July 17, 2006	Monday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 20, 1427

BEIRUT, July 16: At least 45 people were killed and 111 were hurt in Israel’s ongoing offensive on Lebanon Sunday, with five days of Israeli bombardments and airstrikes claiming a total of 148 lives.

The tally, compiled by AFP on the basis of reports from officials and hospital staff, also established that more than 355 people have been wounded since the start of the offensive.

Almost all of those killed and injured since the beginning of the Israeli assault on Wednesday were civilians.

A family of five Lebanese Canadians visiting Lebanon on vacation were among those killed when Israeli jets repeatedly bombed the southern village of Aitarun, close to the border with Israel, police said.

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said eight Canadians were killed.

Nineteen civilians died in an Israeli attack on a building housing a military office and transmitter in the southern port town of Tyre, hospital sources said. They had been seeking shelter after fleeing Israeli raids on their home villages.

Israel has pressed on with its attacks despite saying it regretted causing civilian casualties.

It has blamed Hezbollah, designated as the primary target of its military campaign, for the collateral deaths and injuries, stressing that the Lebanese militia was operating from residential areas.

Meanwhile, eight people were killed on Sunday in a Hezbollah rocket attack on Israel’s third largest city of Haifa.

The Israeli military ordered residents to flee villages in southern Lebanon, warning of air and artillery operations after the rocket attack on the Mediterranean port of Haifa.

Israeli medics said eight people were killed and dozens wounded by the rocket attacks on Haifa, with most casualties at the main railway station.

Twenty-four Israelis have been killed in the violence — 12 civilians who have died in Hezbollah rocket attacks, and 12 servicemen.—AFP