Sunday, August 6, 2006

ISRAELIS KILLED IN ROCKET BARRAGES

KFAR GILADI, Israel (AP) - Hezbollah guerrillas fired a barrage of rockets across northern Israel Sunday, killing 10 people at a communal farm and wounding eight in the worst attack on Israel since fighting erupted July 12. One rocket landed near the entrance of the communal farm of Kfar Giladi on the border, killing all 10 victims. Channel Two television reported that nine reserve soldiers were among the dead, and television footage showed a soldier holding his head in grief.

"It was a direct hit on a crowd of people," said Dan Ronen, the chief of the northern police command Ronen told Army Radio the Katyusha barrage was the most intense in 23 days of fighting with Hezbollah.Black smoke rose over the town and convoys of police, military and rescue vehicles raced through the kibbutz. A group of people ran through a field toward a military helicopter, carrying a stretcher with an injured man wearing a bloody bandage and a respiration bag.
"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 rockets also hit cars.

A nearby forest burst into flames from the barrage and huge plumes of gray smoke rose into the air. The barrage of at least 80 rockets lasted more than 15 minutes. More rockets were fired as rescue workers tried to treat and evacuate the injured.

Rescue workers pull people from collapsed building
(JPost)

A woman and two men were killed and at least 189 people were wounded on Sunday evening when a massive barrage of rockets struck at least six sites in a crowded residential area of Haifa.

Two people who were critically wounded died of their wounds shortly after. Several others were listed in serious condition. All of the wounded were evacuated to local hospitals within some 30 minutes.

One building sustained a direct hit and collapsed, trapping dozens of people inside. Emergency workers labored to extract the victims.

The incident was defined a high-casualty event. This was the first time such a definition was applied to an attack on Israel since rockets started landing in Israel almost four weeks ago.

The rockets were seen to have been launched from Tyre.

The barrage resumed after a lull of a few hours since the first rocket attack on Sunday morning that killed twelve people.

Some 10 rockets fell in the Haifa metropolitan area as well as in the Jezreel Valley shortly before the massive evening assault, while sirens sounded throughout the North.

12 reserve soldiers killed by rockets (JPOST)
Barrage of rockets strikes gathering spot in Kfar Giladi in Upper Galilee.

No comments: