Rockets strike deep into Israel

HAIFA, Israel, July 16 (UPI) -- Hezbollah rockets soared deep into Israel Sunday night, hitting some southern targets for the first time since the current fighting began.

The Jerusalem Post said the barrage hit the Afula area, about 28 miles southeast of Haifa. The newspaper said six people suffered from shock.

Only minutes before, missiles landed in Upper Nazareth and Givat Ela, but no casualties were reported.

Fifteen Israeli troops were wounded Sunday night when a Katyusha rocket landed in western Galilee, the newspaper said.

Air strikes have killed at least 23 people in southern Lebanon, the BBC said, at least 16 in Tyre. Among the dead were five people who had dual Canadian and Lebanese citizenship.

Moving to the Gaza front, CNN reported Israeli warplanes hit the Palestinian Foreign Ministery for the second time in less than a week.

Palestinian sources and the Israeli military confirmed the strike, CNN said. There was no immediate word of casualties.

Earlier Sunday, Maj. Gen. Eliezer Shkedy, commander of the Israeli Air Force, warned his force had used only "a small proportion of its firepower," the Jerusalem Post reported.

Shkedy said Sunday Israeli warplanes had made more than 1,000 flights and attack helicopters more than 350.

He added the infrastructure of Hezbollah militants had been targeted up and down Lebanon, and sea, air and land routes around the country had been closed.

A senior intelligence official said Israeli forces had destroyed a rocket launching site pointing towards Haifa. Rockets from the site killed eight people early Sunday.

Hours after the Haifa attack, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah took to the TV airwaves and warned, "Israel doesn't know our capabilities in every level."

"If Israel thinks that our missiles cannot reach beyond Haifa and Tiberias, then it is wrong," he said.