A heavy salvo of rockets landed on the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona this morning, Galei Tzahal (IDF Radio) reports. The rockets hit both residential and public buildings, but no casualties are reported. The police said about 25 rockets hit the town. By 7am today sirens sounded in Haifa, Tiberias, Afula, Safed, Kiryat Shmona, and other northern settlements.
According to reports from the village of Kfar Qana in South Lebanon, a building in the village collapsed following an Israeli air-strike, killing dozens of people who were sheltering in it, including children. An IDF spokesperson said the strike was aimed at halting Hizbullah rocket fire from the village, and that civilians had been warned to leave the area.
On the diplomatic front, officials in the Prime Minister's Bureau said this morning that the US was not pressing Israel for an immediate cease-fire in the north. The statement followed a further visit to the region by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
At her meeting with Prime minister Ehud Olmert last night, Rice presented a proposal for a cease-fire arrangement, and stressed that release of the Israeli soldiers whose capture sparked off the fighting would be an essential element of any deal. Rice said the size of the multi-national force planned for South Lebanon had not yet been determined, but that France would play a leading role in such a force.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 30, 2006
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