9.55, Mon Jul 24 2006

Two people have been killed and 15 others injured after Hezbollah rockets slammed into the northern Israeli city of Haifa. (Pic: Reuters)

Rockets hit at least two apartments, a house, an industrial zone and vehicles during the attacks.

One man was killed while driving his car while a second person died in one of the buildings.

The barrage on Haifa is part of a new wave of rockets that have slammed into northern Israel from Lebanon.

The killing comes after Israel bombed Beirut and the Lebanese port city of Sidon overnight.

At least seven blasts echoed across Beirut as jets roared over the southern suburbs.

Strikes destroyed a Shia centre in the southern port city of Sidon, wounding three people.

Twelve strikes in the eastern Bekaa Valley also destroyed three factories, a house and several bridges, starting large fires and killing at least one civilian and wounding two.

Another civilian died in a raid on a south Lebanon village.

Israel's onslaught in Lebanon to cripple Hezbollah has claimed 357 lives, mostly civilians. Hezbollah attacks and rockets have killed 35 Israelis.

Envoys from three European countries will hold talks in Israel later ahead of the arrival of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a new round of talks aimed at ending the fighting.

About 14 crowded vessels are also expected at the Cypriot ports of Larnaca and Limassol over the next 30 hours, part of a days-old mass evacuation involving dozens of countries from India to Sweden that shows no sign of slowing.