TYRE, Lebanon — Soldiers laid 72 coffins in two trenches, a mass grave for victims of the Israeli bombardment. Elsewhere, mounds of rubble sat undisturbed; rescue workers were too fearful of missiles to search for bodies.
Lebanese have streamed out of south Lebanon since fighting erupted between Israel and Hezbollah last week, leaving some villages almost deserted. But many people are believed trapped in their homes – too poor to live anywhere else, too afraid to travel or unable to go because bridges and roads have been destroyed.
An estimated 400,000 Lebanese make their home south of the Litani River, 20 miles from the Israeli border, and it’s not known how many remain – but those that do risk being caught up in an Israeli ground offensive against Hezbollah.
"It is not looking good and it’s going to last for some time," Ali Sayegh, a 39-year-old furniture salesman from Tyre, said of the Israeli offensive.
"There are not many people left in Tyre, very few walk the streets and there is a shortage of fresh produce," said Sayegh, who moved to a seaside hotel after sending his wife and two daughters abroad last week.
Israel massed tanks and troops on the border Friday hours after calling up reserves and confirmed some units were already operating in Lebanon, as the army announced plans for a ground operation to destroy Hezbollah’s tunnels, hideouts and weapons stashes.
DAY 9, BEIRUT, Lebanon – Pitched battles raged between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters on the border Thursday, and Israel warned hundreds of thousands of people to flee southern Lebanon "immediately," preparing for a likely ground offensive to set up a buffer zone. U.N. chief Kofi Annan warned of a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon and called for an immediate cease-fire, even as he admitted "serious obstacles" stand in the way of even easing the violence. Annan denounced Israel for "excessive use of force" and Hezbollah for holding "an entire nation hostage" with its rocket attacks and snatching of two Israeli soldiers last week.
After more than a week of punishing Israeli aerial and artillery strikes, Hizb’allah chief Hassan Nasrallah says his group is easily absorbing all that Israel has thrown at it, and continues to successfully control the direction of the current fighting.
UT — At least 55 Lebanese civilians were killed as Israeli warplanes pounded the capital and countryside, making today the deadliest day in a week of attacks and pushing this country’s civilian death toll to more than 300. Fearful Westerners fled the country in droves.Violence also struck northern Israel, where two children were killed in a rocket attack in the town of Nazareth. 
BEIRUT, 19 July (IRIN) – Lebanon’s dream of 2006 as a record year for economic growth has in the space of a week turned into a nightmare. Israeli air strikes have brought its fast-growing economy to an almost complete standstill. With thousands of nationals and foreign workers evacuating, and more than 500,000 internally displaced people, a bleak scenario confronts the country’s workforce. "The direct losses are estimated to be nearly half a billion US dollars," said Jihad Azoor, Lebanon’s Finance Minister. "But we have to read this number carefully because we have no way of assessing the situation fully to get an accurate estimate. And more losses occur by the hour." 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon has ordered five military ships and thousands of Marines and sailors to help transport U.S. citizens out of Lebanon, a move that could sharply speed up the evacuation as fighting continues.
DAY 7, Time magazine, The ancient city of Tyre, sitting on a promontory built by Alexander the Great, is famed worldwide for its wealth of archeological treasures. Yet in the past week, Tyre, one-time home of the entrepreneurial Phoenician seafaring race, has become a casualty of the dark side of history, a place of fear, destruction and death caught up in the age-old hatreds of the Middle East. 
DUBAI, 18 July (IRIN) – Aid from the wealthy countries of the Gulf has poured into Lebanon, where intense Israeli attacks have smashed infrastructure and killed hundreds of civilians over the course of the last week. 
DAY 6, By Joel Greenberg, Tribune foreign correspondent, Israeli warplanes continued their onslaught on the Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut, reducing apartment buildings to rubble and knocking out power in wide areas. The army said it warned residents of seven villages near the border with Israel to vacate their homes before a heavy assault. Hezbollah militants fired volleys of rockets at Israel’s third-largest city Sunday, killing eight people and wounding more than 20 in the worst single attack in Israel in five days of widening conflict with the Lebanese guerrilla group. Waves of Israeli air strikes across Lebanon killed at least 28 people. 
