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Israel's deadliest day

BY MICHAEL ROTHFELD | Newsday Staff Correspondent

August 7, 2006

KFAR GILADI, Israel - In the deadliest day for Israel in four weeks of war, a storm of Hezbollah rockets yesterday killed 12 Israeli army reserve soldiers resting outside a cemetery parking lot here and at least three civilians in a dense residential section of Haifa, the country's third-largest city.

As the Lebanese militia unleashed about 160 rockets from east to west across the border, injuring dozens, the Israeli army continued its bombardment of southern Lebanon and launched missiles into the suburbs of Beirut, killing 13.

The fierce fighting followed Saturday's announcement of a draft United Nations resolution meant to end the hostilities.

Although the Israeli military has declared success in establishing a buffer zone of several miles into Lebanon for security, Hezbollah's launching of short-range Katyushas and longer-range rockets has continued unabated. More Israelis were killed in the Kfar Giladi attack than in any other attack in this war. And yesterday's 15 deaths overall topped the previous high Israeli toll of 12 on Thursday, which included four soldiers killed in Lebanon.

The noontime attack scored a direct hit on the unsuspecting reservists, called up for duty only Saturday, as they lounged outside the gate to Kfar Giladi, a kibbutz set in the hills 3 miles from the border.

"This was terrible bad luck," said Capt. Jacob Dallal, an Israeli Defense Forces spokesman. "The rockets could have easily landed in the kibbutz. It wasn't that the strike was against the military. This was a civilian area."

Ten reservists were killed instantly, two died later of injuries and five were wounded, officials said.

In Haifa, Israel's biggest northern coastal city, five or six rockets reportedly hit a crowded residential district shortly after dark, crushing at least two houses and damaging others, and filling the sky with smoke. Three people were killed and 40 injured, some of them trapped in their houses. An Israeli army spokesman said the rockets were long-range Fajr missiles launched from Qana in Lebanon.

Israel waged dozens of air strikes on villages and roads in southern Lebanon, while ground fighting raged, security officials said. The aerial attacks killed a Lebanese army intelligence officer, five residents of Ansar village and three in al-Jibbain, officials said. Israel also reportedly bombed two camps of a Palestinian militant group in Lebanon, the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, killing one. Hezbollah reported three of its fighters killed.

At Kfar Giladi, the Katyusha rocket destroyed three cars the Israeli reservists had gathered around, punched a 4-foot crater in the parking lot, knocked over a row of cypress trees, and flung debris 100 feet away into the cemetery.

"The cars were all burned up and the people's blood was splattered all over," Col. Ron Badichi, commander of a special unit assigned to clean up the grisly scene, said as fires from other rocket strikes burned.

Standing on top of soot and scraps of metal, Israeli soldiers packaged the reservists' remains in large white plastic bags to take away.

Slava Tur, 22, a soldier from Haifa, had come with a trucking unit that drove water to troops putting out rocket fires. He popped almonds into his mouth from a plastic bag and waited for the work to be finished.

Then he walked into the cemetery, to a patio where the reservists' blood-stained and rocket-strafed foam mattresses blew and came to rest. Nearby stood a statue of a lion, and headstones of soldiers killed in Israel's 1982 Lebanese war.

"If you think a lot, you can't do anything because it will be too depressing," Tur said. "Every day at night, you hear our artillery, their rockets; you don't care about it. Then you go home. You hear the sirens, and you can't sleep because you know all the people, all the guys sleeping in the buildings around you."

This story was supplemented with an Associated Press report.

Yesterday's events

Hezbollah rocket attacks kill 12 Israeli reserve soldiers and wound five in Kfar Giladi, and kill at least three in Haifa. Israeli artillery cause at least 13 deaths in Lebanon.

Hezbollah and its allies reject the U.S.-French text of the UN resolution, saying its terms for a halt in fighting did not address Lebanon's demands.

Israel wages dozens of air strikes on villages and roads in southern Lebanon, killing a Lebanese army intelligence officer, five residents of Ansar village and three in al-Jibbain. In Qana, Israeli aircraft destroy the launchers that fired rockets on Haifa, the army said.

Israel reportedly bombs two camps of a Palestinian militant group in Lebanon, killing one militant. Hezbollah reports three of its fighters killed.

Iran gives its ally Hezbollah a green light to keep fighting in Lebanon, saying the U.S. cannot be a mediator in the crisis because of its support for Israel.

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