Police officers in Karmiel arrested a suspect who arrived on Tuesday at the police station in the city stabbed a security guard with a sharp object The suspect confronted the security guard at the station and an additional officer for a reason that is currently unknown the police emphasized that the motive for the incident was criminal but later announced that all directions were being investigated MDA reported that EMTs and paramedics tended to the wounded security guard who was seriously wounded and took him to the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya A general view of Karmiel | Photo: Herzl Shapira Tensions escalated in northern Israel today following an unspecified security incident in the city of Karmiel Details remain scarce as authorities investigate but the event has renewed anxiety among residents already weary from eight months of intermittent conflict with Hezbollah and Hamas The stabbing rampage by the attacker – a 20-year-old Israeli-Arab living in an Arab village in the area – on the second floor of a mall in the northern city left 19-year-old Sergeant Aleksandr Iakiminskyi of the 188th Armored Brigade dead Aleksandr shot the attacker before he succumbed to his wounds Other reports indicated a firearm was used Israel's Magen David Adom first-responder service said there were two injured one still responsive but in serious condition The attacker was shot by people at the scene "Two stabbing victims were brought to Galilee Medical Center," reported Dr "One is in moderate to serious condition with stab wounds to the chest and shoulder After we stabilized him in the trauma room The second victim arrived in critical condition while we were trying to resuscitate him we couldn't save him and had to pronounce him dead." A 9-year-old boy who witnessed the attack was also brought to the Terem urgent care center in town / Usage under Israeli intellectual property law Article 27a The police spokesperson did not rule out the possibility of additional attackers in the area and requested civilians to stay away from the scene a city of 50,000 nestled in the Beit Hakerem Valley has largely been spared direct involvement in the ongoing hostilities today's incident serves as a stark reminder of the region's precarious situation Local officials urged calm while increasing security measures throughout the area The Israel Police brought the attacker's mother and brother to the scene Investigators plan to question all members of the attacker's family as diplomatic efforts to broker a lasting ceasefire have intensified in recent weeks each frontline operative now receives about $61 monthly The Wall Street Journal reports the terror organization was mainly dependent on humanitarian aid sold for cash The Lebanese President announced that in 2025 weapons would be concentrated exclusively in state hands maintaining that Hezbollah's disarmament "will.. Analysis  Archaeology Blogpost Business & Finance Culture Exclusive Explainer Environment Features Health In Brief Jewish World Judea and Samaria Lifestyle Cyber & Internet Sports Diplomacy  Iran & The Gulf Gaza Strip Politics Shopping Terms of use Privacy Policy Submissions Contact Us The first issue of Israel Hayom appeared on July 30 Israel Hayom was founded on the belief that the Israeli public deserves better more balanced and more accurate journalism [contact-form-7 id=”508379″ html_id=”isrh_form_Newsletter_en” title=”newsletter_subscribe”] '#' : location.hash;window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUQuery = location.search === '' && location.href.slice(0 location.href.length - window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash.length).indexOf('?') !== -1 '?' : location.search;if (window.history && window.history.replaceState) {var ogU = location.pathname + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUQuery + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash;history.replaceState(null "\/liveblog_entry\/footage-shows-damage-to-residential-building-in-karmiel-apparently-hit-by-rocket-from-lebanon\/?__cf_chl_rt_tk=sat0xhcLWeshs_pAJOK.tmYH581QeinBxX3rN5yqYMo-1746538580-1.0.1.1-Ra3Go7swLJXAGL9hhvXtKBjsjO9hEBtgkIvr1PORE6o" + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash);cpo.onload = function() {history.replaceState(null ogU);}}document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(cpo);}()); Suspect was shot and killed at the scene of attack An off-duty Israeli soldier was killed and another seriously wounded when a terrorist stabbed them in the town of Karmiel in northern Israel on Wednesday The attacker was shot and killed at the scene which took place at a shopping center in the town situated between the Upper and Lower Galilee regions who served as truck driver in the 188th Armored Brigade’s 71st Battalion The other soldier who was wounded served in the same battalion as Iakiminskyi The terrorist was later identified as Jawwad Omar Rubia a resident of the nearby Arab village of Nahaf who managed to shoot him despite suffering from deadly wounds The police confirmed the stabbing was a terror attack after initially probing whether the suspect had a criminal background According to Magen David Adom (MDA) rescue services two men around the age of 20 were evacuated to the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya with one being in critical and the other being