ISRAEL: Rockets fired at northern Israel send residents scampering to bomb shelters, no casualties reported

Record ID: 353924

  • Title: ISRAEL: Rockets fired at northern Israel send residents scampering to bomb shelters, no casualties reported
  • Date: 22nd August 2013
  • Summary: GESHER HAZIV, ISRAEL (AUGUST 22, 2013) (REUTERS) ARMY TRUCK DAMAGED CAR DEBRIS ON GROUND SOLDIERS STANDING ON ROAD VARIOUS OF SHATTERED GLASS SCATTERED ON BED AND PILLOWS PEOPLE ON STREET, VIEWED FROM BROKEN WINDOW DAMAGED CAR (SOUNDBITE) (English) RESIDENT OF GESHER HAZIV, GALIA, SAYING: "I felt really nervous. It was really close to my house. I heard windows broken." V
  • Embargoed: 6th September 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA72SOJXARVI8O3OQLOAO2R7KA6
  • Story Text: Several rockets were fired at Israel from southern Lebanon on Thursday (August 22), but one was intercepted by an anti-missile shield and two or three others fell outside Israeli territory, the Israeli military said.
    Israel blamed the attack - launched from area that serves as a stronghold for Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group - on a "global jihadi organisation", its term for al Qaeda and other Islamist militant offshoots.
    There were no reports of casualties, but a Reuters cameraman saw one car damaged by remnants of the rocket that was shot down, and shattered glass inside a house near the explosion site.
    Residents in Gesher Haziv said they got nervous when they heard the explosion, and ran quickly to the bomb shelter.
    "I felt really nervous. It was really close to my house. I heard windows broken," resident Galia said.
    "We were very terrified because we have two little children in our house. And even (if) we're really used to it because it happens to us a lot here in Gesher Haziv, it was very very terrifying," a mother, Annat Carmel, said.
    Bomb detonating units scoured the explosion site, where residents spilled onto the street, with some taking photos near the rocket debris.
    "We were sitting in in my house, we were watching television and all of a sudden we heard a boom. Very loud. All the windows in my room broke, and afterward we went into the bomb shelter and after almost a minute, the sirens started. Then we tried to find my dad, and all sorts of people, the police," a boy, Liav, said.
    The Israeli military regarded the explosions as a one-time incident, Israeli Defense Forces chief spokesman Yoav Mordechai told local television, looking to play down the attack.
    It was the first such incident since May. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday's rocket fire and the Israeli army said it had not shot back across the border.
    Hezbollah, a Shi'ite Muslim movement, fought a war in 2006 against Israel. It is now heavily engaged in the civil war in neighbouring Syria, battling alongside President Bashar al-Assad's forces against mainly Sunni Muslims, including Al Qaeda loyalists.
    The Israeli military said initial information showed that three or four rockets were launched, and that the "Iron Dome" anti-missile system had destroyed one of them between the Israeli coastal towns of Acre and Nahariya.
    Israeli leaders have voiced concern that jihadi militants in Syria could eventually turn their guns against Israel, or that Hezbollah might fire into Israel to deflect criticism from much of the Sunni Arab world for its potent support for Assad.
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