BEIRUT, Aug 2: Hezbollah fired more rockets into Israel on Wednesday than on any previous day of the 22-day-old war, killing an Israeli and wounding 123, after helicopter-borne commandos launched Israel’s deepest raid into Lebanon during which they seized five guerillas.

Air strikes in support of the helicopter raid in the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek, north-eastern Lebanon, killed 19 people, including four children.

Israeli sources said around 10,000 soldiers were now battling Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The United Nations force in the area reported heavy exchanges of fire, with bombings in some areas and intensive shelling across the south.

Israel said its troops had seized five Hezbollah militants in the night raid on Baalbek, which is 95kms northeast of Beirut. Hezbollah denied those taken belonged to the group. Security sources said two Hezbollah fighters were also killed.

It was the first helicopter-borne assault deep inside Lebanon in the conflict that flared after Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.

Thirteen civilians were killed when Israeli warplanes hit Jammaliyeh, a village near Baalbek, and six died in air strikes elsewhere. A Lebanese army soldier was killed and two were wounded when their post in the south was bombed.

Battles raged between Hezbollah guerillas and Israeli troops in south Lebanon, especially around the villages of Aita Shaab and Kfar Kila, where there was intense Israeli shelling and air strikes, the UN peacekeeping force said.

It said Israeli forces were present in four areas of the south and troops had landed by helicopter during the night near the south-eastern border village of Meis al-Jabal.

Lebanese security sources said the Israelis had captured a hilltop at Al-Aweida overlooking several villages, including Kfar Kila and Adaiseh where fighting has raged this week.

In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview Israel would fight on until an international force reaches south Lebanon — even though no country has volunteered to send troops in the absence of a truce and a durable ceasefire agreement.

Mr Olmert called for an international combat force to implement a UN resolution calling for Hezbollah to be disarmed, claiming Israel had already destroyed much of the group’s military power.

Soon after he spoke, one of 206 rockets launched by Hezbollah landed just inside the West Bank after flying further than any fired at Israel in the past three weeks.

Israeli police and Hezbollah both said it was the highest number of rockets fired into Israel on one day since the war began. The barrage killed one person near Nahariya—Reuters