July 15 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli warplanes struck Lebanon dozens of times today, killing at least 20 people as they hit bridges and ports, and Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel. An Israeli minister said he expects the situation to deteriorate.

Israeli air strikes hit four Lebanese ports, as well as power stations, gas stations and bridges, Lebanese police said. The Israeli army said it hit Hezbollah's headquarters in southern Beirut, bridges on Lebanon's border with Syria, and unspecified targets along the coast.

A Lebanese police official said at least 84 people, most of them civilians, had been killed in Israeli air strikes since July 12 in violence sparked by the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, a Shiite fundamentalist group.

Thirteen Israelis have died, including nine soldiers, according to the Israeli army. Another three navy personnel are missing after a radar-guided missile hit their gunboat. Twelve Hezbollah rockets hit the Israeli city of Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee for the first time since the start of the conflict, wounding 54.

``The fighting isn't yet at its peak,'' Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon, said on Israel Army Radio from his home in the north. ``We must be ready for a long battle,'' Major General Gadi Eisenkot, head of the army's operational branch, said at a Tel Aviv press conference broadcast on Israel Army Radio.

`Anti-American Front'

Hezbollah, regarded as a terrorist organization by the U.S., is supported by Iran and Syria. The violence has sent the price of crude oil to a record high and contributed to declines in U.S. and European stock markets.

``This is the anti-American front that includes Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah against America and Israel,'' analyst Nadim Shehadi of Chatham House, a London foreign-policy institute, said of the fighting in a phone interview. Shehadi said the present conflict may escalate into regional war.

The bridges along the Lebanese border with Syria were struck in part to send a message to Syria, Simhon said. ``Syria is responsible for what happens in Lebanon,'' he said.

At least 15 civilians died today when an Israeli air strike hit in a van in the southern Lebanese town of Mirwaheen, Lebanese police said. The Israeli army said it was targeting a missile launching area and regretted any civilian casualties. Eight more Lebanese were killed when a taxi in eastern Lebanon was hit, and three others died in an earlier Israeli strike, al-Arabiya television said.

Iranian Missile

One Israeli sailor was killed in the missile attack on the gunboat last night and three are missing, an Israeli army spokeswoman said, speaking anonymously in accordance with military regulations.

A laser-guided Iranian missile struck the vessel, Brigadier General Noam Faig of the navy said at the Tel Aviv press conference. ``We see unequivocal involvement in the supplying of this missile by Iran,'' he said.

World leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac, have called for Israel to exercise restraint and scale back its response to Hezbollah's rocket attacks on Israel and the capture of Israeli soldiers.

``It is absolutely unacceptable to try to reach political goals through the use of force,'' Putin said at a press conference in St. Petersburg, Russia. ``Bloodshed should stop as soon as possible.''

Siniora

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called for an immediate United Nations-backed cease-fire, in a televised press conference. He said Israel was seeking to punish all Lebanese people.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said afterwards that ``had Siniora acted to implement his responsibilities under the UN Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1680 and moved to disarm the Hezbollah, we would not be in the crisis we are today.'' The solution to the current situation, he said, ``is for the full implementation of these resolutions.''

Hezbollah's militia continues to operate in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, almost two years after the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution asking for the disbanding and disarmament of the force and for Lebanon to extend its control over the entire country.

The Shiite Muslim group combines military elements with political influence: almost a fifth of Lebanon's legislature is made up of lawmakers from Hezbollah.

Bush

``The best way to stop the violence is for Hezbollah is to lay down its arms,'' U.S. President George W. Bush said at the press conference in St. Petersburg. He called on Syria ``to exert influence'' over Hezbollah.

The U.S. State Department told American citizens in Lebanon late yesterday that plans were being made to help them leave the country.

Crude oil for August delivery rose 33 cents, or 0.4 percent, to close at a record $77.03 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday as concern grew that the fighting could broaden. The Middle East is the source of 30 percent of the world's oil.

Most Middle East stock markets except for Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are closed today. Lebanon's BLOM Index lost 3.1 percent yesterday, after tumbling 10 percent on July 13 in its steepest drop since the measure was created in 1996. Israeli stocks posted their biggest two-day slump since 2000 on July 13.

Palestinians

Israel hasn't launched a full-scale military attack on Lebanon or Hezbollah since it pulled its troops out of a swathe of southern Lebanon held for 18 years until May 2000.

The conflict began when Hezbollah carried out a raid across the border, attacking an Israeli military unit and taking two soldiers captive while killing three others. A third soldier was captured by the Islamic Hamas group in a cross-border attack into Israel from the Gaza Strip on June 25.

Israel continues to fight armed Palestinian gunmen in a bid to stop rocket fire on Israel from Gaza and win the release of the third soldier. The Gaza confrontation is its first with Hamas, which won Palestinian parliamentary elections in January. Hamas, called a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Europe, refuses to recognize Israel or any previous peace agreements.

The army said Israeli aircraft struck the Palestinian finance ministry, a weapons storehouse and a bridge in central Gaza today. Palestinian hospital and security officials reported two dead.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net Dania Saadi in Cairo at at dsaadi2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 15, 2006 14:14 EDT