Israel's meaning of "war"

Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid Wednesday, and dozens of Israeli troops crossed the frontier with warplanes, tanks and gunboats to hunt for the captives. Three Israeli soldiers also were killed in the raid.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said the two captured soldiers were "in a safe and very distant place." He said he would not release them except as part of a prisoner swap.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the soldiers' capture "an act of war," and his Cabinet prepared to approve more military action in Lebanon — a second front in the fight against Islamic militants by Israel, which already is waging an operation to free a captured soldier in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli jets struck deep into southern Lebanon, blasting bridges and Hezbollah positions and killing two civilians, Lebanese security officials said...

Israel dropped a quarter-ton bomb on a home in the Gaza Strip before dawn to try to assassinate top Hamas fugitives, escalating its two-week offensive in the Gaza Strip aimed at freeing a soldier seized by fighters linked to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The blast killed nine members of a Palestinian family — including a 4-year-old boy. The head of Hamas' military wing was wounded but escaped, Israel said....