Israeli jets targeted Hezbollah strongholds in a new airstrikes early Sunday, a day after Israel's tanks and bulldozers barreled over the Lebanese border and its forces seized a village from the Hezbollah guerrilla group.

The soldiers battled militants throughout the day Saturday and raided the large village of Maroun al-Ras in several waves before finally taking control, military officials said. Tens of thousands of Lebanese fleeing north packed into the port of Sidon to escape the fighting as the United Nations warned of a growing humanitarian "disaster."

Black smoke billows in the town of Khiam, in southern Lebanon, Saturday, July 22, 2006, after Israeli air raids targeted it. Israeli air raids and artillery shelling also hit the southeast border town of Khiam, Lebanese television and witnesses reported. They also struck the southern village of Kafra, killing two people and wounding four others. [AP]

Early Sunday, large explosions shook Beirut as Israeli warplanes again pounded guerrilla targets in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital.

After sunrise, Israeli bombs hit a textile factory in the border town of al-Manara, killing one person and injuring two, mayor Ali Rahal told The Associated Press. The death brought the civilian toll in Lebanon to 373.

Missiles also leveled an agricultural compound belonging to Hezbollah in Baalbek, while strikes in hills around the town wounded at least two people, witnesses and media said.

Israel hit inside the southern city of Sidon Sunday for the first time in its campaign, destroying a religious complex linked to Hezbollah and wounding four people. More than 35,000 people streaming north from the heart of the war zone had swamped this southern port city.

The growing use of ground forces, 11 days into the fighting, signaled Israeli recognition that airstrikes alone were not enough to force Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon. But a ground offensive carries greater risks to Israel, which already has lost 18 soldiers in the recent fighting. It also threatens to exacerbate already trying conditions for Lebanese civilians in the area.

Israeli military officials have said they want to push Hezbollah beyond the Litani River, about 20 miles north of the border, with the Lebanese army deploying in the border zone. An Israeli radio station that broadcasts to southern Lebanon warned residents of 13 villages to flee north by Saturday afternoon. The villages form a corridor about 4 miles wide and 11 miles deep.

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