Israelis Take Cover From Militant Rockets

An Israeli reacts after a Hezbollah-fired rocket directly hit a building in the northern costal town of Nahariya, Thursday July 13, 2006. Rockets fired by Lebanese guerillas hit a group of journalists working in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya on Thursday, injuring at least one person. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) (Ariel Schalit - AP)

SAFED, Israel -- Hotels in northern Israel sent guests packing. Hospitals moved patients to the basement. Schools shut down. And residents of Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, were warned to stay near bomb shelters.

More than 120 Hezbollah rockets and mortars slammed into cities and towns across a wide swath of northern Israel on Thursday, triggering widespread anxiety in the usually tranquil region. Two people were killed and about 50 wounded.

After threatening to attack Haifa for the first time, Hezbollah followed through within hours, hitting the city of 270,000 with two rockets. The attack caused no injuries but may have had the deepest impact on Israelis, leaving many fearing that nowhere was safe.

"We're living in a war zone," said Herut Tamari, 66, who runs a pottery business and guest house in the border town of Metulla.

It was the heaviest barrage of northern Israel in decades. Guerrilla rockets traveled farther than before to hit regions, previously out of range, inhabited by half a million Israelis. One rocket even hit the headquarters of the Israeli army's northern command.

"I am sure the residents of the north all know that all citizens, in these difficult hours, are praying for them and worrying about them," President Moshe Katsav said during a tour of the northern town of Nahariya, which was hit repeatedly.

As Katsav walked through the town, another volley of rockets landed nearby amid a group of journalists, lightly wounding one. Katsav's security detail rushed him into a nearby building.

Safed, the home of Judaism's mystical Kabbalah sect and the center of life in the region, became a ghost town after seven Katyusha rockets hit, killing one person and wounding eight others. The last time an Israeli civilian was killed near the border was in anti-aircraft fire in August 2003.

Shops shut down and the winding cobblestone streets of the old city were deserted. The sound of rockets exploding could be heard in the background.

Broken glass covered the street in the center of Safed, a city of about 30,000. A small crowd gathered to gawk at a damaged furniture shop. An immigrants' center and a college were also hit.

The only open store in the area was a grocery whose owner, Alain Bensadoun, said the current barrage was worse than previous attacks in the 1980s. He said his niece fainted and was taken to the hospital when a rocket exploded nearby.

"I'm not scared. I'm not scared of Hezbollah or anyone. If God wants to call me, he will anyway," he said. "This is war. ... If we are not strong, it will go on forever."