Beirut: Israeli strikes killed 41 people across Lebanon on Monday, including 10 civilians hit on a southern bridge, on the sixth day of a bombardment that has wreaked the heaviest destruction in Lebanon for over 20 years.
Rescuers also pulled nine bodies from the wreckage of a building in the southern city of Tyre that was bombed on Sunday, raising the death toll since Israel's offensive began above 200.
The fighting was triggered when Hezbollah, the group which is backed by Syria and Iran and is part of Lebanon's government, seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in a cross-border raid on northern Israel on Wednesday.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Security Council members would start work on a detailed agreement on deploying a multinational security force to south Lebanon.
However, the United States gave only a guarded welcome to the proposal and Israel said it was too premature.
Israeli planes hit coastal targets in the north and south, struck Beirut and damaged homes in the east belonging to members of Hezbollah, which fired more rockets deep into Israel.
Three Israeli tanks briefly crossed a few hundred metres into Lebanese territory on Monday afternoon, a UN source said, following a similar incursion overnight in which Israel said Hezbollah positions were destroyed.
Lebanese televisions stations showed burning debris falling over Beirut and said an Israeli plane had been shot down.
Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said no jet or helicopter had been lost but an unmanned drone may have been downed.
"I can't believe they are doing all this for two captives. This is just an excuse," said Ali Sharara, 21, who fled his home in south Beirut to sleep in a city park for the last two nights.
Israeli Army Radio, quoting a top officer, said the country would enforce a one-km "free-fire" zone to bar Hezbollah from the border, without keeping troops on the ground.
Israel's campaign has killed 203 people, all but 13 of them civilians, and wounded more than 500.
Twenty-four Israelis have been killed in the fighting, including 12 civilians hit in rocket attacks.
Israeli raids on Monday destroyed two army posts on the northern Lebanese coast, killing at least six Lebanese soldiers, and damaged the homes of Hezbollah officials in eastern Lebanon. Eleven people were killed in more than 60 strikes.
Several blasts rocked Beirut at dawn and smoke rose from a blazing fuel depot.
Civilian installations, petrol stations and factories elsewhere were also hit, security sources said.
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said he feared a humanitarian crisis, citing the impact of power cuts and the bombing of water, sewage and health installations.
