KIRYAT SHMONA - Israel reeled under an unprecedented hail of Hezbollah rockets Wednesday, a day after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert assured the nation that its three-week war in Lebanon had crippled the Shiite militia.
In the most intensive single-day barrage since the start of the offensive on July 12, more than 160 rockets rained down across Israel's north, killing at least one person and wounding another 19, two of them seriously.
A 60-year-old man riding his bicycle was killed at a kibbutz near Nahariya, six kilometers (nearly four miles) south of the border, rescue services said.
Other rockets fell across the north of the country, including the towns of Kiryat Shmona, Nahariya, Safed, Maalot, Carmiel and Acre.
Previously, the largest number of rockets fired in a single day was 156.
The barrage came a day after Olmert said the 22-day-old offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon had significantly weakened the group, which Israel says has been armed and trained by Syria and Iran.
Damascus and Tehran say they provide Hezbollah only with moral support.
"Today, the threat posed by Hezbollah is not what it was. It can no longer threaten this people, as this people have stood up to it and have come out victorious," Olmert told told graduates at a military academy late Tuesday.
"Each day that passes damages the capacities of this cruel enemy and allows our soldiers to reduce its ability to fire and attack us in the future," he said.
"No one will ever be able to threaten this nation with missiles," he said. The threat of Hezbollah "will never again be what it was."
But earlier Tuesday, Housing Minister Meir Sheetrit warned that the army, easily the strongest military force in the Middle East, would not be able to completely wipe out Hezbollah's rocket capabilities.
"This option does not exist. Neither by air strikes, nor by a military ground operation," he said. "We can't entirely destroy their capability to fire rockets."
And Wednesday morning, Hezbollah not only released a hailstorm of rockets at the Jewish state, but also managed to score its deepest hit yet into Israel.
A rocket landed near the town of Beit Shean, 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of the border, an attack that reached 10 kilometers deeper into Israel than any previous hit.
Wednesday's barrage came after a two-day lull in the salvoes -- just two rounds were fired on Monday and 13 on Tuesday. That coincided with a 48-hour lull in air strikes agreed to by the Jewish state after its raid on the Lebanese village of Qana killed 52 civilians, mostly women and children.
Hezbollah has fired more than 2,000 rockets at northern Israel since the start of the Lebanon offensive on July 12, killing 19 civilians.
08/02/2006 13:16 GMT