in serious condition Another person at the scene was treated for shock lying on the spot with stab wounds near the stalls “We started with medical treatment that included stopping bleeding and dressings and performing resuscitation operations on the unconscious wounded we put them in an intensive care vehicle and evacuated them to the hospital.” Large police forces under the command of the northern sector commander arrived at the scene to collect findings at the scene and rule out the possibility that there were accomplices we are very familiar with attacks of this type and we must rule out the possibility that there are additional aides or terrorists in the vicinity," a police spokesman said "There is wild incitement to terrorism on social media we thwart many terrorist infrastructures and prevent many terrorist attacks of course with the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Police," he added Despite the large Arab population in the Galilee region terror attacks are relatively rare in the area some even enlist in the IDF or Israel Police who grew up in a village in northern Israel we are experiencing such an event for the first time… It is an old shopping center that is used by most of the area I hear a lot of speculation about the identity of the [assailant] but we will let the police complete their investigation.” “I really hope it’s not a resident of the area,” he added emphasizing the good relations his town had long enjoyed with its neighboring Jewish communities There is outrage in the village over this incident and we hope it will remain an isolated one,” Zuri stated The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel The Karmiel - Akko railway line has been completed the Ministry of Transportation has announced there will be trial runs on the line with services to the public scheduled to commence in the summer which was built by the Netivei Israel National Transport Infrastructure Co cost NIS 2.8 billion and involves a double track along 23 kilometers with stations at Karmiel and Ahihud For the most part running parallel to Road 85 the new line includes the 4.6 kilometer Gillon Tunnels The line links up with the Haifa - Nahariya line south of Akko station and north of Kiryat Motzkin station Israel Railways plans services direct from Karmiel to Tel Aviv Two more stations are planned along the new line at the Arab towns of Jadeidi-Makr and Majd al-Krum In the future the Karmiel line will be extended northeast to Kiryat Shmona The Karmiel line is part of the massive expansion of Israel Railways new lines have been built to the Negev development towns of Sderot Netivot and Ofakim as well as between Haifa the Tel Aviv - Jerusalem fast rail link is scheduled to open Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 16 © Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon The best of Time Out straight to your inbox We help you navigate a myriad of possibilities Sign up for our newsletter for the best of the city By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions. Israel facebooktwitterinstagramAbout us Rotem Magen reports on day 272 of the war (July 4 2024) against Hamas and reviews stories in the main Israeli Hebrew newspapers Trains will begin operating on the Karmiel - Akko railway line tomorrow morning south of Akko station and north of Kiryat Motzkin station and there are direct services from Karmiel to Tel Aviv Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon has signed an order allowing residents of the region to travel by train for free in the first three months and at a 50% discount for the two years after that This special offer had only been originally planned for the residents of Karmiel and Ahihud but it was expanded to include 15 Arab towns after protests from minority rights group Sikkuy - the Association for the advancement of Civic Equality Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 19 "\/karmiel-dance-festival-a-colorful-celebration-of-dance-and-friendship\/?__cf_chl_rt_tk=xYDWYA17kaNiRkgCZVpJLlghtS8eflycM9hWldTmpNs-1746538635-1.0.1.1-nHQeD_0YlLGIpbITz63Ytap.rIT_Tn6JZ3cIqgETcto" + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash);cpo.onload = function() {history.replaceState(null "\/one-killed-another-wounded-in-suspected-terror-stabbing-at-karmiel-mall\/?__cf_chl_rt_tk=MDcd4FWlHEvfPae.m5qmHNGjdZTCj5wZzNsz8Bq5ibY-1746538639-1.0.1.1-.r5lxHGwXHfUGDbMsxKY.0.K2pDZqhTZHLfTZ71SpeI" + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash);cpo.onload = function() {history.replaceState(null Less than a day after Israel's nation-state law was approved by the Knesset, Haaretz published a commentary by Jonathan Lis addressing its practical significance "The nation-state law is mainly a symbolic measure designed to enshrine national values in a basic law," he wrote Considerable commentary of this nature was heard at the time: Israel is defined as a Jewish state with all the concomitant discriminatory ramifications Many sought on that basis to mute criticism of the new law officially legalising apartheid within Israel's borders whose petition against the law has been pending for more than two years described it nicely to me at the time: if hitherto Arab citizens could turn to the courts for help in fighting discrimination in the name of the law from now on the legal system itself can validate apartheid A 30 November article in Haaretz proves just how correct Jabareen's point was as the Krayot Magistrate's Court recently cited the nation-state law as grounds to reject a petition from Arab children in Karmiel seeking reimbursement for their bus fares to Arab schools outside the town since there are no Arab schools in Karmiel was founded to strengthen Jewish settlement in the Galilee," Senior Registrar Yaniv Luzon wrote in his decision [and] funding school transportation for Arab students could change the demographic balance of the city and damage its character."   