MONDAY AUGUST 7, 8:00 PM

 

Late news reports say that an unmanned Hizbullah drone loaded with powerful explosives has been shot down by IDF forces off of the coast of Haifa, some 20 miles south of the Lebanese border.  The drone was thought to be heading toward Tel Aviv.  Hizbullah has sent several such drones across the international border in recent years.  This came after another day of heavy Hizbullah rocket fire upon northern Israel, with over 100 missiles landing in Tiberius, Safed, Ma’alot, and many civilian communities by dusk.  The largest barrage—described by people on the scene as nearly nonstop during the day—has once again been directed upon the often blitzed town of Kiryat Shmona, where I lived for two years from mid-1982.  Several homes there are currently on fire after taking direct strikes.  Three residents were wounded in one of those attacks. The once beautiful pine tree lined Naphtali hills that loom up behind the town, which some had compared to portions of the Alps or the Rocky Mountains, are on fire yet again in dozens of places.  Weary firefighters, many of them volunteers from the center of the country, say they are running low on supplies to deal with the constant rocket-ignited conflagrations.

 

As northern residents grow ever more weary of the daily Hizbullah onslaught, officials in Jerusalem are warning that significantly stepped up Air Force bombings in Lebanon can be expected by the end of this week if the daily barrages do not let up by then.  This comes amid assessments that the Lebanese government is doing next to nothing to try to reign in the rogue militia that plunged its country into this escalating conflict.  Air Force jets were once again in action today, bombing south Beirut this morning and within the last few minutes, along with other suspected Hizbullah targets near Sidon and other locations.  Around 20 people were reportedly killed in the strikes, including women and children.  However Israeli officials remain extremely skeptical of Lebanese civilian death toll claims, especially after it became clear that the numbers who perished in Qana early last week was greatly exaggerated.  Such skepticism was greatly reinforced this evening when a “correction” was issued from the Lebanese Prime Minister’s office.  During a teary speech this afternoon at an emergency Arab League summit meeting in Beirut, PM Fuad Seniora claimed that Israel had just “carried out a massacre of 40 people” in the border town of Hula. His office has just admitted that the numbers were slightly off the mark—only one person actually died in the southern village near Metulla.

 

Today’s Hizbullah rocket assaults followed a series of powerful rocket strikes last evening upon the port city of Haifa, killing two Arab Christian residents of the city and a Jewish man visiting from a nearby suburb.  All three victims were buried under the rubble of several apartment buildings that took direct hits. An elderly doctor also died of a heart attack when rockets landed near his home.  Over 40 people are still hospitalized in Haifa following the massive attack, several in very serious condition.  The latest rocket blitz prompted the city’s Rambam Hospital, one of the largest in Israel, to move all patients to the basement who were in wards facing the north—the direction of Lebanon.  Doctors and nurses admit it will be difficult to adequately care for the hundreds of affected patients in the crowded basement, but realize that hospital administrators had no other choice given the constant rocket onslaughts upon northern Israel by Hizbullah forces.

 

Meanwhile a series of funerals have been going on all afternoon in many localities around the country for the 12 reserve soldiers killed when a Hizbullah rocket landed in their midst on Kibbutz Kfar Giladi at noon yesterday.  Most of the slain Israeli men, ranging in age from mid-20s to mid-40s, had wives and young families.  Funerals are also going on for the five regular army soldiers killed in clashes with Hizbullah fighters yesterday.  In all, 20 Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed on Sunday, making it by far the deadliest day so far of the 27 day conflict.  Normal television programming was suspended on all three Israeli channels throughout the day, making the sense of growing conflict all the more evident in every part of Israel.

 

Another soldier has been confirmed dead today amid reports that several other casualties will be announced this evening after family members have been notified.  An untold number have been wounded.  Nearly 50 IDF soldiers have been killed so far, along with 43 civilians.  Most of the civilian deaths in recent days have actually been Israeli Arabs.  Today’s confirmed IDF death came during fierce clashes in the Lebanese Shiite town of Bint Jabail, which army commanders thought they had previously brought under control.  With border clashes continuing, northern Israeli residents are said to be wondering if Hizbullah’s fanatic Muslim guerilla fighters—who hide among civilians and often shoot their rockets from towns and villages, and are told they will go to the highest heaven if they perish since they are fighting in a jihad war against the detested Jews—will actually be pushed back from the border area before a ceasefire is enforced.  Military analysts agree that the Iranian and Syrian backed highly-trained fighters are proving to be much tougher to deal with than previous conventional Arab forces and Palestinian fighters.  Meanwhile more Israeli civilian men are quietly receiving call-up orders to report to reserve duty.

 

In Beirut, PM Fuad Seniora gave an emotional speech to the visiting delegation of Arab League officials. Without ever admitting that some of his own citizens had sparked off the conflict with Israel by launching an unprovoked attack across the international border, the Sunni Muslim leader called upon “his brotherly Arabs” to unite behind Lebanon in its “struggle against the Zionist enemy.”  Israeli officials were said to be distressed by his use of such a term, which some analysts note could technically be considered a declaration of war that would justify Israeli strikes upon Lebanese government positions.  However few here anticipate that Israel will move away from mainly hitting Hizbullah positions and weapons supply routes overland from Syria and from the Mediterranean Sea.  Analysts also noted that Seniora claimed that Israeli forces were now “occupying” his country, despite the fact that they are barely in control of the southern border strip right next to Israel.  The increasingly bellicose Lebanese leader then claimed his country had “joined the Palestinians and Iraq” in being occupied by “foreign forces,” indicating his true feelings about the US-British attempt to bring stability to Iraq.

 

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DAVID DOLAN is a Jerusalem-based author and journalist who has lived in Israel since 1980.  His new DVD, titled “FOR ZIONS’S SAKE—REPORTING FROM THE LAND OF THE BIBLE,” is now available on both PAL and NTCS versions.  Details are posted at his web site, www.ddolan.com