NAHARIYA - Some northern Israelis ventured cautiously back onto the streets on Monday as Hezbollah eased its barrages of rockets, but few here believed the lull would last.

"This is my first time out of the bomb shelter in nearly three weeks," said Kfer Koriyat, a 36-year-old factory worker, as he walked down the main street of this beach resort just six kilometres (four miles) from the Lebanese border.

"I'm going to my father's apartment to make sure it's all right," he said, adding that he had no doubt that Hezbollah would soon resume lobbing rockets from southern Lebanon.

Northern Israel has been hit with up to 1,900 rockets fired by the militant Shiite group that have killed 18 civilians and wounded 300 since the conflict began on July 12.

But just two missiles had landed in the Jewish state by early evening on Monday, police said.

"Normally by this time we would have had around a hundred rockets," said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

The two missiles, which he said may have been mortar shells and not rockets, caused no injuries when they landed in a field near the border town of Kiryat Shmona, which was hit by dozens of rockets the previous day.

The lull came after Israel had agreed to halt air strikes for 48 hours pending an investigation into its attack Sunday on the village of Qana, which killed at least 52 Lebanese, mainly women and children.

Despite that pledge, Israeli warplanes were back in action near a Lebanese border town, and a Lebanese soldier was killed in a gunboat attack.

Nahariya, which would normally be heaving with tourists in July, has taken about 20 hits a day since the conflict started when Hezbollah guerrillas crossed the border and abducted two Israeli soldiers.

But on Monday no rockets fell on the town and some life was starting to return to the streets even if most people chose to remain in communal bunkers or in specially built safe rooms in their homes.

Haifa, Israel's third biggest city which lies about half an hour's drive south of Nahariya, on Monday appeared almost back to normal, with most shops open and the streets full of people.

Eight people were killed in a rocket attack on the city on July 16, but in the past week Haifa has been largely spared from attacks and has slowly headed back towards normality.

But the official message to citizens of northern Israel is still the same.

"The order from the army is to stay in the bomb shelters. It has not changed," said Galia Mor, a town hall spokeswoman in Nahariya.

Of the town's 57,000 residents, local officials estimate, only about 12,000 have stayed on instead of fleeing south.

Moshe Cohen, a pensioner, is one of them. He had ventured out to withdraw money but found his bank closed.

"I'll come back tomorrow and then I'll leave for Tel Aviv," Israel's biggest city which lies beyond the range of the rockets Hezbollah has used so far, he said.

"Now it's quiet, but you never know what will happen," he added.

Kfer Koriyat agreed.

"This is just time out. It's not finished. They could start again tomorrow."

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