Developments Thursday in Israel’s offensives against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Palestinian militants in Gaza:
• Israeli troops crossed into Lebanon to seek tunnels and weapons for a second straight day, meeting fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas. Israeli warplanes launched new airstrikes on a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs and the guerrillas’ heartland in the south and eastern Bekaa Valley.
• Israel refused to rule out a full-scale invasion. “All our options are open,” an Israeli army spokesman said.
• Since the fighting started with the capture of two Israeli soldiers during a Hezbollah into Israel on July 12, at least 306 people have been killed in Lebanon and 29 people in Israel, according to official reports.
• Russia said Israel’s actions have gone “far beyond the boundaries of an anti-terrorist operation,” and it repeated a call for an immediate cease-fire.
• Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice planned to discuss diplomatic efforts to end the violence, and the possibility of international troops to police a peace, with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday evening in New York.
• The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour criticized the rising toll, saying the shelling was invariably killing innocent civilians.
• Israeli army strikes in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip killed three people, including a 10-year-old girl and a Palestinian militant, according to Palestinian medical personnel.
• U.S. Marines landed in Beirut to help evacuate Americans in Lebanon onto the USS Nashville, which will carry about 1,000 people to Cyprus. About 900 Americans who were evacuated on a cruise ship arrived in Cyprus.
• First American evacuees who left Lebanon arrived home in the United States, greeted by family and friends at a Baltimore-area airport.