Nine people killed in Katyusha attack on Haifa
Nine people were killed this morning in a Katyusha attack launched by Hezbullah on Haifa. More than thirty people were wounded.This morning, Hizbullah terrorists fired approximately 10-15 Katyushas at the north, hitting Haifa, Acre, Kiryat Haim, Naharayim, Kibbutz Sa'ar, Kfar Maimon and Nahariya.
Police and medical teams reported that nine people were killed and around 30 people were physically wounded, including one seriously and one moderately, in Haifa.
The nine were killed when a rocket hit a storage room at the Haifa train station, which is located at the bottom of the city (Haifa sits on a mountaintop). HaAretz is reporting that the train station storage room is next to an Israel Electric Company 'facility.' Israel Railways has halted service north of Binyamina.
The Haifa victims were taken to Rambam hospital in Haifa. [Haifa Municipality emergency hotline: 1212-466-106]
Two salvos of rockets also hit Ahuza, a central residential and business district of Haifa, and Nahariya, the town on the coast near the Lebanese border. A rocket also struck Kiryat Haim, a small town on the outskirts of Haifa, Channel 2 television reported.
Channel 10 television reports that rockets also hit the Checkpost business district on the Haifa-Nahyaria highway.
A subsequent attack hit a major street in Haifa, causing further casualties, police said. (The home front command rarely releases precise locations so as not to aid Hezbullah in aiming rockets. The same procedure was followed when Iraq shot scuds here in 1991).
Hezbollah's television station, Al-Manar, reported that rockets hit the oil refineries in Haifa Bay. I have not seen any confirmation of that claim in Israel. YNet reports that al-Manar is broadcasting Israel Television's live pictures of the devastation.
"After the enemy continued all night their destructive shelling of [Beirut's] outhern suburb and other areas... the resistance movement fired dozens of rockets on Haifa," the TV station said, reading a statement from the terrorist group.
"The Islamic resistance at 9:45 [local time] rained again on Haifa with a new salvo of Raad-2 and Raad-3 rockets," it said.
Hezbollah also warned that if the Israel Air Force continues its strikes on Beirut, it would target the petrochemical plants in Haifa.
You may recall that on Thursday, Hezbullah denied firing rockets at Haifa. They are not denying it this time.
The Home Front Command has ordered residents of Haifa, Acre and Nesher into bomb shelters. In addition, all residents north of the Haifa-Tiberias line should stay close to secure areas.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:24 AM
3 Comments:
*feels sick and nervous for my cousins in Haifa*
:-(
Miss R,
Do you know where they live? It's daytime here now - perhaps a phone call? (Although my guess is that unless you have a cell phone number, i.e. one which starts with 0119725, you will not be able to reach them).
Carl,
I found out they are safe. *whew*
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