(Update) Reports: Katyushas fired on northern Israel

Update:

Israel police have confirmed the rocket attack on the northern coastal city of Nahariya, which lies just south of the border with Lebanon.

Danny Ben Shabbat, a resident in one of the town's southern neighborhoods told Ynet news, he heard three explosions at about 3:45 PM:

דני בן שבת, תושב נהריה, סיפר ל-ynet: "אני גר בשכונת שפרינצק בחלק הדרומי של העיר ויודע לזהות נפילות של קטיושות. שמעתי שלוש נפילות סמוך לשעה 15:45. אחי סיפר לי שראה ניידות רבות ואמבולנסים שיצאו לכיוון השדות. לא הייתה אזעקה".

"I live in the Sprintzak neighborhood in the city's southern area, and know what a Katyusha sounds like. I heard three explosions close to 3:45 [PM]. My brother says he saw many police vehicles and ambulances heading out towards the fields. There was no [warning] siren."

First report, via cell phone updates, and now Reuters via Ynet.co.il:

מקורות ביטחון לבנוניים: רקטות נורו מדרום לבנון לצפון ישראל

לפחות שתי רקטות נורו מדרום לבנון לעבר צפון ישראל. כך מדווחים גורמי ביטחון לבנוניים. כמו נמסר כי הרקטות שוגרו מאזור דרום טירה הסמוך לגבול.

מוקדם יותר דווח כי קולות קפץ נשמעו בנהריה וסביבותיה,

"Lebanese security sources report: rockets were fired from south Lebanon into Israel.

At least two rockets have been fired from south Lebanon at Israel. This, according to Lebanese security sources. it was also reported that rockets were fired from south Tira near the border," [with Israel, and near Sidon, according to Reshet Bet Israel radio].

There are no Israel reports of casualties or damage. Sounds of explosions were reported in Nahariya.

The IDF is returning artillery fire at the source of the rockets, possibly Katyushas.

The report will be updated as more details come in.

Hizbullah-bility: 600 Rockets for 60 Days on Tel Aviv

IDF Artillery Corps corporal in brief morning prayers, near his unit along the Lebanese border during the Second Lebanon War. (Photo: Dave Bender, All Rights Reserved)

...not that it hasn't been noticed elsewhere, but still:

After reporting extensively from bunkers, bomb shelters and hospitals across Israel's northern border with Lebanon throughout much of the 2006 war against Hizbullah, this report quoting Israel's Ma'ariv newspaper (if accurate - and likely is) is depressing beyond words...

"Calm on the Lebanese and Palestinian borders does not necessarily involve good news for Israel, a report published by the Israeli daily Maariv said on Friday.

"The report addresses the growing capacity of Hezbollah in Lebanon, three years after the 2006 war.

"The journal emphasized that Hezbollah is tremendously magnifying its military capacities and compiling new combative techniques in addition to a remarkable increase in the number of its fighters and trainers. The Maariv report pointed that Hezbollah is seeking to reach a level of capability that would enable it to launch a thousand rockets on “Israel” during a 60-day period of time.

"Citing Israeli intelligence assessments, the Israeli daily also estimated that the party was close to reaching this level of capacity as it can today send between 500 and 600 rockets a day to Tel Aviv and surrounding areas."

I'm searching for the original Hebrew version link (dovrei Ivrit mi'beyinchem, ta'azroo...)

War archives:

• Flickerstream
• Blog Linkdump
• Audio
• Video

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs backgrounders on the "Second Lebanon War" are here.

(H-T: Weasel Zippers)

'Never Again' vs 'Once More With Luck'

Israel at 60: two recent videos, with an abyss between them. Draw your own conclusions.



(Courtesy: Israel Channel 10 TV)


(Courtesy: www.InfoLive.tv)


Text of a proposed speech for an Israel prime minister.

A wealth of videos about Israel At 60 are here.

