 |
 |
 |
|
|
12 people were killed after Hezbollah fired an enormous barrage of rockets at towns across northern Israel on Sunday. (File)
|
|
|
|
|
|
| By Israel Insider staff and partners August 6, 2006 |
|
| |
 |
| Paratrooper boots on the wall of the cemetery at Kfar Giladi (AP) |
| |
Hezbollah rockets rained down towns across northern Israel Sunday afternoon, killing 12 people -- all but one of whom were reservists -- and wounding 14 others -- 3 seriously -- in the worst rocket attack on the area since violence broke out July 12.
Belying Israeli government claims of success in taking out Hezbollah missile capability, more than 100 rockets reportedly landed in a single hour.
All the fatalities were caused by one of the rockets which landed near the entrance to the communal farm of Kfar Giladi on the northern border. Television footage showed a soldier holding his head in grief. The attack occurred at the reservists were unloading equipment from a truck, next to the cemetery of the Kibbutz.
"It was a direct hit on a crowd of people," Dan Ronen, the chief of the northern police command, told Army Radio. Ronen said the barrage was the worst in the north during the 23 days of fighting with Hezbollah.
"There are many dead from one Katyusha. One is too many," he said.
Convoys of police, military and rescue vehicles raced through the kibbutz. Soldiers ran through a field, carrying a stretcher with an injured man, wearing a bloody bandage and a respiration bag, to a waiting military helicopter. Two vehicles outside the gate were reduced to skeletons.
"The scene is very difficult it can be described as a battlefield," said Shimon Abutbul, a rescue worker who was one of the first to arrive in the area. "There was a lot of blood."
"We saw difficult scenes in the days of this fighting. This is the worst I have seen," he said, adding that the rocket hit cars among other things in the area.
Black smoke rose over the town and convoys of police and rescue vehicles raced through the kibbutz of Kfar Giladi.
According to the Jerusalem Post, rockets also landed in Nahariya and Karmiel, Rosh Pina and Safed.
On Sunday morning, at least seven rockets were fired at northern Israel on Sunday morning, causing no injuries or damage.
Two rockets struck the Golan Heights, three landed near Ma'alot, and two fell in an open area in the city of Safed.
"There are several wounded, many of them in very serious condition," Eli Bean, director of the Magen David Adom rescue service, told Israel's Channel Two.
"This was the most difficult thing I could have imagined in my career. There are nine bodies here covered in blankets, around us cars are going up in flames," Army Radio reporter Hadas Shteif reported as she choked back tears. "On one side is the cemetery, on the other side are the nine young bodies waiting for burial."
A nearby forest burst into flames from the barrage and huge plumes of gray smoke rose into the air.
Witnesses reported the barrage was going on more than 15 minutes after it had begun. One rescue service reported at least two rockets directly hit homes.
The deadly strike was the worst attack in the fighting, surpassing the eight people killed in the city of Haifa on July 16. It brought the number of Israelis killed in the fighting so far to 89.
The AP contributed to this report.
|
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
