Saudi Arabia's king has urged Israel to stop its attacks on Lebanon, warning the violence could plunge the Middle East into a regional war if a ceasefire can't be forged.
"If the option of peace fails as a result of Israeli arrogance, then the only option remaining will be war, and God alone knows what the region would witness in a conflict that would spare no one," King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud said in an official statement read on Saudi state television on Tuesday.
Abdullah said the Saudi government has tried to end the fighting that erupted between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants on July 12.
In Lebanon, security official say the violence - mostly from Israeli military strikes - has killed more than 390 people, injured nearly 1,600 others and forced at least 600,000 to flee their homes.
In northern Israel, officials say more than 40 people have died and as much as a third of the population has fled, as Hezbollah lobbed more than 1,000 rockets southward.
'Patience can't last forever'
"It must be said that patience can't last forever, and if the brutal Israeli military continues to kill and destroy, no one can foresee what may happen," Abdullah warned.
The Saudi king promised that Saudi Arabia will donate $1.5 billion US to Lebanon: $500 million for reconstruction and $1 billion to be deposited in the central bank to help restart the economy.
Lebanon has been battered by the conflict and there were no signs that it was easing.
Israeli air strikes hit Beirut on Tuesday, the first in the Lebanese capital since Sunday evening. At least four heavy blasts were heard. They set off car alarms in central Beirut and left a billowing grey cloud in the south of the city.
Al Jazeera said about 20 Israeli rockets hit one of Beirut's southern district, a Hezbollah stronghold.
Israel looks to security zone
Meantime, Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel plans to maintain a security zone in southern Lebanon until a force made up of troops from other countries is able to take control of the region.
Peretz declined to say whether Israel would continue its troop presence in Lebanon and wound enforce the zone with the help of air and ground forces.
Israel has said it was opposed to an international force in southern Lebanon, saying it wanted the Lebanese army to keep the border secure. But recently, it indicated that a force under NATO's command would be welcome.
"There will be a security zone, which will be under the control of our forces if there is not a multinational force," Peretz said.
"If there is not a multinational force that will get in to control the fences, a multinational force with an enforcement capability, we will continue to control [Hezbollah] with our fire toward any one who will get close to the defined security zone."
Will stay in southern Lebanon: Israeli colonel
Earlier, Israeli Col. Hemi Livni became the first senior military official to outline the army's plans since the offensive began, saying his country has no intention of sending ground forces beyond southern Lebanon.
The troops are focused solely on crushing Hezbollah outposts and rocket launching sites near the border with Israel, said Livni, who is in charge of forces in southwestern Lebanon. ''The intention is to deal with the Hezbollah infrastructure that is within reach.' - Israeli Col. Hemi Livni'
"The intention is to deal with the Hezbollah infrastructure that is within reach," Livni told Israel Army Radio.
"That means in southern Lebanon, not going beyond that. I don't know of any intention to go 70 kilometres into Lebanon."
Livni said troops planned to surround border villages and root out Hezbollah.
Israel seals off Lebanese border town
On Tuesday, the Israeli military sealed off the Lebanese border town of Bint Jbeil, a Hezbollah stronghold.
After a day and night of fighting around the town, Israeli troops began an operation before dawn and met with heavy resistance. ''There is fighting from every direction, including from the air. We are hitting terrorists, we have also taken several prisoners in this fighting.'-Israeli Lt.-Col. Itzik Ronen on the battle over a Lebanese border town'
By morning, troops had seized houses on the edges of Bint Jbeil, but about 200 militants continued to battle.
"There is fighting from every direction, including from the air. We are hitting terrorists, we have also taken several prisoners in this fighting," Lt.-Col. Itzik Ronen, the deputy commander of a unit operating in the area, told Israel Army Radio.
"The enemy has more than a few casualties, and overall we are now stabilizing the situation to completely take over the village."
In other developments:
- Israeli missiles destroyed a house in the neighbouring market town of Nabatiyeh, killing a couple and their two sons as well as three other men, hospital and security officials said. It was not immediately clear why the Israeli planes had targeted the house.
- Sixteen Hezbollah rockets hit the city of Haifa, striking a seven-storey apartment building and a city bus, among other targets. More than two dozen people were injured.
- A Hezbollah strike on the Israeli Arab town of Maghar killed a teenage girl and injured three other people.
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