives in the village of Aita-al-Shaab during a ceasefire
But diplomatic moves to swiftly end the fighting have been thwarted by splits between the United States and France, mentioned as leader of the new force, over the timing of a ceasefire.
France today circulated a revised UN resolution calling for an immediate cessation of Israeli-Hezbollah hostilities and spelling of the conditions for a permanent cease-fire and lasting solution to the current crisis between Israel and Lebanon.
The new draft seeks to end the fighting that began on July 12th and set out the principles for peace in broad-brushstrokes.
It reiterates the call "for an immediate cessation of hostilities" and expresses "utmost concern at the continuing escalation of hostilities in Lebanon and in Israel."
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said today Israel's offensive against Hizbullah has killed more than 900 people and wounded 3,000, with a third of the casualties children under 12.
Mr Siniora, in a video message to a summit of leaders of the Muslim world, added that a quarter of the population, or one million people, had been displaced.
Sixty-five Israelis, including 39 troops, have been killed in the violence, which began after Hizbollah killed eight soldiers and kidnapped two others in a cross-border raid on July 12th.
Israeli jets bombed a Hizbullah-dominated southern suburb for the first time in days. They also hit a bridge in the northern region of Akkar, the eastern Bekaa Valley and roads near the Syrian border, a Lebanese security source said. Planes also attacked dozens of times around the southern town of Nabatiyeh.
The airforce launched airstrikes on 70 targets in southern Lebanon and Beirut overnight, an Israeli army spokeswoman said.
Israel is also expanding the ground war in southern Lebanon, where some 10,000 troops are fighting Hizbullah. One Israeli soldier was killed and four others wounded near the border village of Aita al-Shaab yesterday. The death brings to 37 the number of Israeli troops killed in 23 days of fighting.
The US-based watchdog Human Rights Watch said last night that the bodies of 28 people killed in an Israeli air strike on the Lebanese village of Qana had been recovered and that 13 people were missing. The official Lebanese toll is 54.
In Jerusalem,
Mr Olmert said Israel would fight on until an international force reaches south Lebanon - even though no country has volunteered to send troops in the absence of a truce and a durable ceasefire agreement.
Mr Olmert called for an international combat force to implement a UN resolution calling for Hizbullah to be disarmed, saying Israel had already destroyed much of the group's military power.
The United States and France are trying to come up with an initial resolution calling for a truce, a buffer zone and the disarmament of Hizbullah. But Paris has insisted it would not send troops without a truce and an agreement in principle on the framework for a long-term peace deal by Israel, Hizbullah and the Beirut government.
Mr Olmert said in a newspaper interview published today that the United Nations is likely to vote on a Lebanon truce next week.
He told Italy's Corriere della Seranewspaper that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did not expect a truce to end fighting in Lebanon in the next few days.
Washington wants a force as soon as fighting stops. Once fighting ends, talks would begin at the United Nations on a second resolution for a permanent ceasefire all combatants could accept and authorising an international force in the south.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said today Syria was eager to take part in talks on a "comprehensive and lasting peace" for the region. He was speaking after talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
"We cannot forget that there are still negotiations (needed) between Israel and Lebanon and between Israel and Syria and at the end of this process we have to have a comprehensive and lasting peace," Mr Moratinos said, adding that any settlement would have to include the plight of the Palestinians.