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Hezbollah rockets killed eight people in the Israeli city of Haifa on Sunday and bombs shook Beirut as Israel pursued a five-day-old assault in Lebanon aimed at crippling the Shiite Muslim group.

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It was Hezbollah’s deadliest rocket strike on the Jewish state and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said it would have "far-reaching" consequences for Lebanon.

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Hezbollah said the attack was retaliation for Israel's killing of civilians and destruction of Lebanese infrastructure.

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Medics said 20 people were wounded in Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, which was hit by about 20 rockets. One that hit a railway station caused most of the casualties.

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Israeli warplanes on Sunday killed at least 10 civilians and wounded scores in Lebanon's southern port city of Tyre, witnesses said. They said most of the casualties were caused by a strike on a building used by rescue workers in the city.

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Israel's campaign in Lebanon, launched after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight on Wednesday, has killed 116 people, all but four of them civilians.

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It has drawn only a mild plea for restraint from the United States, which blames Hezbollah and its allies, Syria and Iran.

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Lebanon said Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi had relayed Israeli conditions for a cease-fire.

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"Prodi told me that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert informed him of two demands for a cease-fire -- handing over the two captive Israeli soldiers and a Hizbollah pullback to behind the Litani river," a government statement quoted Prime Minister Fouad Siniora as telling the Cabinet.

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An Italian government source confirmed the demands and said Prodi was acting as a "go-between". The Litani river is around 20 km (12 miles) north of the Israeli-Lebanese border.

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European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana arrived in Beirut on Sunday and Lebanese officials said he would meet Prime Minister Fouad Siniora shortly.

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Solana, who will hold a news conference after the meeting, may also talk with the head of Lebanon 's parliament, an EU official said in Brussels .

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Bombs crashed into Beirut's Shiite southern suburbs in raids which set fire to Hezbollah’s al-Manar television complex and nearby buildings, witnesses said. The station's signal disappeared briefly several times before returning.