Israeli Hospital, under Palestinian Bombardment, Treats Palestinian Preemies

Dr. Maria Tzeitlin of BMCA examining one of the premature Palestinian babies (Photo: David Avioz, BMCA)

The bombardee would be Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon, a few miles up the coast from the Gaza Strip. The same one Gaza Palestinians are blowing holes in with Iranian-made Grad/Katyusha rockets.

The same one that Palestinian premature twins are being kept alive in and cared for, while rockets hammer into the walls above, wounding patients and civilians.

This care isn't a hospital public relations department stunt, but rather a daily, telling occurrence throughout Israel. And a potent measure of the goodwill, health, and tempered resilience of Israeli society.

And I can personally vouch for it:

Both staff and patients at the Jerusalem hospital where my three children were born was made up of Israelis, Jews and Arabs (Palestinian Jerusalem ID card-holders, to the best of my knowledge).

Another family member was also successfully treated a few years ago by a similar staff makeup at the city's Hadassah Hospital, in their state-of-the-art pediatric cancer ward and outpatient clinic. Many of the patients I and family interacted with at the clinic during her course of treatment were Palestinians from Jerusalem, Ramallah and area villages.

On one day's chemotherapy session, I had my camera with me and recorded this:


Seventeen Native North American tribes, offering prayer and healing, visit with cancer-stricken Jewish, Christian and Muslim children and youth at Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital pediatric cancer outpatient clinic. Here, a Muslim Arab mother of a cancer-stricken child speaks with a Native American woman, as Winnie the Pooh looks on. (Dave Bender).


And here, swirling dancers in tribal garb and a healing drum circle offer prayers for health, and bring sound, color and excitement to parents, kids and staff. (Dave Bender).

Are there tensions? Yes. Especially after terror attacks, as you might imagine. But all were helped by the best medical care in the region - possibly the world, and at Israeli taxpayer expense.

Lives were, and continue to be saved, and people healed. But Israelis aren't asking for applause here; this is about lifesaving and elemental human decency.

BMCA's neonatal intensive care unit, transferred to a bomb shelter (Photo: David Avioz, BMCA)

Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank - just like those twins - are treated, 24/7 in Israeli hospitals like Barzalai in Ashkelon, even when their elders try again and again, to kill those keeping them alive.

One of the Palestinian twins (Photo: David Avioz, BMCA)

Remember that the next time you read those headlines.

Read the rest here.

Iran & the Winds of War

Joshua Muravchik, in a powerfully written Wall Street Journal op-ed, believes that "Iran is making a mistake that may lead the Middle East into a broader conflict."

"Consider the pell-mell events of recent weeks. Iran imprisons four Americans on absurd charges only weeks after seizing 15 British sailors on the high seas. Iran's Revolutionary Guard is caught delivering weapons to the Taliban and explosives to Iraqi terrorists. A car bomb in Lebanon is used to assassinate parliament member Walid Eido, killing nine others and wounding 11 more.

"At the same time, Fatah al-Islam, a shady group linked to Syria, launches an attack on the Lebanese army from within a Palestinian refugee area, beheading several soldiers. Tehran trumpets further progress on nuclear enrichment as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeats his call for annihilating Israel, crowing that "the countdown to the destruction of this regime has begun." Hamas seizes control militarily in Gaza. Katyusha rockets are launched from Lebanon into northern Israel for the first time since the end of last summer's Israel-Hezbollah war."

"The apparent meaning of all of this pointless provocation and bullying is that the axis of radicals--Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah--is feeling its oats. In part its aim is to intimidate the rest of us, in part it is merely enjoying flexing its muscles. It believes that its side has defeated America in Iraq, and Israel in Gaza and Lebanon. Mr. Ahmadinejad recently claimed that the West has already begun to "surrender," and he gloated that " final victory . . . is near." It is this bravado that bodes war."

Important reading.

