BEIRUT, July 14: Israel bombed the home of Hezbollah’s leader here on Friday as part of a widening assault on Lebanon since Shia fighters captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight.

Hezbollah said Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was safe.

Israel also attacked many Lebanese civilian installations on the third day of its Lebanon offensive.

The assault has drawn mounting international criticism but the White House said US President George W. Bush would not press Israel to halt its military operation.

Asked whether Bush had agreed to a request from Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to rein in the Israelis, White House spokesman Tony Snow said: “No. The president is not going to make military decisions for Israel.”

Hezbollah fired more rockets across the frontier, killing an Israeli woman and child.

Israeli aircraft rocketed runways at Beirut’s international airport and bombed a flyover. Israeli warplanes blasted the main Beirut-Damascus highway overnight and bombed targets in Beirut’s suburbs, killing three people and wounding 40.

An air strike in southern Beirut’s Haret Hreik district targeted Hezbollah’s radio station. The radio stayed on the air. Air strikes in south Lebanon killed five more people.

GAZA: In the Gaza Strip in Palestinian territory, Israel bombed offices of Hamas lawmakers, destroyed a bridge and fired a tank shell that killed a civilian. Palestinian gunmen blew a huge hole in the border wall between Gaza and Egypt, allowing hundreds of Gazans who had been stranded on the closed border for two weeks, to enter the Strip.—Reuters