A UN-run observation post near the border took a direct hit Friday during fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants. Israel resumed airstrikes on Lebanon and prepared for a possible ground invasion, warning people in the south to flee.

The Israeli army said Hezbollah rockets hit the UN post near Zarit, just inside Israel, but a UN officer said it was an artillery shell fired by the Israeli Defense Force. The facility was severely damaged, but nobody was injured as the Ghanian troops manning the post were inside bomb shelters at the time of the strike, the UN official said.

Ahmad Ali lies in a bed, with his legs amputated, as his wife reacts next to him, at a hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, July 21, 2006, after Israeli warplanes targeted the southern village of Blida a few days ago, injuring all four of his children. [AP]

Israeli warplanes also pounded Lebanon's main road link to Syria with missiles and set passenger buses on fire, police said, adding that part of Lebanon's longest bridge collapsed.

Two Apache attack helicopters collided in northern Israel near the Lebanon border early Friday, killing one air force officer and injuring three others, two seriously, Israeli officials said. Al-Jazeera reported that four soldiers were killed in the crash, but did not give a source. The commander of Israel's air force appointed an inquiry team to determine the cause.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, meanwhile, said his country was dispatching urgent aid to Lebanon by air and sea and he called for safe passage.

His comments came a day after UN Secretary-General 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.

"We are setting up a humanitarian air and sea port," Douste-Blazy told reporters during a visit to Beirut. "At the same time we demand the establishment of humanitarian corridors."

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