Israeli airstrikes kill at least 15 in Lebanon as Arab diplomats gather in Beirut

(AP) Israeli warplanes repeatedly bombed Beirut's southern suburbs and pounded other areas of Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 15 people. Fierce fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah guerrillas in south Lebanon killed one soldier, the army said.

The new strikes and ground battles came hours before Arab League foreign ministers were to meet in Beirut for a hastily convened session to show solidarity with Lebanon.

Both sides appeared to take advantage of the days before a cease-fire resolution, formulated by the U.S. and France, is put to a vote in the U.N. Security Council. Hezbollah rocket launched its deadliest rocket barrage on Israel on Sunday, killing 12 Israeli soldiers and three civilians.

Israeli warplanes began carrying out a series of air raids on southern Lebanon early Monday.

Seven people were killed when a missile hit a house in Qassmieh on the coast north of the port city of Tyre, civil defense official Youssef Khairallah said. A woman and her daughter were killed in an attack near a Lebanese army checkpoint between the villages of Harouf and Dweir, security officials said. Four other people were killed in a raid on that destroyed a house in Kfar Tebnit.

Air raids on the town of Ghaziyeh also destroyed several buildings, killing at least one person and wounding 14, hospital officials said.

A building collapsed on its residents in the village of Ghassaniyeh, and at least one body was retrieved from under the rubble. Witnesses and civil defense workers at the scene said six more people were buried under the rubble but that could not be confirmed.

Five air raids struck the market town of Nabatiyeh, targeting two office buildings, a house and one of the offices of Shiite Muslim Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. No casualties were reported there or in raids on the villages of Jibsheet and Toul.

Attacks also were carried out in Naqoura on the border and Ras al-Biyada, about half way between Naqoura and Tyre.

Meanwhile, one Israeli soldier was killed and four were lightly wounded in fighting in Bint Jbail, the army said. It said five Hezbollah gunmen were killed in the battle.

Hezbollah also claimed to have killed four Israeli soldiers in heavy ground fighting in Houla in southern Lebanon. But the Israeli army said only three were moderately wounded there.

The air raids, which were particularly intense in the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of the capital, came hours before Arab foreign ministers were to fly into Beirut to show their support for the Lebanese people as cease-fire negotiations continue.

The U.N. plan would call for an immediate halt in the fighting, followed by a second resolution in a week or two that would authorize an international military force and creation of a buffer zone in south Lebanon. It also says the two Israeli soldiers held by Hezbollah should be released unconditionally. The soldiers' capture July 12 triggered the war.

Washington and Paris were expected to circulate a new draft of the first resolution at the United Nations on Monday, taking into account some of the amendments proposed by Qatar, the only Arab nation on the Security Council, and other members, diplomats said.

Israel's Justice Minister Haim Ramon the U.S.-French draft was good for Israel _ but the country still had military goals and would continue its attacks on Hezbollah. While Hezbollah has not issued an outright rejection of the plan, its two main allies _ Syria and Iran _ said it was without merit because it did not call for an immediate Israeli withdrawal, among other demands.

Lebanon's parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, also said the plan was unacceptable because it does not deal with Beirut's other key demands _ a release of prisoners held by Israel and moves to resolve a dispute over a piece of border territory.

In other violence Monday, Israeli warplanes hit roads in the Bekaa Valley, a northeastern region of Lebanon that is a symbol of Hezbollah power. At least four explosions were heard around the city of Baalbek, about 60 miles north of Israel's border, witnesses said. The Israeli military confirmed that it had hit several targets in the area. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Warplanes also struck a large factory for construction materials just south of Baalbek, and several trucks belonging to the plant were destroyed.

Jet fighters attacked the Rashaya region farther south on the corridor linking southern regions with the Bekaa Valley in the country's east, the witnesses said. A road near the Beirut border post at Masnaa on the Beirut-Damascus highway, a frequent target of attack, was hit again early Monday.

In Israel, the Haaretz daily, quoting an unnamed general, reported Monday that Israel might step up attacks on Lebanese infrastructure and target symbols of the government in response to Hezbollah's escalating rocket attacks. Israeli warplanes have repeatedly blasted Palestinian government buildings during a month-long offensive in Gaza that began shortly before the clashes with Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has fired more than 3,000 rockets at Israel since the fighting began, Israeli officials said. Dozens of rockets hit Israel on Sunday, including some that reached Haifa _ Israel's third-largest city _ killing three civilians and wounding dozens.

The renewed airstrikes came as Hezbollah battled Israeli forces attempting to advance deeper into southern Lebanon. Hezbollah engaged Israeli infantrymen attempting to advance on the border villages of Aita al-Shaab, Rub Thalatheen and Dibel, the guerrillas' TV station said.

Some 10,000 Israeli soldiers are fighting several hundred Hezbollah gunmen in south Lebanon, trying to track and destroy rocket launchers and push the guerrilla group out of the area.

In the deadliest attack on Israelis in this war, a rocket landed Sunday among reservists near the entrance to the communal farm of Kfar Giladi on the Lebanese border. It killed 12 soldiers heading for battle in Lebanon and wounded five, hospital officials said.

The latest deaths brought to 94 the number of Israelis killed, including 46 soldiers, the 12 reservists and 36 civilians. Israel's attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 606 people, including 524 civilians, 29 Lebanese soldiers and at least 53 Hezbollah guerrillas.

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Associated Press writers Aron Heller in Kfar Giladi, Israel; Delphine Matthieussent in Haifa, Israel; Lauren Frayer in Beirut; and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.