JERUSALEM - The Israeli air force carried out strikes Monday in southern Lebanon despite an agreement to halt raids for 48 hours after nearly 60 Lebanese civilians were killed in an Israeli bombing, the army said.

The airstrikes near the village of Taibe were meant to protect ground forces operating in the area and were not targeting anyone or anything specific, the army said.

An Israeli gunner prayers at an artillery position near the Lebanese border in northern Israel, Monday, July 31, 2006. Reacting to withering world criticism, Israel agreed to a 48-hour suspension of air strikes in Lebanon after a Sunday bombing killed at least 56 Lebanese, most of them women and children, leveling a building where they had taken shelter from earlier Israeli attacks. [AP]

Meanwhile, Hezbollah guerrillas attacked an Israeli tank in southern Lebanon, wounding three soldiers, the military said. The attack occurred near the villages of Kila and Taibe on border, where Israeli ground forces have been fighting Hezbollah guerrillas for nearly two weeks.

Israel Radio also reported that Hezbollah rockets hit the northern town of Kiryat Shemona.