Growing contentions that Assad was behind Katyusha attack

Katyusha strike: truck-mounted,
multiple-launch at Israel

From Infolive.tv:

Kuwait's Al Syasah newspaper says Syrian President Bashar Assad is linked to Sunday's Katyusha rocket strike on northern Israel. The report, however, did not detail the reputed extent of the Syrian leader's involvement.

The newspaper on Monday said that Assad was angry over the Arab League's stand on Syria's involvement in Lebanon.

From Ynet News:

Farid Ghadri, a Syrian exile, and head of a Syrian opposition party which calls for the end of the Assad regime, told Ynetnews that Syrian President Basher Assad was responsible for the rocket attacks. Ghadri, head of the Reform Party of Syria, is based in Washington DC, and has just completed a week-long visit to Israel, where he addressed the Knesset, and toured the Golan Heights.

More photos from last summer's war against Hizbullah are here.

Katyusha salvo slams into Israel (video)

Just shook the dust off this map from last summer.
It'll do for the moment, since it's the same ole' same ole...

"Six Katyusha rockets were fired at Israel on Sunday afternoon, landing in Kiryat Shmona and elsewhere in the North, causing damage to property but no casualties.

"One of the rockets hit a car in the industrial zone located in the northern part of the town, and a second rocket landed in a residential area in the southern part of the town. One rocket hit a UNIFIL position in southern Lebanon and the location of another three have yet to be found.

"It is the first rocket attack on Israel since the end of last summer's Second Lebanon War when over 1000 rockets were fired at the town and over 4000 at Israel's northern border."

More here.

Update: Since we're talking about Lebanon and war, there's this:

In less than one month, Israel will mark the one-year anniversary of the Second Lebanon War. The Ministerial Committee for Symbols and Ceremonies decided Sunday to hold an official ceremony to mark the occasion.

According to the resolution, a ceremony will be held annually on the 16th of the Hebrew month of Tamuz (around July). The Defense Ministry will be resposible for organizing the ceremony, along with Yad Labanim, an organization that commemorates Israel's fallen soldiers.

More here.

Memorial Day: The heart breaks, the soul mourns

Grieving mother of Israeli civilian
killed in Katyusha strike in Haifa
holds his photo, as her sister looks on.
(Dave Bender)

As Memorial Day in Israel draws to a close and Independence Day enters, The Jerusalem Post offers photos of civilians and solders, Jews and Arabs, religious and secular who were killed during last summer's Second Lebanon War.

A total of 43 Israeli civilians (including four who died of heart attacks during rocket barrages) and 116 IDF soldiers were killed in the Israel-Hizbullah war.

Listening to the achingly sad songs on Galei Tzahal Army Radio via Internet from across the sea, and the heart wrenching litanies of family and friends telling of their fallen friends, comrades, children, parents and loved ones, the heart grieves, the soul feels the pain, loss - and longing to return to Israel soon. To be at home.

In "Wind of Remembrance," colleague Judy Lash Balint writes so movingly about Memorial Day ceremonies in Israel. Go read it, and buy her new book Jerusalem Diaries II.

22,305 Fallen: Every number a name, a face, a memory

Faith Under Fire

War Against Hizbullah, Summer 2006:
Israeli Defense Forces soldier at brief morning prayers
along northern border; smoke from a recently fallen Katyusha rocket rises in distance.
(Photo: Dave Bender - More images are here)

From the Israel Foreign Ministry:

A total of 22,305 men and women have been killed defending the land of Israel since 1860, the year that the first Jewish settlers left the secure walls of Jerusalem to build new Jewish neighborhoods.

In the past year, since Remembrance Day 2005, 233 members of the security forces - police, IDF, Border Police, Israel Security Agency and other organizations - have been killed in the service of the state.

Israel's 59th Independence Day celebrations will commence on Monday evening, April 23, when the state flag is raised to full mast at a national ceremony on Mount Herzl, at which twelve torches are lit.

Israel at 59: Statistics

Click image to view a memorial
film on Israel's fallen