ISRAEL: Israel has deployed Patriot missile batteries in the northern city of Haifa to intercept rockets fired from Lebanon.

Record ID: 398043

  • Title: ISRAEL: Israel has deployed Patriot missile batteries in the northern city of Haifa to intercept rockets fired from Lebanon.
  • Date: 16th July 2006
  • Summary: (BN12) HAIFA, ISRAEL (JULY 15, 2006) (REUTERS) MEDIUM SHOT PATRIOT BATTERY DEPLOYED ON HILL; PAN ACROSS PATRIOT BATTERIES; PATRIOT AIMED AT NORTH; STREET WHERE PATRIOT BATTERY IS DEPLOYED BEHIND (5 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 31st July 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: War / Fighting
  • Reuters ID: LVA4YFK6PYC3VNMMCBJV9E3G578W
  • Story Text: Israel has deployed Patriot missile batteries in the northern city of Haifa to intercept rockets fired from Lebanon.
    The American made rockets had last been used in that area during the 1991 Gulf War, to protect against Scud missiles fired at Israel from Iraq and were also deployed as a precaution before the latest fighting in Iraq.
    The batteries were placed in Haifa, a coastal city that was hit for the first time by Hizbollah rockets on Friday (July 14, 2006).
    Israeli authorities are concerned about rockets fired from Lebanon hitting sensitive strategic sites in the Haifa area.
    Haifa had been the deepest target in Israel ever struck by Hizbollah. But on Saturday, Hizbollah fired three barrages of rockets at the Sea of Galilee town of Tiberias, which is further south than Haifa, hurting eight people.
    Four Israelis, including a five-year-old child, have been killed by the rockets since Wednesday and 300 hurt in attacks of unprecedented intensity on an unprecedented number of more than 20 towns.
    Israeli officials said three barrages of Katyusha rockets slammed into Tiberias, a town about 35 km (22 miles) from the border with Lebanon, injuring eight people and damaging two residential buildings.
    It was the fourth straight day of rocket barrages since fighting erupted after two Israeli soldiers were captured in an infiltration into Israel by Hizbollah militants, who also killed eight Israeli troops in ensuing clashes.
    Officials have ordered tens of thousands of residents into bomb shelters. Some have crammed their families and belongings into cars and headed south instead. Many streets are empty.
    Israel responded with air, naval and artillery fire on Hizbullah and Lebanese targets in Lebanon.
    Israeli army says it has hit about 150 targets in Lebanon, including a main Hizbollah office in Beirut, hit roads, bridges and petrol stations in its offensive so far. "There is a clear distinction between two camps. One is made of Hizbollah, the Hamas, the Iranians and the Syrians They are the aggressors for no good reason. They want to destroy, they don't want anyone else or less. The real victim right now are the Lebanese. There is not a a slightest conflict between Lebanon as a state and the Lebanese as a people," Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres said.
    The Israeli onslaught is the fiercest since a 17-day blitz on Hizbollah strongholds in the south in 1996.
    The Israeli army said on Saturday it had hit about 150 targets in Lebanon since the start of the offensive, with only less than a dozen linked directly to Hizbollah.
    Israel's aerial assault on Lebanon has drawn mounting world criticism but the White House said U.S. President George W. Bush would not press Israel halt its military operation.
    Hundreds of Israeli-Arabs, Palestinians who have Israeli citizenship, marched in the city of Nazareth on Saturday calling for an end to the Israeli aggression on Lebanon and the Palestinians.
    In Nazareth, demonstrators carried signs reading: 'Down with the criminal aggression on both the Palestinians and the lebanese,' and 'All of us are with Syria and its stance against the American - Zionist aggression.'
    The demonstrators called for an end to military escalation and voiced their support for Lebanon, Palestinians and Syria in the face of what they described as an American-zionist aggression.
    Israel killed at least 32 Lebanese civilians on Saturday, including 15 children, in air strikes meant to punish Lebanon for letting Hizbollah guerrillas menace the Jewish state's northern border.
    Israel's bombing of Lebanese roads, bridges, ports and airports, as well as Hizbollah targets, is its most destructive onslaught since a 1982 invasion to expel Palestinian forces.
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