[Marxism] Hezbollah rocket kills 10 Israeli soldiers

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hezbollah Rockets Kill 10 Israelis; Attacks on Lebanon Leave 8 Dead

By Jonathan Finer, Molly Moore and Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, August 6, 2006; 7:54 AM

KFAR GILADI, Israel, Aug. 6 -- Ten people, most of whom appeared to be 
Israeli reserve soldiers, were killed Sunday afternoon when a barrage of 
Katusha rockets fired by Hezbollah militants landed in a parking lot where 
the troops were gathered near this kibbutz on Israel's northernmost tip, 
according to witnesses at the scene.

It was the largest number of Israelis killed in a single incident since the 
war between Israel and Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon began 25 days 
ago.

The attack here came as Israeli airstrikes pounded roads and villages 
across southern Lebanon Sunday despite the negotiations for a cease-fire at 
the United Nations in New York. Eight civilians were killed, according to 
Lebanese journalists quoting local police. Five people were killed when a 
missile hit a pair of houses in the village of Ansar, near the market town 
of Nabatiyeh, they said, and another three died in shelling against a small 
community near Naqourah, which is on the border as it reaches the 
Mediterranean Sea.

Several hours after the deaths became known, Hezbollah launched its barrage 
of missiles into northern Israel.

The Hezbollah leader, Hasan Nasrallah, has said his militia calibrates its 
attacks on Israel according to the level of Israeli attacks in Lebanon.

Hezbollah, a militant Shiite Muslim movement, said its fighters on the 
ground in southern Lebanon also hit Israeli armored vehicles in Wadi Honeen 
and near the village of Adassieh, causing several Israeli casualties. Two 
tanks were damaged at Adassieh, the organization announced, and two more 
were hit at Byada, farther north near the town of Hasbaya

Israel Saturday issued warnings to residents of Sidon , Lebanon's 
third-largest city, to leave ahead of imminent airstrikes on what it called 
Hezbollah targets.

The Hezbollah rocket at Kfar Giladi, which also injured another 13 people, 
was part of a 15-minute barrage of about 35 rockets that landed in the 
area, setting fields and forests ablaze, according to witnesses. Israeli 
police officials said 115 rockets had landed across northern Israel by 
midafternoon Sunday.

The Israeli Defense Forces said it could not comment on whether the victims 
at Kfar Giladi were soldiers.

Gray blankets covered nine of the bodies, some with charred arms and legs 
protruding from the edges. A pair of smoking military boots lay next to one 
of the bodies.

Gidon Giladi, the son of the founder of the kibbutz and a member of the 
emergency response team, raced to the scene after hearing the rockets land.

"What I saw was the most horrible view," said Giladi, 61, wearing a green 
flak jacket and helmet and blue jeans. "It's nothing that can be described.

Giladi said Israeli reservists, who were preparing to move into Lebanon, 
used the parking lot just outside the yellow kibbutz gates as a staging area.

"The policy of the army is not to stay inside the kibbutz because it makes 
the kibbutz a target," Giladi said, as outgoing Israeli artillery shells 
boomed in the distance and his cell phone rang with queries from anxious 
friends worried about his safety.

"We heard an alarm and everybody went down into the shelters," Giladi said. 
"We were waiting for the hit and in 10 minutes it went down."

"I feel bad. I feel very, very sad," said Aharon Valency, the head of the 
Northern Galilee Regional Council. "I'm sorry that it happened. It is the 
situation that we citizens are usually in shelters. That is not the case 
with the soldiers. It is a pity, it is a disaster."

Valency said about 75 percent of the kibbutz's 700 residents have remained 
in the community, despite the nearly daily rocket fire of the past 
three-and-one-half weeks.

Firefighters hosed down two blackened cars and a burning tree on the edge 
of the parking lot which abuts the kibbutz cemetery.

The area surrounding Kfar Giladi and nearby Kiryat Shmona was choked in 
smoke from fires sparked by rockets that landed in surrounding fields and 
forests. Police and firefighters were struggling to control the blazes. 
Similar attacks throughout the northern areas of the country have led to a 
spate of fires over the course of the conflict that officials are fighting .

Moore reported from Jerusalem. Cody reportd from Beirut. Special 
correspondent Hillary Claussen contributed to this report from Israel.


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