Israeli aircraft hit 130 targets in Lebanon on Thursday and early Friday, including a Hizbullah base in the Bekaa Valley, Israeli sources said. Other targets included 57 Hizbullah buildings, six missile launching sites and six communication facilities. In response, Hizbullah fired scores of Katyusha rockets into northern Israel.
Lebanese officials estimated a civilian death toll as high as 600.
With Hizbullah allies Iran and Syria reportedly meeting in Damascus to discuss the crisis, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was "willing and ready" to return to the region to work for a sustainable peace agreement. Israel radio and the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz newspaper reported Friday that Rice will fly to Israel on Saturday night to discuss the Mideast crisis. Haaretz said she intends to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday.
On his part, British Prime Minister Tony Blair left London on Friday morning for the United States to have talks with U.S. President George W. Bush on Lebanon. Blair will press Bush to support "as a matter or urgency" a ceasefire in Lebanon as part of a UN Security Council resolution next week, according to British officials.
At a White House meeting, Blair will voice his concern that pro-West Arab governments are "getting squeezed" by the crisis and the longer it continues, the more squeezed they will be.
