Rockets strike pilgrimage site
2006-07-15 18:28
Jerusalem - Rockets fired by Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon on Saturday hit the Christian pilgrimage site of Tiberias, in the group's deepest strike inside Israeli territory, police said.
Three people were injured when eight rockets struck in and around Tiberias, an ancient town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee 45km from the Lebanese border, around midday on Saturday, police said.
A second volley of rockets hit the town in the late afternoon but there were no initial reports of casualties, emergency services said.
Authorities closed off all the town's beaches following the rocket strikes, one of which landed near a hotel, as tourists and large numbers of residents deserted the town.
The strike was claimed by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, the main target of Israel's massive offensive against Lebanon that has seen dozens of the people killed since Wednesday.
"The Islamic Resistance fires dozens of rockets for the first time on Tiberias," said an announcement on Hezbollah's television station Al-Manar.
A salvo of Katyusha rockets also struck the this Mediterranean resort town of Nahariya, close to the Lebanese border, without causing any casualties, the military said.
Guerrillas fired a dozen rockets into northern Israel at dawn Saturday, striking several towns including the Mediterranean resort of Nahariya, but caused no casualties or damage, the military said.
Two Israeli civilians, an elderly woman and her five-year-old grandson, were killed on Friday in the single deadliest rocket attack in three days of bloody cross-border violence, taking the total Israeli civilian death toll to four.
More than 40 people were taken to hospital Friday as around 90 rockets rained down on some 15 northern Israeli towns.
- SAPA