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Further deaths in Israel-Hezbollah conflict

Lebanon - Bombardment continues
Lebanon - Bombardment continues

Israel has killed at least three Hezbollah guerrillas in fighting in the town of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon, bringing the total number killed in the conflict to over 200, an Israeli military source said.

'Clashes are on and off,' the source said.

The heaviest losses for the guerrillas were thought to have been in fighting around the south Lebanon towns of Maroun al-Ras and Bint Jbeil, a source said earlier.

A total of 33 Israeli soldiers have also died in the 17 days of conflict.

Intensive Israeli bombing killed 14 people in Lebanon earlier today and Hezbollah said it had fired new longer-range rockets at Israel.

Aircraft repeatedly bombed villages near Lebanon's southern port of Tyre and Israeli artillery fired hundreds of rounds across the border, killing 10 people, including a Jordanian.

Four people were killed in about 70 air strikes in the eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanese security sources said.

Hezbollah fired scores of rockets into Israel, including two that the guerrilla group said were new, longer-range missiles, in a barrage that wounded at least six people, police said.

The longer-range rockets landed in open ground near the town of Afula, about 50 km (30 miles) from the Lebanese border. It matched the furthest that Hezbollah rockets had landed inside Israel since the conflict began.

Hezbollah said it had fired new 'Khaibar 1' missiles at Afula, fulfilling a pledge by its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to extend its bombardment of Israel beyond the port of Haifa.

Israeli media reported that a Hezbollah rocket hit a clinic in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya, but no one was hurt.

The war, which has caused at least 459 deaths in Lebanon and 51 in Israel, erupted after Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a raid into Israel on 12 July.

Humanitarian crisis warning

Meanwhile international aid agencies have continued to warn of a humanitarian crisis as thousands of civilians flee the fighting in Lebanon.

Lebanese Health Minister Mohammad Khalifeh said up to 600 people had been killed in the conflict, around a third of them still buried beneath rubble with rescue workers unable to remove the bodies while under fire.

Bodies still lie in the streets in some isolated Lebanese border villages, where fighting has trapped terrified civilians.

At least 445 people, mostly civilians, have been confirmed killed in Lebanon, according to a Reuters tally.

Israel says it believes that at least 200 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in the 17-day-old conflict.

51 Israelis, including 18 civilians, have been killed since the fighting was triggered on 12 July when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in a cross-border raid.

Medical aid deliverd to Beirut

A Jordanian airforce plane carrying urgent medical aid has landed at Beirut's International airport.

It is one of the first to land there since the Israelis bombed the airport at the start of their offensive in Lebanon.

The plane had to weave around craters left by Israeli bombs when it landed.

Most of the supplies are being brought to a field hospital the Jordanians have set up near airport.

Ali Assaad of the Lebenese Red Cross says many of those most in need cannot be reached.