Israel Answers Hezbollah Strike

Photos
Anxiety Grips Civilians in Lebanon, Israel
Israel continues its bombing of Hezbollah strongholds in the Lebanese capital of Beirut Sunday as a large rocket apparently fired by Hezbollah forces hit an Israeli government rail yard in the northern port city of Haifa, killing eight people. Meanwhile, the United States and other nations prepare to evacuate their citizens.

Israel's military said it struck 80 targets in Lebanon on Sunday, while ordering the residents of seven southern villages to evacuate their homes for their own safety.

Israeli forces attacked Beirut's main electricity plant, cutting off power to parts of the city and southern Lebanon. In other parts of the country, they dropped pink leaflets warning residents to stay away from missile sites, ammunition depots, Hezbollah offices in south Beirut and southern Lebanon, and the southern suburbs of Beirut, which it called "the center of terrorism."

"Know that the continuance of terrorism against the state of Israel prevents you from living a better future," the leaflet read.

Lebanese officials said 5,000 people had arrived so far in the capital, fleeing the fighting in largely Shiite southern Lebanon, another Hezbollah stronghold.

The United States began preparations to evacuate some of the estimated 25,000 U.S. citizens in the country. Many are permanent residents, and any evacuation presumably would involve only a fraction of that number. Helicopters streaming to and from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut on Sunday carried away the first 18 workers and relatives who wanted to leave. A 20-member Pentagon team arrived to map contingency plans for a wholesale withdrawal.

In eastern Beirut, several buses arrived in a parking lot to escort dozens of Swedish nationals to Syria, then home. In the background, bombs thundered on the horizon, setting off car alarms. Suitcases were piled on the pavement, next to strollers and crying children.

"There's no one who's not scared, in their heart at least, but you have to adhere to your faith," Mohammed Jaber said as he helped his sister and two children aboard.

Nearby stood Radwan Asaad and his wife, Nadine Anouti. The 22-year-old Anouti had spent 17 years in Sweden, returning to Lebanon to get married. As a bomb went off, she broke down crying and embraced her husband. "She's scared," he said. "She's not used to this."

She looked up. "I want to get out of here by any way possible," she sobbed.

Shadid reported from Beirut. Staff writers John Ward Anderson in Gaza and Peter Baker in Russia contributed to this report.