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At least 11 dead, 13 hurt, in massive Hezbollah rocket barrage across north Israel
At least 11 people were killed Sunday afternoon and 13 wounded, four of them seriously, in a direct hit on an open area in the northern community of Kfar Giladi, as Hezbollah renewed its rocket fire against Israel with what was described as an enormous barrage.
The condition of two of the victims suffering from serious wounds deteriorated after arriving at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.
A rocket landed in Haifa, and seven more in open fields in its outlying suburbs early Sunday evening. There were no reports of injuries in any of the incidents. Another rocket landed in the Jezreel Valley. Sirens also sounded in Binyamina and Hadera.
Following the attack on Kfar Giladi Hezbollah continued shelling that same area for a prolonged period, but no additional casualties were reported.
A resident of Kfar Giladi who is on the community's security committee said that the victims did not adhere to warnings sounded ahead of the attack.
"This shouldn't have happened," he said. "We sounded the alert several minutes before the rocket hits."
"It was a direct hit on a crowd of people," Northern District Police Chief Major General Dan Ronen told Army Radio.
A nearby forest burst into flames from the barrage and huge plumes of gray smoke rose into the air.
Witnesses described the barrage of rockets as "enormous" and that it lasted more than fifteen minutes.
"I was sitting with my friends in a parking lot and got up to get a cigarette," an eye-witness told Haaretz, "I heard a big boom and came back running to see the bodies of my friends."
In a later barrage, a Kiryat Shmona home sustained a direct hit, Channel 10 reported. There was no immediate report of casualties.
Rockets that landed in the Beit Hillel community in the Upper Galilee left one person lightly wounded.
In earlier attacks Sunday, three Katyusha rockets landed in an open area near Ma'alot, two in Safed, two in open areas near Acre and one landed in the Golan Heights. No casualties were reported in these attacks.
Mother, two daughters killed in Saturday attacks
On Saturday, a woman and her two daughters were killed when their home suffered a direct hit in a Katyusha rocket strike on the Bedouin village of Arab al-Aramshe, in the Western Galilee near the northern border.
The fatalities were identified as Fadiya Juma'a, 60, and her daughters Sultana, 31, and Samira, 33. They will be laid to rest at their village's cemetery at 4.00 P.M.
Hezbollah fired 170 Katyusha rockets across northern Israel on Saturday afternoon, 130 of which landed between 4 P.M. and 5 P.M.
An Israel Defense Forces soldier sustained serious wounds when a rocket hit an army base near the northern border.
Some 40 rockets landed in Kiryat Shmona, one of which hit a factory. Some 17 rockets landed around Safed, four hit in the vicinity of Carmiel, 15 landed near Nahariya, 14 hit the Golan Heights, 19 landed in Ma'alot, four landed in Acre and one landed in Rosh Pina.
The village of Maghar, Tiberias, Ma'alot, Shlomi, and Rosh Hanikra were also hit in Saturday's barrage. Some of the rockets hit homes and damaged infrastructure.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/746936.html
A rocket landed in Haifa, and seven more in open fields in its outlying suburbs early Sunday evening. There were no reports of injuries in any of the incidents. Another rocket landed in the Jezreel Valley. Sirens also sounded in Binyamina and Hadera.
Following the attack on Kfar Giladi Hezbollah continued shelling that same area for a prolonged period, but no additional casualties were reported.
A resident of Kfar Giladi who is on the community's security committee said that the victims did not adhere to warnings sounded ahead of the attack.
"This shouldn't have happened," he said. "We sounded the alert several minutes before the rocket hits."
"It was a direct hit on a crowd of people," Northern District Police Chief Major General Dan Ronen told Army Radio.
A nearby forest burst into flames from the barrage and huge plumes of gray smoke rose into the air.
Witnesses described the barrage of rockets as "enormous" and that it lasted more than fifteen minutes.
"I was sitting with my friends in a parking lot and got up to get a cigarette," an eye-witness told Haaretz, "I heard a big boom and came back running to see the bodies of my friends."
