Fuad Siniora, the Lebanese prime minister, said more than 40 people had been killed in a "deliberate massacre."

Sources said aircraft first destroyed a house where 17 people were hiding in the Hamameer district of the village. Up to six other strikes a short time later hit four nearby houses where about 40 other people were staying.

Israeli soldiers had been fighting Hezbollah close to the border village early on Monday.

Four people were killed and 13 people wounded in a similar strike in Kfar Tibneet village. Two more civilians died in a strike in the nearby Harouf village and one when an Israeli bombardment struck his building in Ghaziye, close to Sidon.

Tyre cut off

The port city of Tyre has been completely cut off from the rest of the country by Israeli bombardments, witnesses and police said.
  
A makeshift bridge in Qasimiya, north of Tyre, and the road leading out of the city to the south, have both been bombed.
  
UN force spokesman Milos Strugar said "the provisional bridge north of Tyre, over the Litani river, and which connects the city to Sidon has been cut."
  
The temporary bridge had been built after Israeli warplanes destroyed two bridges two weeks ago.

Two Israeli raids targeted the road leading to the Masnaa border post, knocked out by previous attacks and hit again each time residents filled in the craters so as to be able to drive around, Lebanese police said.

Warplanes pounded the road between Baalbek and Rayak, linking the Baalbek region with Zahle in the centre of Lebanon, they said.

Two other raids hit the Aita al-Fukhar road linking villages in the Bekaa Valley with Syria.

The warplanes also carried out four raids on hills east of Baalbek, about 10km from the border with Syria, the police said.

The Hezbollah stronghold of southern Beirut was targeted. Four loud explosions were heard but it was unclear what had been hit.

The raids came after Hezbollah launched its deadliest rocket attack since the beginning of the conflict, killing 12 Israeli soldiers and three civilians on Sunday.