BEIRUT - Israeli planes pounded Beirut's southern suburbs and other parts of Lebanon early Friday, Lebanese media reported.

Air strikes on the capital's southern suburbs began just before 1:00 a.m. local time, causing several huge explosions. On Thursday, Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on the area warning people to leave.

Israel's war planes focused on the south-western Beirut suburb of Ouzai, making 24 pre-dawn over-flights in less than an hour, news media outlets said, followed by repeated bombing runs in the early morning hours in which one Lebanese soldier was killed and an undisclosed number of civilians wounded.

Lebanon's New TV aired footage of huge fires raging against the night sky in several locations in Ouzai, which is directly adjacent to, and lies on the western side of, Beirut's international airport. A road in the area runs parallel to one of Beirut airport's runways. The Israeli planes also targeted and destroyed four school buildings and a charitabe institution near Ouzai on the main highway linking Beirut to its international airport.

The attacks on Ouzai were the first since fighting between Hezbollah and Israel began 24 days ago. Other southern suburbs of Beirut have been the target of repeated Israeli attacks since July 12.

Israel's warplanes struck four key bridges of the expressway linking Beirut to northern Lebanon on Friday, in the worst attacks yet on the country north of Beirut, making it extremely difficult to transport vital food supplies from one part of the country to another in a worsening humanitarian crisis.

A senior defense source told Israel's Channel 1 television that Israel would destroy Lebanon's infrastructure if Hezbollah fires rockets at Tel Aviv.

Israeli jets targeted two bridges just north of Beirut at Maameltain on Friday and two further north at Madfoun and Halat, security sources and witnesses said. One jogger was killed under the bridge at Halat and sevveral ersons were wounded.

The attacks punched craters in the bridges, spraying the expressway with rubble and twisted metal and destroying several cars. They also set fire to trees on the hillsides.

Israeli jets launched three attacks near Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, Hezbollah's TV, Al-Manar and witnesses reached by telephone said.

Another air strike was launched near the Lebanese-Syrian border crossing at Masnaa, east of Beirut, the Voice of Lebanon radio said.

The Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. television station reported Israeli ships shelled the southern suburbs of Haret Hreik and al-Ruweis.

Also on Thursday, a massive wave of Hezbollah rockets pounded northern Israel in a matter of minutes, killing eight people.

With four Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon, it was the deadliest day for Israel in its two-front war.

To Israel's south, in the second front of its offensive against Islamic militants, Israel sent dozens of tanks into the Gaza Strip as aircraft fired at clusters of militants. The heavy clashes killed eight Palestinians, including an eight-year-old boy.

Despite continuing diplomatic efforts to broker a ceasefire, the Israeli army prepared to push up to Lebanon's Litani River as part of its campaign to force the guerrillas away from the border and make room for a planned international force to patrol the area.

In the 23rd day of Israel's onslaught on the ground and from the air, Hezbollah has shown surprising strength and has found its support in Lebanon - and among the larger Arab world - vastly bolstered. With calls for a ceasefire growing more intense, the prospect Hezbollah will emerge damaged but far from destroyed by the fighting appears likely.

Jordan's King Abdullah warned the fighting is causing a backlash against moderate Arab leaders and is strengthening the radicals it was intended to destroy.

"The Arab people see Hezbollah as a hero because it's fighting Israel's aggression," he said.

Fighting in the Gaza Strip, which began June 25 after Hamas-linked militants captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid, has killed a total of 175 Palestinians, the UN reported Thursday, adding it is concerned "with international attention focusing on Lebanon, the tragedy in Gaza is being forgotten."

Since the fighting started, 68 Israelis have been killed, 41 soldiers and 27 civilians. More than 300,000 Israelis have fled their homes in the north, Israeli officials said.

An Associated Press count shows at least 525 Lebanese have been killed, including 450 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 25 Lebanese soldiers and at least 50 Hezbollah guerrillas. Five of the civilians were reported dead Thursday in air strikes. Hezbollah also reported four deaths but did not say when the fighters were killed.

Despite Israel's efforts to crush Hezbollah, the guerrillas launched at least 200 rockets into northern Israel on Thursday.

At least 100 of them rained down within a half-hour period Thursday afternoon, setting cars on fire, sending Israelis fleeing into shelters and killing eight people. The barrage, which came a day after the guerrillas fired more than 230 rockets into Israel, underscored Hezbollah's continued ability to carry out unrelenting strikes.

In Maalot, three Israeli Arabs from the village Tarshiha were riding in a car when rockets started falling. They ran out of the vehicle in search of shelter and were killed by a rocket, police said.

"Hezbollah fires missiles and they don't think about anyone," Naim Naim, who was friends with one of those killed, said as he stood near a large hole stained with blood that scarred the ground.

In Acre, people came out of their shelters after an initial barrage to see where the rockets fell, when a new batch of rockets suddenly struck the town, killing three people as they stood in their garden. A fourth person was killed when a car was blown off the road onto the palm-tree lined sidewalk.

Israeli air strikes throughout the day also hit a two-storey house in Taibeh, killing a man, his wife and daughter, Lebanese security officials said.

Witnesses said at least four missiles hit the southern Beirut suburb Dahieh, a Shiite Muslim area that has been repeatedly targeted. Israeli jets also dropped leaflets over southern Beirut warning residents to evacuate three Shiite neighbourhoods, a possible prelude to more attacks.

In a televised speech broadcast Thursday night, Nasrallah, for the first time, offered to stop firing rockets into Israel if it stops its air strikes. However, he threatened to launch missiles into Israel's commercial centre Tel Aviv if Israel hit Beirut. Israel has not struck Beirut proper since the start of the war.

"Anytime you decide to stop your campaign against our cities, villages, civilians and infrastructure, we will not fire rockets on any Israeli settlement or city," he said in a taped statement broadcast on Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV.

Speaking directly to Israelis, Nasrallah said: "The only choice before you is to stop your aggression and turn to negotiations to end this folly."

Israeli officials shrugged off the offer, saying Hezbollah is on the defensive and looking for a breather.

"At the United Nations, France circulated a revised resolution calling for an immediate end to hostilities and spelling out the conditions for a permanent ceasefire and lasting solution to the crisis.

Israel, backed by the United States, has brushed off calls for an immediate ceasefire, saying it wants an international force or the Lebanese army to deploy in southern Lebanon to prevent future Hezbollah attacks on Israel.

The United Church of Canada, the largest Canadian Protestant church, asked Ottawa on Thursday to call for an immediate ceasefire.

"We deeply mourn the tragic loss of Lebanese, Israeli and Palestinian lives and lament the destruction and devastation that has caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people," Jim Sinclair, General Secretary of the church's General Council, wrote in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.