In a later barrage, a Kiryat Shmona home sustained a direct hit, Channel 10 reported. There was no immediate report of casualties.
Rockets that landed in the Beit Hillel community in the Upper Galilee left one person lightly wounded.
In earlier attacks Sunday, three Katyusha rockets landed in an open area near Ma'alot, two in Safed, two in open areas near Acre and one landed in the Golan Heights. No casualties were reported in these attacks.
Mother, two daughters killed in Saturday attacks
On Saturday, a woman and her two daughters were killed when their home suffered a direct hit in a Katyusha rocket strike on the Bedouin village of Arab al-Aramshe, in the Western Galilee near the northern border.
The fatalities were identified as Fadiya Juma'a, 60, and her daughters Sultana, 31, and Samira, 33. They will be laid to rest at their village's cemetery at 4.00 P.M.
Hezbollah fired 170 Katyusha rockets across northern Israel on Saturday afternoon, 130 of which landed between 4 P.M. and 5 P.M.
An Israel Defense Forces soldier sustained serious wounds when a rocket hit an army base near the northern border.
Some 40 rockets landed in Kiryat Shmona, one of which hit a factory. Some 17 rockets landed around Safed, four hit in the vicinity of Carmiel, 15 landed near Nahariya, 14 hit the Golan Heights, 19 landed in Ma'alot, four landed in Acre and one landed in Rosh Pina.
The village of Maghar, Tiberias, Ma'alot, Shlomi, and Rosh Hanikra were also hit in Saturday's barrage. Some of the rockets hit homes and damaged infrastructure.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/746936.html
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The death toll in the town of Kfar Giladi is the highest suffered by the Israelis in a single attack since the conflict began almost a month ago.
The UN is discussing a draft resolution on the Lebanon crisis, demanding that Hezbollah halt all attacks and Israel stop all offensive military operations.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a quick vote was important.
If the resolution was passed soon, it should quickly end large-scale violence, she said.
But she warned that ongoing "skirmishes" could not be ruled out, and the resolution was only the first step towards lasting peace.
A senior Lebanese official said his country would reject the resolution.
Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah negotiator, said the draft ignored a Lebanese government ceasefire plan, including calls for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon.
Israel has continued raids in Lebanon, killing at least 10 people.
Israeli response
At least 15 people were injured in the Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel, some of them seriously.
Eyewitnesses said the barrage had lasted more than 15 minutes, with Kfar Giladi bearing the brunt of the fire.
The border town of Kiryat Shemona was also hit.
"The scene is very difficult, it can be described as a battlefield," Shimon Abutbul, a rescue worker at the scene of the Kfar Giladi attack, told the Associated Press news agency. "There was a lot of blood."
Hezbollah has fired more than 3,000 rockets into northern Israel since the conflict began.
Israeli artillery responded with heavy fire across the border into southern Lebanon.
Five Lebanese civilians died early on Sunday in an Israeli air raid on the village of Ansar, according to Lebanese sources.
Reports say three others were killed in an attack on the coastal town of Naquora.
Israeli jets also carried out fresh bombing raids on Beirut's southern suburbs, reportedly striking two districts in the Hezbollah stronghold area.
Israel's campaign began three weeks ago after Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers.
In other developments:
* Israel said it had detained a Hezbollah militant involved in the capture of two Israeli soldiers which triggered the crisis
* The Israeli military said two reservists had been killed in separate clashes with Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon. They were the first reservists to die in the offensive
* Israeli air strikes targeted roads in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, virtually cutting it off from the outside world
* Positions in the region held by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a pro-Syrian group, were also attacked. The group said one person had been killed.
* Three Chinese UN peacekeepers are injured in crossfire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters
* UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has held telephone conversations with US President George W Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin about how to secure maximum support for the draft UN resolution. He is also due to speak to French President Jacques Chirac
Lebanese authority
The UN draft resolution, agreed after much debate between France and the US, calls for a "full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations".
