Hizbollah rockets rain on northern Israel, 2 dead

NAHARIYA, Israel, July 13 (Reuters) Hizbollah guerrillas fired barrages of rockets from Lebanon into towns and cities across northern Israel today, killing two civilians and wounding 90 others in their heaviest bombardment in a decade.

Two rockets hit the port of Haifa, Israel's third largest city, in a move Israel described as a ''major escalation''. There were no reports of any injuries. Haifa, home to 250,000 people, lies 30 km from the Lebanese border.

The dead from the attacks included a 40-year-old woman in the coastal city of Nahariya who was sipping coffee on the balcony of her apartment complex when rockets started falling.

''It was a straight hit. She died on the spot,'' said neighbour Danny Pinkus, 27, peering up at what remains of the charred balcony five floors up. ''If there is another one (attack), maybe I'll move to Tel Aviv.'' The other victim was a 45-year-old man who died of wounds sustained in an earlier attack on the town of Safed.

Officials ordered tens of thousands of residents into bomb shelters and basements along northern Israel as tensions escalated sharply a day after Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in cross-border attacks.

Israel earlier struck Beirut airport and began enforcing a naval blockade of Lebanon, intensifying its reprisals. Israel's attacks have killed 55 Lebanese civilians.

Police said more than 90 rockets had landed across northern Israel, causing panic throughout the population. Cars were damaged, windows blown out and electricity to some residents cut, officials said.

Medics said 27 people including children were also wounded in Nahariya, 10 km south of the Lebanese border.

Nahariya Mayor Jackie Sabag said his city was shut down.

Thousands sought safer ground in the south with mixed results.

WOUNDED Shimon Shecter, a 43-year-old construction worker, said he was sitting in his car at a traffic light on the road out of Nahariya when a rocket struck near his vehicle.

''I heard a big whoosh. There was a huge explosion and I saw dark in my eyes,'' Shecter, who suffered shrapnel wounds to his face, said from his bed at the Western Galilee border hospital.

The hospital had moved many patients to underground bunkers to protect them from rockets, two of which hit the hospital's outer fence, said spokeswoman Judith Jochnowitz.

Lea Kenig said she was packing up her family to try to get away when a rocket landed.

''I saw the light of an explosion and I heard a big boom,'' Kenig said as she tried to comfort her wounded two-year-old son, Ofir, at the Western Galilee Hospital.

Even though the metal shutters of her apartment were closed, a piece of shrapnel the size of a bullet sliced through and hit Ofir in the shoulder.

''The government is not doing enough'' to protect the residents of northern Israel, she said.

Israel vowed yesterday a severe response to Hizbollah's raids. The violence is the worst between Israel and Lebanon since 1996 when Israeli troops still occupied part of the south.

The Israeli army pulled out of southern Lebanon in 2000 after a 22-year occupation.

REUTERS SRS RAI0124