The experience of more than seven decades proves that the Israeli legal establishment is an integral part of the system of Jewish superiority It might be worth noting the founding circumstances of the "Jewish city" of Karmiel, whose character the chief registrar is so concerned about: Karmiel was established in 1964 on land confiscated from surrounding Arab villages Karmiel is one of more than 700 communities the state has built for the Jewish population since Israel's founding, compared with none built for the Arab population - apart from a few towns in the Negev designed for the orderly resettlement of Bedouins whose lands the state coveted Though the two populations have grown at a similar rate since 1948 which confiscates land from one population to build towns for the other has so constricted Arab towns geographically that many of their residents have been forced to find housing in nearby Jewish towns and it also does not want to let them live on their own lands Back in the day, when the nation-state law was brought before the Knesset, its initiator, Avi Dichter, made the following appeal to Arab citizens: "You will be able to live as a national minority among us and enjoy equal rights as individuals Their very presence in the city is unwanted and fighting against it is considered legitimate and lawful The person who ought to have been battling for the rights of these students who petitioned the court for help is Education Minister Yoav Galant who voted in favour of the nation-state law it is worth noting again the deception in the distinction made by Dichter between individual rights and national rights for Palestinian citizens.  Has the massive confiscation of land belonging to Arab citizens been done on an individual or a national basis? Is the discrimination against Arab students carried out on an individual or a national basis? Is abandoning the security of Arab citizens and ignoring their victimisation by organised crime an individual or a national trend Is preventing Arab families from making their homes in Jewish towns via residential screening committees happening on an individual or a national basis?  Just one service was accomplished by the nation-state law for the public discourse in Israel and that was tearing the mask away from all these manipulative and false distinctions The children of Karmiel did not petition the court to allow them to wave a Palestinian flag or sing the Palestinian anthem in the city's streets They petitioned for the right to live in their city and study at a school where their language is spoken and where they will not be viewed as inferior citizens The court made it clear that their Palestinian identity makes them inferior and unwanted; that their very existence is a threat The country's Arab citizens are persecuted for wanting to be who they are Their Palestinian identity is what makes them The intra-Zionist argument is only about limits to their rights which are never material and are always conditional institutional and racist discrimination against Arab citizens of Israel existed even before the nation-state law the parliament of Israel proudly proclaimed the legitimacy of the state's apartheid foundations Although many petitions against the nation-state law are still pending the experience of more than seven decades proves that the Israeli legal establishment is an integral part of the system of Jewish superiority Luzon has simply done what is expected of him The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye Copyright © 2014 - 2025. Middle East Eye Only England and Wales jurisdiction apply in all legal matters Middle East Eye          ISSN 2634-2456                      "\/federations-mega-mission-sees-the-power-of-partnership-in-karmiel-israel\/?__cf_chl_rt_tk=3lCzdXHLL68mSUBGBAZfj71l7WeROWQiQhjRYlL_6eM-1746538659-1.0.1.1-fsd9scnWOzxviXSefOrvQrmcwMA5g.jrnAOs70QUqlU" + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash);cpo.onload = function() {history.replaceState(null <<previous  |  index  |  next>> Human Rights Watch investigated rocket strikes in several Israeli cities focusing on those incidents that killed civilians as well as on other incidents that reveal aspects of Hezbollah’s intentions This is not a scientific or a representative sampling of cases There is no publicly available comprehensive listing of where and when Hezbollah rockets fell; we do not know how many hit military objectives the cases presented here confirm that in a significant portion of cases Hezbollah fired on Israeli civilian areas in violation of international humanitarian law These attacks coupled with Hezbollah statements that indicate criminal intent to target civilians strongly indicate individual responsibility for the commission of war crimes Hezbollah appeared to be directly targeting civilians