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A video grab from the Israeli TV showing rescue workers looking at the damage in an Israel Railway depot in Haifa.
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OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — At least nine people were killed and up to 20 others injured in a Hizbullah rocket strike against Israel's third largest city of Haifa on Sunday, July 16.
The attack came after Israeli war planes went into action over Lebanon again before dawn on the fifth day of an intensifying assault that has killed scores of innocent civilians and left the country almost completely cut off from the outside world.
Most of the fatalities were in an Israel Railways garage located near an Israel Electric Corporation installation on Haifa Bay, said Israel's Haaretz newspaper.
Following the strike, Israel Railways announced it was halting train traffic north of Binyamina.
Two salvos of several rockets hit Ahuza, a central residential and business district of Haifa. Rockets also landed in the city of Acre and in Nahariya.
A rocket also struck the town of Kiryat Haim, located north of Haifa, said Israel Channel 2 television.
Channel 10 television reported that rockets also hit the Checkpost business district on the Haifa-Nahyaria highway.
A strategic installation on Haifa Bay was hit by another rocket, added the broadcast.
A subsequent attack hit a major street in Haifa, causing further casualties, police said.
Hizbullah further said that it fired rockets on oil refinery in Haifa.
Israel has already deployed a battery of Patriot anti-missiles missiles to Haifa, a city of more than a million people around 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Lebanese border.
More than 450 rockets have been fired into Israel since Tel Aviv unleashed an onslaught to retaliate a Hizbullah operation on Wednesday, July 12, during which two Israeli soldiers were taken prisoner and eight others were killed.
Intensifying
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A man inspects the apocalyptic scene in southern Beirut after a series of Israeli raids. (Reuters)
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Israel pursued its offensive early on Sunday, bombing southern Beirut anew, Al-Jazeera correspondent said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Sunday of "long term consequences" after the Haifa attack.
"Our government is determined to do everything necessary to reach our objectives. Nothing will prevent us," the prime minister said.
"There will be long-term consequences on the northern border and in Lebanon and in the entire region," he told the weekly cabinet meeting.
Israeli television reported Sunday that Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, who defiantly declared "open war" against Israel, had been injured in an Israeli raid.
But a Hizbullah official categorically denied the report.
"This is mere Israel propaganda."
The Israeli military also confirmed Sunday that special forces were operating on the ground in Lebanon in conjunction with air and naval forces.
"Most of our operations are led by aircraft, and our navy is also in action, but units are also waging ground operations, about which obviously I will refuse to give details," said General Gadi Eisenkraut, operations chief at central command.
Hizbullah's Al-Manar television complex and nearby buildings were targeted by Israeli strikes overnight and again in the morning of Sunday.
The station's signal twice disappeared briefly before returning.
Israel on Saturday, July 15, intensified its relentless bombardment of Lebanon, killing 38 civilians and striking targets close to the center of Beirut as fears mounted the conflict could spiral into regional war.
Eighteen civilians, including nine children, were burnt alive when an Israeli helicopter gunship hit a convoy of families fleeing an offensive that has left the country almost cut off from the outside world and waking up each day to new scenes of devastation.
The operation was extended to bombing the lighthouse, radar installations and grain silos at the port in Beirut, the first attack by Israeli forces so close to the heart of the Lebanese capital.
In an emotional televised address to the nation, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora called for an immediate ceasefire and the end to the "collective punishment" of his country.
Siniora declared Lebanon a "disaster zone" and appealed for urgent international help.
"As we were preparing for a new start in our reform and revival process, here we are again under the firing line of the Israeli raids which murder civilians, cut the links of the country, strike vital infrastructure and violate the sovereignty of the Lebanese state," he said.
"This murderous machine is killing, destroying and displacing (civilians)," said the Lebanese premier.
At least 100 people have been killed over the five-day offensive that has put Lebanon under an air and sea blockade, with wave after wave of air strikes that also shut the international airport, destroyed bridges and roads.
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