Rain of Rockets

Northern Israeli towns come under a heavy Hezbollah barrage as Israel approves expanding its ground war in Lebanon.

KIRYAT SHEMONA,

A pall of gray smoke, like low-lying clouds, hangs over the tree line where Hezbollah Katyusha rockets have just exploded on the hillside.

Unlike high-velocity Israeli 155mm rounds whistling into south Lebanon, the Katyushas stroke the air with a whooshing sound, but are no less frightening as they fall into northern Israel. Today they fall like rain — 160 of them in all, 66 on this town alone.

Rockets batter Kiryat Shemona; Israeli firefighters battle blazes » View

Despite the numbers, they are not deadly on this day. There are only two minor injuries, but the strikes set ablaze acres of dry grass and bamboo. Some are dangerously close to buildings where a few holdout residents who have not fled to the south are still hunkered down.

Firefighters Doron Malol and Hay Yamin wrestle a hose through the thick brush to wet down a trench line to keep the fire from jumping across a vacant field toward the apartment buildings.

The entire area is covered with heavy smoke and dancing black ash. Flames jump from thrushes of dry bamboo stalks and race in different directions. Malol and Yamin have to cut it off before the whole neighborhood goes up in flames.

"Normally, we'd have two teams on this and we'd work from both sides and meet in the middle," Malol says. "But we've had six or seven calls already today and the other units are out on different fires. So we have to do it all by ourselves."

The firefighters push deep into the brush, spraying on each side until they can go no further. The hose running from their truck has reached its full length. Within minutes another firefighter runs to their location with an extension, which they quickly connect and continue with their mission.

Overhead, single-engine Pipers drop loads of orange fire suppressant over the area. Within an hour of responding to the call, the firefighters have put out much of the fire and contain the rest. But there will be no break today; as soon as they wrap up their hoses they head out to another call.

Life under siege in Kiryat Shemona » View

This is the reality of northern Israel now, as diplomatic initiatives to end a monthlong war continue with a flurry but deliver little actual results. Meanwhile, the Israeli Security cabinet voted for a big expansion of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) ground campaign into south Lebanon.

The vote for expansion coincides with a shakeup in the Israeli military, with deputy chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinski replacing Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, who was criticized for conducting the campaign against Hezbollah too slowly and cautiously.

The relentless Israeli artillery and air campaign already has destroyed much of south Lebanon and turned the southern city of Tyre into an island, cutting off connecting roadways both north and south. Meanwhile strikes on Beirut continued for a fourth straight day.

News agencies report that more than 700 Lebanese have been killed since the fighting broke out on July 12. More than 100 Israelis have been killed, 36 of them civilians.

Like the many residents in south Lebanon who have fled to safer havens in the north, nearly 500 Israeli residents, still in Kiryat Shemona after a month of Katyusha rocket attacks, decided to leave the area last night with the help of the Israeli government.

Miriam Ben Shaya and her 10-year-old son Matan were two of those who decided to head south. Miriam is unemployed so it's difficult financially for the family to leave. But the constant sound of explosions and daily fear finally forced them out.

"My friend from school had a direct hit of a Katyusha in his bedroom," says Matan, "so he and his family already left."

But there are some in town who still can't bring themselves to leave. For them, days and nights are spent in concrete bomb shelters located in schools around town.

Alice and Abraham Buskila have been in a bomb shelter of the Hamatmid private religious school for the entire month.

"My husband was in a car accident," says Alice, "and it's too hard to move him around."

Other members of her family are also staying in the shelter with them, including her 29-year-old son Shlomi and new daughter-in-law Maya. The couple married in the space two weeks ago, when the war didn't abate in time. Instead of the hundreds of invited guests, only about 20 people attended, including the mayor of Kiryat Shemona and members of the international media.

I asked Shlomi what his feelings were about getting married under these conditions.

"If you start out in life on the wrong foot," he says, cuddling in a bed in the shelter with Maya, three months pregnant, "you'll probably end up on the right foot."

It is an optimism which, although refreshing on days like today, may be increasingly in short supply as the war continues without resolution and the rockets continue to fall.

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