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An Israeli man is rushed into an ambulance after a rocket attack fired by Hezbollah guerrillas from neighboring Lebanon hit the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners August 2, 2006 |
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Hezbollah terrorists on Wednesday fired a barrage of more than 227 rockets at towns across northern Israel, killing an Israeli riding a bicycle and hitting further south than ever before. A stray rocket struck the West Bank for the first time.
As air raid sirens wailed, rockets shrieked across the border leaving trails in the air and smashing into cities and towns destroying buildings and setting fires.
Rockets hit the cities of Tiberias, Maalot, Kiryat Shmona, Carmiel, Rosh Pina and Safed, said police spokesman Avi Zelba.
By afternoon, more than 150 rockets had rained down on northern Israel, killing one man and wounding 21 others, police said.
A 52-year-old Israeli man riding his bike near the Israeli border town of Nahariya was killed by a rocket, medics said. It brought the Israeli death toll in three weeks of fighting to 55. Nineteen of those killed were civilians.
Seventeen people were wounded in Wednesday's rocket attacks, said Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman said.
Warning sirens blared in Nahariya, Acre, Tiberias, Haifa, Hatzor, Kiryat Shmona and Safed, followed by rocket landings. A rocket scored a direct hit on a house in Acre. However, the family had already taken cover inside a shelter and so were unharmed.
A house in Kiryat Shmona was also damaged by a rocket but its inhabitants were unscathed. An empty house in Tiberias was hit, as well.
Earlier Wednesday morning, two rockets landed in open areas near Safed, five landed near Rosh Pina, and another five landed near Ma'alot, Army Radio reported.
Throughout the past three weeks, Hezbollah has fired more than 100 rockets every day. The highest previous total was 157 earlier this week. Wednesday's total exceeded that by nearly 50%.
Rockets landed near the northern Israeli village of Beit Hillel just before Israel's army chief, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, briefed reporters there. A ridge hit by a rocket burned behind Halutz.
However, Halutz said Israel has dealt the terror group a damaging blow, including killing hundreds of guerrillas and hitting their supplies of medium and long-range rockets. Having significantly increased its ground operation in south Lebanon on Tuesday, Halutz said the army would also consider renewing its air strikes deep in Lebanon, including in Beirut.
"We will need to evaluate the air strikes in the depth of Lebanon, especially in Beirut," Halutz said. "I assume, the matter will come up for authorization in the next day or two."
Hezbollah's rockets landed near the Israeli town of Beit Shean, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from the border. In the West Bank, the rockets landed near the town of Jenin, between the villages of Fakua and Jalboun, leaving a 2-meter (6.6 feet) crater, but causing no casualties.
Palestinians have staged daily support marches for Hezbollah. The guerrilla group is popular in the West Bank and Gaza because of Israel's apparent difficulties in subduing the group.
"We know that they did not intend to strike Palestinian territory. They intended to strike Israel," said Fahmi Zarer, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party. "It was only a technical problem that made this rocket land here in the Palestinian territories."
Lebanese security officials said Hezbollah terrorists fired more than 300 rockets into northern Israel on Wednesday. An Associated Press reporter in southeastern Lebanon reported seeing about two dozen of the rockets launched from that area alone.
Hezbollah's satellite TV network, Al-Manar, reported the guerrilla group used its longer-range Khaybar 2 missiles to hit Beit Shean. Hezbollah used the same rocket last week when it targeted the Israeli town of Afula.
Yair Elkayam, a spokesman for the fire department in northern Israel, said firefighters have been dispatched to several open areas that caught fire.
Several buildings also caught fire after being hit. The blasts pockmarked walls of nearby buildings and scattered debris all around. Rescue workers could be seen leading several crying, shocked people away to nearby ambulances.
The AP contributed to this report.
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