Hezbollah in Deadly Rocket Attack

07/08/2006| IslamWeb

Israel is pressing on with its bombardment and ground offensive in Lebanon as Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets at its northern towns.

The attacks on Sunday, the 26th day of the Israeli offensive, left 13 civilians and a Palestinian fighter dead.

And in Israel at least 15 people have been killed in Hezbollah's deadliest rocket attack so far since fighting began on July 12.

Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets at towns across northern Israel, including one rocket which landed near the entrance to the communal farm of Kfar Giladi.

Israeli Channel Two television reported that 12 army reservists were among the dead.

Three people were killed and more than 40 wounded in heavy rocket fire from Lebanon on Israel's third largest city of Haifa.

The mayor of Kiryat Shmona, Haim Barvivai, said other rockets landed around the Israeli border town damaging a synagogue and starting a series of fires.

Forty-eight Israelis have been killed in rocket attacks on the north of the country.

UN truck near-hit

Also on Sunday, an Israeli warplane also fired a rocket at a truck close to a United Nations humanitarian convoy in Lebanon, killing at least one person and wounding another, a UN official and witnesses said.

The strike drew a swift reaction from the UN, which has complained along with other aid groups that Israel's artillery and aerial bombardments as well as a naval blockade are preventing them from helping many of the 800,000 to 1 million people displaced by the war.

"A truck on the opposite side of the road of the UN convoy was heading to Beirut. When it was about 40 metres (yards) away from the convoy, it was hit, apparently by a rocket," said UN spokesman for Lebanon Khaled Mansour.

"We are investigating the matter. It's a cause for deep concern that it was so close to a convoy whose details were conveyed to the warring factions."

A witness at the hospital said two people died in the attack.

Hezbollah attacks

Hezbollah said it had also attacked Israeli forces in south Lebanon on Sunday, inflicting several casualties. There was no immediate word from the army on Israeli casualties in the fighting.   

Hezbollah fighters targeted Israeli military vehicles in Wadi Honeen on the border and an armoured Israeli unit trying to advance towards Adayseh village, killing or wounding several soldiers, the group said.

Two tanks and two bulldozers were reportedly destroyed. Israeli troops trying to advance north near Biyada village were also attacked and two tanks damaged, it said.   

Eight civilians were killed as Israel continued air strikes across south Lebanon, security sources and witnesses said. Artillery on the Israeli side of the border pounded towns and villages.

Five died when Israeli aircraft bombed a house in the southern Lebanese village of Ansar and three were killed in Naqoura, on the Mediterranean coast side of Lebanon's border with Israel.

Lebanon says more than 900 people, mostly civilians, have been killed by Israeli attacks.

Meanwhile, Israel said that one of the Hezbollah fighters involved in the raid during which two soldiers were captured has been seized in Lebanon.

"We can confirm that one of the Hezbollah we have captured and interrogated was involved in the kidnapping of our soldiers," an army spokeswoman said.

The raid led to Israel's offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Israel said it seized several Hezbollah members during a raid on the town of Baalbek last week. Hezbollah denied those taken were part of the group.

PHOTO CAPTION

Israeli army reservists died in a rocket attack on Kfar Giladi. (Al-Jazeera)