A Lebanese soldier today inspects damage on a bridge that was destroyed after Israeli warplanes targeted it overnight in the town of Damour, south of Beirut, Lebanon. Israeli forces intensified their attacks in Lebanon today, with airstrikes that blasted the country's only international airport and the Hezbollah TV station.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Israel intensified its attacks against Lebanon today, blasting Beirut's international airport and the southern part of the country in its heaviest air campaign against its neighbor in 24 years. Nearly three dozen civilians were killed, officials said.

The strikes on the airport, which damaged three runways, came hours before Israel imposed an air and naval blockade on Lebanon to cut off supply routes to militants.

The shockwaves from the fighting began to be felt a day after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. The escalation of violence in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices to a new intraday record of $75.88 a barrel. Western countries, Russia and the United Nations called for restraint and demanded the soldiers be released.

Israel said it was seeking to end once and for all Hezbollah's presence on Lebanon's southern border, while the guerrillas insisted they would only release the soldiers in exchange for Israel freeing Arab prisoners.

In a stark warning, the Israeli army chief said today that Israel's air force is prepared to strike anywhere in Lebanon, including the capital of Beirut, if the Lebanese government fails to rein in Hezbollah guerrillas.

"We are not at war, but we are in a very high volume crisis, and we have an intention to put an end to the situation here along the northern border," Brig. Gen. Dan Halutz said in Jerusalem.

The airport, in the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, was closed after the attacks and flights were diverted to nearby Cyprus.

Israel also fired a missile at the building housing the studios of Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV in the southern suburbs of Beirut this morning, the channel's press officer Ibrahim Farhat told The Associated Press. One person was hurt, but the station continued to broadcast.

Later in the day, Lebanese guerrillas fired volleys of rockets at northern Israel, killing an Israeli woman in her home in the border town of Nahariya, officials said.

Eight Israeli soldiers and three Lebanese were killed in fighting Wednesday.

Today, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the offensive in Lebanon has far-reaching objectives, including pushing militants away from the Israeli border.

"We must neutralize the hostile terrorist infrastructure that exists in Lebanon," he said.