Israel Matzav

Update on rocket fire

Rocket fire into Israel continues this afternoon.

A man has been seriously wounded in Akko (Acre) after being hit by a rocket. Two houses in Kiryat Shmona took direct hits today, but fortunately only two people were lightly injured by shrapnel. Earlier today, two people were killed in Haifa and a home in Nesher - near Haifa - took a direct hit. The following is from YNet's report:

Avi Feldheim, who works in Akko, told Ynet: "I heard a siren followed by two blasts. I saw smoke in one of the places in the city. Now the smoke has ascended, apparently a fire hasn't started there."

The siren was heard at around 3 p.m. across Haifa, the surrounding areas, Hatzor, Rosh Pina, Safed and Akko. Police reported that no rockets hit Haifa and the surrounding areas. Residents were called to enter reinforced rooms. [All apartments built in Israel after the 1991 Gulf War have what is called a "sealed room." It has reinforced walls and can be hermetically sealed in the event of a chemical weapons attack. In areas where there are sealed rooms, there are no bomb shelters - we are expected to enter our sealed room. In our house, one of the children's bedrooms is the sealed room. But when we were told to prepare a sealed room for the US invasion of Iraq three years ago, we actually prepared a second sealed room: the master bedroom. It has the advantage of having an attached master bathroom. The children's bedroom does not have a bathroom. CiJ].

On Sunday morning, two people were killed and 17 were wounded after rockets hit several places in Haifa. From the onset of the fighting in the north, 12 days ago, 37 Israelis have been killed.

The rocket that hit the Ramot Yitzhak neighborhood in the Nesher suburb of Haifa penetrated directly into Zohar Bernstein's living room, and created a huge hole in the middle of her home. The hit caused structural damage to the apartment and caused the windows to break.

"We were in an inner room," Zohar said. "We purposely weren't in the fortified room, because it is actually on the outer side of the apartment. Thankfully, I wasn't injured. My son and I were in the apartment, but we got out without injuries. I didn't understand at first that the rocket had hit my home directly."

Bernstein was scared and upset and, in response to the question of whether he would remain in his home, he said: "Apparently not."

The apartment itself was completely wrecked. A security official who arrived at the apartment removed part of the rocket from the living room.

Read the whole thing.

According to another YNet report, the two people killed this morning were one driving a car and one in a carpentry shop. Both were in Haifa.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:09 PM