ISRAEL: Israeli residents mull over the possibility of an attack from forces in Lebanon as international talk of Syria military strikes persists

Record ID: 397879

  • Title: ISRAEL: Israeli residents mull over the possibility of an attack from forces in Lebanon as international talk of Syria military strikes persists
  • Date: 1st September 2013
  • Summary: KIRYAT SHIMONA, ISRAEL (SEPTEMBER 01, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF KIRYAT SHIMONA, AN ISRAELI TOWN IN NORTHERN ISRAEL ON BORDER WITH LEBANON ENTRANCE TO KIRYAT SHIMONA SIGN READING IN ARABIC, ENGLISH AND HEBREW 'KIRYAT SHIMONA' VEHICLES DRIVING INSIDE TOWN VARIOUS OF BUILDINGS AT KIRYAT SHIMONA EXTERIOR OF SHELTER WAY TO SHELTER SIGN READING IN HEBREW 'SHELTER 306' DOOR OF S
  • Embargoed: 16th September 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVAE3EV9ANGULC1E678M18KP74K3
  • Story Text: Residents of Israel's northern communities have readied for possible retaliatory attacks should Western powers carry out threatened strikes on Syria.
    Facing potential attack by the United States and other Western powers over its alleged use of chemical weapons, Damascus has hinted it could shoot back at the Jewish state, its old foe.
    Israel is also braced for rocket salvoes from Hezbollah, Syria's Lebanese militia ally.
    Israelis last week stood in long lines at gas mask distribution centres in shopping malls. Israel has provided its citizens with equipment to cope with possible chemical or biological attacks since the 1991 Gulf War, when U.S.-led troops drove Iraq out of Kuwait.
    Residents of Kiryat Shimona hopes that there will not be 2006 Lebanon war scenario, when hundreds of thousands of residents of northern Israel fled their homes when rockets began slamming into their communities after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
    "There is no fear, the only fear the media creating and initiating. Everything is normal and calm. We trust the security that IDF gives us," Resident of Kiryat Shimona, Yariv told Reuters Television.
    Kiryat Shimona was hit hard during the war and one resident, Noah said that she does not want to have a difficult life in shelters.
    "We hope everything will be ok. We are close to Syria and we are close Hezbollah but Hezbollah said they won't attack we hope that it is true," Noah explained.
    Another resident of Kiryat Shimona Mirva said that northern Israel is safe place.
    "The situation in the north is good, the atmosphere is positive. People are touring the sun is shining," She said.
    Mirva added: "We are not afraid of war. Who believes doesn't not fear."
    Around 1,100 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 156 Israelis, including 116 soldiers, have been killed in the war, the highest civilian death toll since the establishment of the Jewish state.
    Many of them still recall the 34-day war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah in 2006, during which they suffered rocket attacks.
    U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday (August 31) he would ask Congress to vote on whether to launch strikes to punish the Damascus government for a poison gas attack that killed hundreds of civilians.
    The hold-up jarred Israelis who see in the Syria showdown a test of the Americans' ability to make good on a pledge to deny Iran the means to make a nuclear bomb through military force if diplomatic alternatives fail.
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