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5249972.stm
The attacks on Sunday, the 26th day of the Israeli offensive, left nine civilians and a Palestinian fighter dead and 10 other people wounded in Lebanon, police said.
And in Israel at least 10 people have been killed in Hezbollah's deadliest rocket attack so far since fighting began on July 12.
Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets at towns across northern Israel, including one rocket which landed near the entrance to the communal farm of Kfar Giladi.
Israeli Channel Two television reported that nine army reservists were among the dead.
Fourteen people were wounded, including four who are in a serious condition, rescue officials said.
The mayor of Kiryat Shmona, Haim Barvivai, said other rockets landed around the Israeli border town damaging a synagogue and starting a series of fires.
Forty-two Israelis have been killed in rocket attacks on the north of the country.
UN truck near-hit
Also on Sunday, an Israeli warplane also fired a rocket at a truck close to a United Nations humanitarian convoy in Lebanon, killing at least one person and wounding another, a UN official and witnesses said.
The strike drew a swift reaction from the UN, which has complained along with other aid groups that Israel's artillery and aerial bombardments as well as a naval blockade are preventing them from helping many of the 800,000 to 1 million people displaced by the war.
"A truck on the opposite side of the road of the UN convoy was heading to Beirut. When it was about 40 metres (yards) away from the convoy, it was hit, apparently by a rocket," said UN spokesman for Lebanon Khaled Mansour.
"We are investigating the matter. It's a cause for deep concern that it was so close to a convoy whose details were conveyed to the warring factions."
A witness at the hospital said two people died in the attack.
Hezbollah attacks
Hezbollah said it had also attacked Israeli forces in south Lebanon on Sunday, inflicting several casualties. There was no immediate word from the army on Israeli casualties in the fighting.
Hezbollah fighters targeted Israeli military vehicles in Wadi Honeen on the border and an armoured Israeli unit trying to advance towards Adayseh village, killing or wounding several soldiers, the group said.
Two tanks and two bulldozers were reportedly destroyed.
Israeli troops trying to advance north near Biyada village were also attacked and two tanks damaged, it said.
Eight civilians were killed as Israel continued air strikes across south Lebanon, security sources and witnesses said. Artillery on the Israeli side of the border pounded towns and villages.
Five died when Israeli aircraft bombed a house in the southern Lebanese village of Ansar and three were killed in Naqoura, on the Mediterranean coast side of Lebanon's border with Israel.
Lebanon says more than 900 people, mostly civilians, have been killed by Israeli attacks.
Meanwhile, Israel said that one of the Hezbollah fighters involved in the raid during which two soldiers were captured has been seized in Lebanon.
"We can confirm that one of the Hezbollah we have captured and interrogated was involved in the kidnapping of our soldiers," an army spokeswoman said.
The raid led to Israel's offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Israel said it seized several Hezbollah members during a raid on the town of Baalbek last week. Hezbollah denied those taken were part of the group.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0627BA25-B6BB-40EC-9BDA-090F4931C344.htm
Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets at towns across northern Israel on Sunday killing 11 reserve soldiers, according to reports.
The raid is the worst rocket attack on Israel since the violence began on July 12, rescue services said. Reports coming out of Israel indicate that those killed in the raid were reserve soldiers.
"It was a direct hit on a crowd of people," Dan Ronen, the chief of the northern police command, told Army Radio. One of the rockets hit the northern town of Kfar Giladi, causing many of the injuries and deaths, rescue officials said. Army Radio said a synagogue was also hit. Convoys of police and rescue vehicles raced to the town. "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.
More
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1216363.ece
Witnesses described the barrage of rockets as "enormous" and that it lasted more than fifteen minutes.
Magen David Adom ambulances rushed to site of the salvos in many areas across the north, including Kiryat Shmona and Acre.
According to Haaretz, three Katyusha rockets landed in an open area near Ma'alot, two in Safed, two in open areas near Acre and one landed in the Golan Heights. No casualties were reported in these attacks.
http://www.albawaba.com/en/news/201599