Israel jets pummel south Beirut

VIDEO - Israeli warplanes pounded south Beirut with at least 20 missiles in a two-minute period Sunday at nearly the exact moment that the Israeli parliament approved a UN ceasefire plan that was to go into effect 17 hours later. The shells slammed into the hard-hit Dahiyeh suburb, a Hizbullah stronghold just south of Beirut, Lebanese television stations said. There was no immediate casualty report, but Al-Arabiya said several buildings were destroyed. Hizbullah's Al-Manar television issued a statement declaring none of the group's leadership was in the area at the time of the attack. Arab media outlets said the IAF attack targeted residential buildings near the Imam Hassan mosque, which is located in the neighborhood of el-Rawis in a south Beirut suburb. It was initially estimated that the attack was an Israeli attempt at assassinating senior Hizbullah members, but Al-Jazeera reported that no senior terror group member, were hurt in the attack, including Hassan Nasrallah. Hizbullah released a statement a short while after the attack saying the building attacked did not contain Hizbullah offices and that no terror group members were injured. “This attack was an attempt by the enemy to compensate for its failure to achieve its goals in the war,” the statement said. Voice of Lebanon radio said there were casualties and rescue workers were trying to reach the area. Earlier, warplanes fired missiles into several gasoline stations in the southern port city of Tyre and killed at least ten people in those and other attacks as Israeli jets ranged across the skies above Lebanon from north to south in the final day before a ceasefire was to take hold. Fierce ground fighting continued in the south, where Israel lost 24 soldiers Saturday, including five on a helicopter shot out of the air by Hizbullah fighters. Israeli planes attacked villages near Nabatiyeh north of the Litani River nonstop Sunday, killing one man who had survived an air strike on his car a day earlier. Israeli forces reach Litani River's south bank Huge fires could be seen near the al-Bass Palestinian refugee camp north of Tyre and near the Najem hospital in the city after the filling stations were hit. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the intense series of strikes that began about 11:30 a.m. Attacks near Lebanese army bases in the east of Tyre killed at least two people. Earlier, at least five people died - a woman, her three children and a housemaid - in a strike that destroyed a building at Bourj el-Chemali, one mile east of the city. Jets returned to the village about noon and destroyed two more houses near the Lebanese army post on the road leading to Bourj el-Chemali. In the Bekaa Valley, security officials reported two people killed and four wounded in an airstrike on Shaath, north of the Hizbullah stronghold of Baalbek. Warplanes also destroyed a bridge near the northern town of Halba in the remote Akkar region bordering Syria, wounding two people, local television and security officials reported. Jets also raided the area of Ali Nahri in the eastern Bekaa Valley near the border with Syria. Israeli gunners also shelled several positions along the Litani River, according to security officials. Israeli forces reached the river's south bank near the town of Aalmane Saturday night as Israel flooded the south of the country with troops and armor and inserted commando units near the Litani by helicopter.

Israel jets pummel south Beirut

(VIDEO) Israeli warplanes pound Beirut with at least 20 missiles in two minute period. Hizbullah: No members hurt; attack enemy attempt to compensate for failures in war