or civilian objects a conclusion based on the finding that rockets repeatedly and over time hit a particular civilian area or object in the absence of any finding of an evident military objective One example is the rockets that hit or landed close to the Western Galilee (Nahariya) hospital during the course of the war That hospital complex is visible from the border and towers above nearby structures There was no military target to our knowledge anywhere near the hospital when these rockets struck but the presence in the vicinity of a military objective prevented a conclusion that the civilian object was the intended target most of these attacks were indiscriminate in that Hezbollah fired unguided rockets that were incapable of being aimed so that they could distinguish between a military target and civilians the attacks constituted serious violations of the laws of war Hezbollah did not respond to our letters requesting information on the specific attacks described in this report we cite in the case studies that follow the Hezbollah statements of which we are aware concerning specific attacks There was no military objective in the immediate vicinity Human Rights Watch researchers drove around the town of Akko immediately before and after the attack and noticed no troops or other mobile military targets The biggest military target near Akko is the complex of the Rafael Armament Development Authority south of the city and several kilometers from the site of the August 3 attack The five killed in Akko were Shimon Zaribi 44; his 15-year-old daughter Mazal; Albert Ben-Abu Human Rights Watch interviewed Ariyeh Tamam’s wife another rocket strike in Akko injured civilians who was visiting Akko that day from his hometown of Netua Arab al-Aramshe is a village inhabited by about 1,100 Bedouins located only 500 meters from the border fence with Lebanon the townspeople generally stayed put at the start of the war even though the Israeli army was firing artillery rounds from cannons located 150 to 200 meters outside the village and Hezbollah rockets were landing in or near their community a rocket hit next to the house of the Jum`a family A total of about twenty rockets fell on or next to the village during the war Miz’il said that villagers complained to the regional council about the IDF firing artillery rounds from positions so close to the village, but were told that a war was going on and that the artillery had been placed at strategic positions.129 many residents fled south to safer parts of Israel Some reluctantly returned before the hostilities ended because they could no longer afford to pay for lodging elsewhere As a party to an armed conflict, Israel is obligated under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to protect the civilian population under its control against the effects of attack.130 This includes avoiding locating military targets within or near densely populated areas131 and removing civilians from the vicinity of military objectives.132 Lt. Col. David Benjamin, head of civil and international law at the IDF Judge Advocate General’s office, said, “We are a small country. If you said you can’t put an artillery piece within 30 kilometers of a village, we couldn’t operate. The IDF has no policy of firing, purposely or negligently [in a way] that endanger[s] its own civilian population.”133 Hezbollah issued no statement indicating the intended target of its deadly attack on Arab al-Aramshe; it is not known whether it had been aiming at the IDF artillery cannon or simply firing toward the village the question remains whether the IDF could have placed its artillery cannons at a farther remove from the village and whether Israeli authorities could have done more either to shelter the residents of Arab al-Aramshe from Hezbollah fire or to assist in their evacuation But even where Israel may have failed to take all feasible precautions to avoid endangering its own civilians by situating military assets in or near densely populated areas Hezbollah would not have been justified under the laws of war to respond with indiscriminate attacks Haifa is Israel’s third largest city and the main city in the country’s north Its population of 267,000 is about 13 percent Arab Haifa is built mainly on the north-facing slopes of Mount Carmel and neighboring hills Situated 30 kilometers south of the border, Haifa had no experience of being hit by rockets from Lebanon, although Iraqi Scud missiles reached it in January 1991, during the Gulf War between Iraq and a US-led coalition.136 Rocket strikes in Haifa during 2006 armed conflict according to data provided by Israel Police.© 2007 Human Rights Watch The first rocket of the 2006 conflict to reach Haifa struck on the evening of July 13, the war’s second day. City Police Chief Nir Meri-Esh identified it as an enhanced-range 122mm rocket that landed near the Stella Maris monastery, about halfway up Mount Carmel, near the top of a hillside cable-car line. It caused no injuries or major damage. In a statement issued at 2 p.m. that day, Hezbollah had threatened to attack Haifa and its surrounding areas if Beirut or its suburbs were attacked. After Israel reported the strike on Haifa, Hezbollah deputy leader Sheik Na`im Kassem initially denied the report. "Bombing Haifa,” he explained in a phone interview with al-Jazeera television, “would be linked to any bombing of Beirut and its (mainly Shiite southern) suburbs .