Nahariya, Israel: Hezbollah fighters fired barrages of rockets into nearly 20 towns across northern Israel on Thursday, killing one civilian and wounding 42 others in their heaviest bombardment in a decade.
Officials ordered tens of thousands of residents into bomb shelters and basements as tensions escalated with Lebanon, a day after Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in cross-border attacks.
Israel earlier struck Beirut airport and began enforcing a naval blockade of Lebanon, intensifying its reprisals. Israel's attacks have killed 53 Lebanese civilians.
Police said some 85 rockets had landed in northern Israel. Nearly 20 towns and villages had been bit, Israeli media said.
One 40-year-old woman in the coastal city of Nahariya was sipping coffee on the balcony of her apartment complex when rockets started falling.
"It was a straight hit. She died on the spot," said neighbour Danny Pinkus, 27, peering up at what remains of the charred balcony five floors up.
"If there is another one [attack], maybe I'll move to Tel Aviv."
Medics said 27 people including children were also wounded in Nahariya, 10 km south of the Lebanese border.
Seven rockets also hit the town of Safed, wounding 11 people, two seriously, medics said.
Nahariya Mayor Jackie Sabag said his city was shut down. Thousands sought safer ground in the south with mixed results.
Shimon Shecter, a 43-year-old construction worker, said he was sitting in his car at a traffic light on the road out of Nahariya when a rocket struck near his vehicle.
"I heard a big whoosh. There was a huge explosion and I saw dark in my eyes," Shecter, who suffered shrapnel wounds to his face, said from his bed at the Western Galilee border hospital.
The hospital had moved many patients to underground bunkers to protect them from rockets, two of which hit the hospital's outer fence, said spokeswoman Judith Jochnowitz.
