Up to half of northern Israel evacuated -report

JERUSALEM, July 23 (Reuters) Israeli officials estimate that between one third to a half of all residents in the country's north have fled to escape Hizbollah rocket attacks, the Haaretz newspaper reported today.

''For a week people have been sitting in shelters and security rooms, so they prefer to leave,'' said Adi Eldar, mayor of the town of Carmiel in a report on the newspaper's Web site www.haaretz.com.

He estimated that a third of all residents in the north had left since the war with Hizbollah erupted and the group began to fire barrages of rockets from Lebanon.

Haim Barbibai, mayor of Kiryat Shmona, not far from the Lebanese border, said half his town's residents had left. Officials in Nahariya, which has been hit repeatedly by rockets, also said half the town's residents were gone.

More than one million people live in northern Israel.

Many roads are largely empty of traffic. Those who have remained stay in bomb shelters or basements as rockets keep raining down despite waves of Israeli air strikes and now limited ground operations inside Lebanon.

The army estimates more than 1,100 rockets have hit northern Israel. The barrages have killed 15 Israeli civilians. Twenty Israeli soldiers have also been killed in the conflict.

Israel's offensive has killed 358 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians. It was launched when Hizbollah seized two soldiers and killed eight others in a cross-border raid on July 12.

REUTERS KR VV1420