LEBANON/ISRAEL: Rockets fired by Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon land in Israel

Rockets fired by Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon killed two civilians and injured some more in northern Israel on Friday (August 4), as the army continued to operate in southern Lebanon and on the border to push the Shi'ite guerillas away from the border. Later on Friday, several rockets landed in or near the Israeli city of Hadera on Friday, Israel's Channel 2 television reported, causing no casualties. The strikes marked the deepest distance that rockets fired by the Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah had landed inside Israel since the start of fighting . The Israeli army distributed footage showing several Lebanese men who the army claims are Hizbollah militants, who were captured by troops operating in southern Lebanon. The detention took place in the past 48 hours, an army spokesman said. He would not specify on the number of men and the location they were taken from. Troops also operated inside the Lebanese village of Taibe were some fierce battles took place in the past week. At the same time tanks and artillery deployed along the border continued to pound Lebanese villages and open fields. Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz on Thursday (August 03) ordered the army to prepare for a possible push north to Lebanon's Litani river after Hizbollah rockets killed eight people, security officials said. Launching a ground offensive as far as the Litani, 20 km (13 miles) north of the Israeli-Lebanese border, would need the approval of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's cabinet, since it would mean sending forces well beyond a planned "security zone". Olmert has so far objected to sending Israeli soldiers as far as the Litani, and is not convinced that moving so deeply into Lebanon would halt the rocket attacks at Israel, political sources said. While the army continued operating in Lebanon, rockets fired by Hizbollah guerrillas killed a man and a woman and caused several injuries in northern Israel. The woman was killed in a direct hit on her house in the Druze-Arab village of Maghar, the police said. The man who was seriously injured when a rocket landed near his car on the outskirts of Israel's northern-most town of Kiryat Shmona. He later died of his wounds. A resident of Maghar, Adnan Abu Snan said, "We were eating there and suddenly we heard the sirens. After a minute, a minute and a half we heard them hit, twice. I ran east, I thought it was in my house, I looked to the east and it was in our neighbours house. I went there thinking I could help the neighbours but I saw other people and the people who were there were injured." Police said more than 33 rockets landed across northern Israel, including the Druze-Arab village of Maghar, where the woman was killed in a direct hit on her house. Earlier on Friday, Israeli mourners buried two of eight civilians who were killed in a barrage of rockets fired by Hizbollah guerillas from southern Lebanon on Thursday (August 3). Men and women gathered in the northern Israeli city of Acre to lay to rest a father and his daughter who were killed together by the Hizbollah rockets. The two civilian deaths on Friday raised to 29 the number of people killed by rocket fire from Lebanon since the conflict began on July 12 when Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight more. Another 43 military personnel have been killed. Israeli police reports that more than 2,000 missiles have been launched towards Israel during the past three weeks of fighting. The rockets damaged the exteriors and interiors of residents' homes. In Hofech, a rocket fell destroying a house and burning parts of the land.

ITN Source | August 5, 2006

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