Scores of Hizbullah rockets slammed into northern Israeli towns yesterday, killing two people and wounding 70, medics and the army said.
More than a dozen missiles from Hizbullah positions in Lebanon rained on the city of Haifa, killing one man driving his car and another in a warehouse. Rockets also hit apartments, homes and an industrial zone in the city.
Factory worker Keren Hagigi, at the industrial zone, said a siren sounded just before one missile hit.
"The scenes were horrific. There were wounded people on the road and there was a wounded person in the building too. There was terrible destruction," Mr Hagigi said.
Medics said about 50 people were wounded in at least 10 other towns across northern Israel. An army spokeswoman said about 90 rockets had struck the region by early yesterday evening.
The strikes came as French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and British Foreign Office minister Kim Howells visited Haifa on diplomatic missions to try to end the crisis.
Mr Douste-Blazy had to take cover under a stairway in Haifa when sirens warning of a rocket attack sounded as he was travelling in a convoy of vehicles. His guards decided to get off the road and shelter in a residential building.
Mr Howells was forced to go to a secure room six times, a British embassy spokeswoman in Israel said.
Haj Awwad, whose brother-in-law Habib Awwad, an Israeli Arab, was killed in the warehouse, said Israel had to fight until it killed Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. "Nasrallah is a cancer. I hope they continue until the end to wipe out not only Nasrallah but all of Hizbullah," Mr Awwad said.