BEIRUT, July 17 (PL). — An intense day of more than 60 Israeli air and artillery attacks on Lebanese positions resulted in at least 19 people dead and 53 injured, while a mass withdrawal of foreigners has begun.

Air force attacks were aimed at damaging the capital’s infrastructure, including bridges, the port, and once again the capital’s airport and residential areas, according to eyewitnesses.

Other positions bombed in the north and south of the country included fuel deposits, radar stations and a small fishing port in Abdeh, six kilometers from the border with Syria, where at least four civilians were killed.

The intensification of the aggression led to cities such as Baalbek, in the southern Lebanese region, Tripoli in the north, and other cities suffering the impact of the shelling.

Bombardments over six days have killed more than 100 people and injured 400, according to various sources.

In the midst of the chaos today, the mass evacuation began of foreign personnel based in Lebanon, who were escaping the ferocious onslaught of the Israeli Army by air, sea and land.

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz ruled out the presence of international forces in southern Lebanon, according to Tel Aviv public radio.

Meanwhile, Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz set a two-week deadline for reaching the objective of the invasion, which began on Wednesday of last week.

As in the case of Palestine, Israel justified its disproportionate aggression against the Lebanese people after two of its soldiers were captured by Hezbollah and another eight died in clashes.

The real intentions of the escalated violence are aimed at changing the region’s political spectrum and pressuring Syria and Iran, nations that constitute a bastion against Israeli expansionism, according to experts.