ISRAEL: A rocket launched from Lebanon has hit northern Israel, landing in a house yard and wounding three people

Record ID: 397140

  • Title: ISRAEL: A rocket launched from Lebanon has hit northern Israel, landing in a house yard and wounding three people
  • Date: 21st February 2009
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) LOCAL COUNCIL HEAD, FATHI ASHRAF, SAYING: "A few minutes before 08:00 (AM local) we heard a very loud noise, I though it was lightening because tonight the weather was stormy, but at 08:20 it became obvious by security officers that a Katyusha had fallen next to the house that I am standing in."
  • Embargoed: 8th March 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: War / Fighting,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA9IX4XH5FF895032OFVHC3FGCE
  • Story Text: At least one rocket fired from Lebanon landed in northern Israel on Saturday (February 21), lightly wounding three people and prompting Israel to respond with a brief artillery barrage, the Israeli army said.
    The rocket landed in a house yard, causing damage to the building.
    "I heard something, that made a "boom"...I found them all in the house crying and bleeding," a family friend who was on the scene of the attack told Reuters.
    "There were..three injured people, not from the shrapnel but from glass and from shock," local council head, Fathi Ashraf told reporters.
    "We heard a very loud noise, I though it was lightening because tonight the weather was stormy, but at 08:20 it became obvious by security officers that a Katyusha had fallen next to the house that I am standing in," he added.
    In Beirut, a security source, asking not to be identified, said three rockets had been fired from the area of Mansouri, south of Tyre, and that Israel had responded by firing at least six artillery shells into southern Lebanon. No one was wounded.
    The source said another rocket landed in the village of Nakoura along the Mediterranean coast close to the Israeli border and site of the headquarters for the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.
    There was no immediate claim of responsibility by any group.
    The Lebanese army said it found two wooden rocket launchers in the Qleileh-Mansouri area, south of the coastal city Tyre.
    The Israeli army said it responded with artillery fire because of the rocket attack.
    A statement from Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's office said Lebanon was committed to maintaining a ceasefire agreement with Israel, that it threatened the area's stability but condemned Israel's artillery fire.
    The last rockets launched from Lebanon into Israel were fired on Jan. 8 when a Palestinian group said it had attacked Israel in response to the offensive in Gaza.
    Some 1,300 Palestinians and 14 Israelis were killed in the 22-day Gaza operation that ended in a ceasefire on January 18.
    A spokesman for the Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulance service said the three wounded were lightly injured and had been taken to hospital.
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