Updated: 50 minutes ago
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah rocket attacks killed at least eight people in Israel’s third largest city as waves of warplanes bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs for hours early Sunday.

There seemed to be little possibility of a let-up on Sunday as a top Israeli general warned residents of south Lebanon to evacuate the area in the coming hours ahead of an imminent Israeli attack.

A barrage of rockets pounded the northern Israeli city of Haifa in the worst strike on Israel since violence broke out along the border with Lebanon last week. One of the rockets hit a storage room at the train station, killing eight people, Israeli police said. Many more people were wounded.

Some of the rockets landed near an oil refinery and gas storage tanks. Rockets also hit the northern towns of Acco and Nahariya, and residents were told to head to bomb shelters.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that there would be "far-reaching consequences" for the attack.

"Nothing will deter us," he said at the beginning of his government's weekly Cabinet meeting.

"There will be far-reaching consequences in our relations on the northern border and in the area in general." Olmert also said that Israel's offensive in Lebanon does not intend to harm Lebanese civilians.

Refineries a target
Hezbollah said on its TV station that it fired dozens of rockets at Haifa and targeted the refinery “after the enemy continued all night their destructive shelling” of Beirut’s southern suburbs and other areas.

Hours later, the guerrillas launched a new onslaught of rockets at the citaiy of Haifa and other communities across northern Israel, causing more injuries, authorities said. The rockets hit Kiryat Motzkim and Kiryat Haim, north of Haifa.

In a statement read later on its TV station Al-Manar, Hezbollah said its military wing fired rockets on the port city but deliberately avoided hitting the petrochemical installations.

"The Islamic Resistance warns the Zionist of committing any new folly because it (Hezbollah) deliberately avoided the petrochemical installations," said the statement. "But next time, it (Hezbollah) will not spare anything in Haifa and its surroundings."

It was the second time Hezbollah rockets hit Haifa. Israel responded to the first strike Thursday by stepping up its airstrikes in Lebanon, which it began last week after Hezbollah militants captured two soldiers in a cross-border raid.

Syria vows harsh response
About 18 powerful explosions rocked southern Beirut —where Hezbollah is headquartered — for more than two hours after midnight Sunday. A day earlier, the Israeli air force hit strongholds of the Hezbollah Shiite Muslim guerrilla group, bombed central Beirut for the first time, and pounded seaports and a key bridge.

Israeli jets could be heard over the city Sunday, much of it darkened because airstrikes have knocked out power stations and the fuel depots feeding them. Warplanes bombed the major Jiyeh power station about 12 miles south of Beirut on Sunday.

Hezbollah’s TV aired footage showing two long columns of smoke rising from buildings into the night sky. Much of Shiite-populated southern Beirut was deserted, its residents having fled east to Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

Syria's government on Sunday promised Israel a firm and immediate retaliation for any possible Israeli attack on its territory.

"Any aggression against Syria will be met with a firm and direct response whose timing and methods are unlimited," Syria's official news agency quoted Information Minister Mohsen Bilal as saying.


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Israel has accused Syria and Iran of supporting Hezbollah, whose guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers Wednesday -- sparking a 5-day Israeli assault on Lebanon. Hezbollah has been firing rockets on Israeli towns, as Israeli airstrikes pound Lebanon's roads, airport and seaports -- as well as guerrilla strongholds in south Beirut.

On Saturday, Lebanon’s prime minister indicated he might send his army to take control of southern Lebanon from Hezbollah — a move that might risk civil war.

In a more ominous sign that the struggle could spread, Israel accused Iran of helping fire a missile that damaged an Israeli warship, a charge both Hezbollah and Iran denied.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, fired barrages of rockets ever deeper into Israel, and Israeli officials warned that Tel Aviv, 70 miles inside Israel, could be hit. A spokesman warned residents between Tel Aviv and Haifa to be ready to find shelter if a siren is heard.

The death toll in the four-day-old conflict rose above 100 in Lebanon, and stood at 24 in Israel. Hezbollah denied Israeli media reports that its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, was hurt in an airstrike Sunday, the Al-Jazeera television said.