BEIRUT, Aug 3: Hezbollah guerillas killed eight people in a rocket barrage on Israel and four Israeli soldiers in fighting in Lebanon on Thursday — the deadliest day of the war for Israel.

In a televised speech, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah threatened the group would target Tel Aviv if Israel attacked central Beirut. He said rocket attacks would cease if Israel halted its bombing campaign in Lebanon.

Israel reacted to the threat by warning that it would destroy Lebanon’s infrastructure if the guerrilla group carried out the threat.

In Jerusalem, an official announced Defence Minister Amir Peretz had ordered the Israeli army to prepare for an eventual seizure of southern Lebanon up to the Litani River.

“The Israeli army has received the order to prepare for the next step of the offensive, whose aim is to quickly take control of southern Lebanon from the international border to the Litani River,” Mr Peretz’s spokesman said.

The Litani River runs from east to west across southern Lebanon and is in various locations between five and 30kms from the Israeli border. An Israeli push to the river would leave its forces in control of Lebanese territory about 30 kilometres wide and 30 kilometres deep.

The army has already carved out a ‘security zone’ of 20 villages in south Lebanon up to six kilometres from the border and plans to stay until an international force arrives.

Despite 23 days of an intensive air and ground campaign to wipe them out, Hezbollah guerillas continue to unleash rockets and battle Israeli troops on the ground in Lebanon.

The United States, France and Britain hope for a UN Security Council resolution on Friday that would call for a truce and maybe strengthen existing UN peacekeepers until a more robust force can be formed, UN officials said.

But splits between the United States and France, a possible leader of the new force, over the timing of a ceasefire have complicated diplomatic efforts to halt the war.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the war had killed 900 people in Lebanon and wounded 3,000, with a third of the casualties children under 12.

Israeli forces killed five Palestinian militants and three civilians, including a 10-year-old boy, in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. —Reuters/AFP