| Page 3 of 4 < > |
Hezbollah Unleashes Fiery Barrage
Israeli soldiers prepare to cross the Lebanese border as part of a widening ground campaign. About six combat brigades were involved in fighting across the south, an Israeli general said.
(By Uriel Sinai -- Getty Images)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
One of the rockets fell about 30 feet away from Sgt. Arkady Milionchik, who was manning an artillery battery near Kiryat Shemona. He walked away with a few cuts on his head, a minor concussion and the piece of shrapnel that struck him, which sat by the bed where he was recovering at a nearby hospital in Tzfat. "I guess I was lucky," he said.
The Israeli civilian killed by a Hezbollah rocket was David M. Lelchook, 52, an immigrant from Boston, who lived near Nahariya in northwestern Israel, according to the Associated Press.
The Israeli army announced Wednesday that another American immigrant, Michael Levin, 22, was among the soldiers killed in fighting in Lebanon this week, the AP reported.
Wednesday's bombardment came after a two-day lull in which Hezbollah fired only a handful of rockets into Israel and Israel reduced airstrikes in the south in the wake of a Sunday airstrike on the Lebanese village of Qana that killed numerous civilians.
The Lebanese government said that 57 people died there, including 37 children. But a Human Rights Watch report published Wednesday put the death toll at 28 thus far, 16 of them children. The group, which published a second report Thursday that was largely critical of what it called "indiscriminate attacks against civilians in Lebanon" by Israel, said initial estimates of more than 50 fatalities were based on a register of 63 persons who had sought shelter in the basement of the building and reports from rescue teams that had located nine survivors.
"It now appears that at least 22 people escaped the basement, and 28 are confirmed dead, according to records from the Lebanese Red Cross and the government hospital in Tyre," the report said, noting that 13 people are still missing, perhaps buried in the rubble.
An Israeli military inquiry found that authorities mistakenly believed there were no civilians in the building at the time and charged that Hezbollah guerrillas used civilians as human shields for their rocket attacks, according to a statement early Thursday.
"Had the information indicated that civilians were present . . . the attack would not have been carried out," the statement said, summarizing the findings.
The bombing followed guidelines regarding attacking "suspicious structures" in villages where civilians have been warned to evacuate, the statement said, adding that Hezbollah forces "use civilian structures inside villages to store weaponry and hide in after launching rocket attacks."
It said that more than 150 rockets had been launched from Qana and the area around it since July 12.
As a result of the incident, it added, the guidelines would be evaluated and updated.
Halutz, the chief of staff, apologized for the loss of civilian life but charged that Hezbollah "uses civilians as human shields and intentionally operates from within civilian villages and infrastructure."