… It would be Israeli officials called the attack on Haifa on July 13 “a major escalation.” No further rockets hit Haifa until July 16 a 220mm rocket penetrated the soft roof of a railroad maintenance hangar located in the port area shooting out tens of thousands of steel spheres Those projectiles killed eight railway workers and inflicted serious injuries on at least four others It was the first time Hezbollah had successfully fired a 220mm rocket into Israel Until then it had relied on regular and enhanced-range 122mm rockets Israel’s national railroad, of which this maintenance hangar is a part, is above all a transportation network for Israel’s civilian population. While soldiers use it individually for transportation, the railroad contributed in no substantial way to Israel’s war effort, and therefore cannot be considered a military target. Human Rights Watch interviewed three injured railway workers at Rambam Hospital. One of them, Alek Vensbaum, 61, recalled: There were three loud booms and I started running out of the depot …. One of the guys, Nissim, who was later killed, yelled at everyone to run to the shelter. The fourth boom got me when I was nearly at the door, and I was hit by shrapnel we all started running towards the “safe rooms,” which were on the other side and the third rocket caught me half-way across I was hit by shrapnel in both legs, my collarbone, a ball-bearing in my nose and another shattering my eye. I don’t know how long I will remain in the hospital; I will probably need plastic surgery for my eye injuries.141 Sami Raz, 39, a railway electrician, said a steel sphere pierced his lung and lodged near his heart. “I had terrible difficulty breathing after I was hit,” he said.142 More than twenty rockets landed in or near Haifa on July 16, according to Police Chief Meri-Esh, but only the direct hit on the railway hangar caused any serious injuries.143 He described the kind of rocket used in that attack: The warhead of the 220mm rocket is very sensitive Some of the rockets that landed just offshore sprayed the balls into the nearby buildings One of the 220mm rockets that hit the Carmel [the upper part of the city] brushed the top of a tree [and dispersed its steel balls] before landing on a roof all the streets and sidewalks and cars nearby had hundreds of holes Human Rights Watch researchers visited a three-story apartment building at 16 Nahalal Street in Haifa’s Bat Galim neighborhood after a 220mm rocket heavily damaged its top two floors and wounded six residents The researchers collected steel spheres that had pierced the walls of the apartment building across the street and car windshields up to one block away 70,was inside the apartment building that was hit: I was taking a nap in my apartment on the second floor when at around 2:30 in the afternoon I heard the siren go off which I use as a safe room [since there is no shelter in the building] and have a tear in my eardrum and don’t hear well now There were two sirens that went off within the hour the police and firefighters arrived and rescued me which remained in place when the floor and walls collapsed because the plumbing to which the toilet is connected supported it Most of the people living in the building were not at home at the time, or were injured lightly, except for one fellow who was on his balcony on the first floor when the rocket hit, throwing him off. He has serious head injuries and is here in the hospital.144 The apartment building is located about 100 meters from a major naval training base on the waterfront and about half a kilometer from Rambam Hospital The naval base is a legitimate military target International humanitarian law obliges Israel locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas and to protect the civilian population under its control from the effects of attack to strike valid military objectives such as the naval training base its unguided rockets were unable to target these objectives precisely and instead indiscriminately hit civilian neighborhoods and objects More than 45 rockets fell within 500 meters of Rambam hospital according to data provided by the Haifa police department The intended target of these rockets is not known; however the naval base is across the street from the hospital campus the IDF had emptied its soldiers from the base on the second day of the war But being disused would affect the calculation for proportionality—an attack on an empty base would more likely have posed risks to civilian and civilian structures in the vicinity that exceeded the expected military advantage from such an attack provides specialized services for residents of the entire region and general care for Haifa residents The fact that it also treated wounded soldiers many of whom were flown in by helicopter from the Lebanese front would not make the hospital a military target If Hezbollah had indeed been targeting military or industrial objects in Haifa some of the time it expressed no regret for the civilian casualties it was inflicting until its rockets first hit the majority-Arab neighborhood of Wadi Nisnas on August 6 killing two residents and seriously wounding a third It was then that Hezbollah secretary-general Nasrallah went on television to urge Arab residents to leave the city (See chapter below on “Hezbollah’s Justifications for Attacks on Civilian Areas.”) A building in the Wadi Nisnas neighborhood of Haifa housing the archives of al-Ittihad newspaper killing two elderly persons next door.  © 2006 Erica Gaston  Wadi Nisnas is located about one kilometer above the industrial waterfront were sitting on Hammam’s ground-floor front porch spraying steel spheres that mortally injured both of them The building that was struck houses the archives of the Arabic-language communist daily newspaper al-Ittihad a political activist who lives one flight up from the porch where the two were killed Hezbollah issued a communiqué stating that it had attacked Haifa at 8 p.m with “tens of Raad-2 rockets” in response to Israel’s attacks earlier in the day on Beirut’s southern suburbs These were the only two rockets to hit the Wadi Nisnas neighborhood during the conflict an elderly Haifa resident died from a heart attack when rockets crashed near her home The police map of rocket strikes shows three clusters of rocket landings in Haifa all of them in the lower city: to the west one encompassing the Bat Galim neighborhood of low-rise apartment buildings and the imposing Rambam Hospital complex; a second cluster in the central port area (including the rail hangar hit July 16) and the neighborhoods just above it; and a third that includes the chemical and fuel storage tanks and refineries at the eastern end of the port Interviews with Jewish and Arab residents of the city confirmed this pattern A rocket hit this apartment building in the Bat Galim neighborhood of Haifa on July 17 Haifa Police Chief Meri-Esh believes Hezbollah was aiming mostly at targets in the port area and that the relatively few rockets that reached the upper city were “over-shots.” The problem is that between the port area and the more affluent upper city neighborhoods on the hill are the lower residential neighborhoods if Hezbollah was in fact trying to hit objects on the waterfront stood a good chance of striking—and did indeed strike—residential and shopping neighborhoods just beyond Meri-Esh noted that most or all ships had been moved from Haifa’s harbor during the war something that city residents also confirmed Whether ships and facilities were emptied during the conflict Haifa’s port is home to structures that are military facilities Dual-use facilities are those that directly contribute to the war effort and if so can be targeted Attacks on dual-use facilities are bound by the same prohibitions on indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks as attacks on purely military targets Because dual-use facilities such as electrical power plants and civilian ports typically have significant civilian functions there is a particular concern that their destruction will cause civilian harm in excess to the anticipated military gain and thus be disproportionate The conclusion that Hezbollah was targeting the waterfront is shared by Kobi Bachar police chief for the adjacent Zvulon district which includes the industrialized coastline just to the east and north of Haifa The 2006 conflict was the first time Hezbollah rockets had reached Karmiel, a city of 44,000 located in the central Galilee’s Beit HaKerem valley, 18 kilometers south of the border. City Police Chief Ephraim Partok said the police identified 193 rocket strikes in and around the city, but more rockets could have fallen undetected in open areas.148 Of the 193 that the police recorded Most of the rockets were loaded with steel spheres or submunitions While the rockets caused only one moderate injury in the Jewish city of Karmiel they killed four residents of the adjacent Arab towns of Majd al-Krum and Deir al-Assad Karmiel contains no significant military base or other fixed military target; nor was the IDF firing artillery rounds from inside the city, according to the town’s security chief, Yair Koren.149 Outside of town a company producing both civilian and military aircraft components has a large plant located in the Barlev industrial park It is located about four kilometers west of the outskirts of Majdal Krum and six kilometers west of the outskirts of Karmiel On at least fourteen days during the conflict—July 13 and12—Hezbollah issued communiqués announcing that it had attacked Karmiel earlier in the day Those communiqués specified no target within the city and never cited the Cyclone Aviation plant west of the city Hezbollah did not reply to requests for information from Human Rights Watch about its intended targets in Karmiel When asked whether there were military targets in the vicinity some residents of Majd al-Krum and Deir al-Assad said that the IDF had emplaced an artillery piece on a hilltop just north of their towns Some also said that the Karmiel’s industrial zone might have been considered to be a target They could point to no other possible military targets in the vicinity of their towns But even if any military targets could be confirmed this cannot explain the general dispersion of nearly 200 rockets in and around Karmiel It appears much more likely that Hezbollah was deliberately aiming these rockets at the civilian population One apparent reason that Karmiel received such a heavy pounding is because it is one of the five Israeli cities with populations over 25,000 within striking distance of a standard 122mm rocket fired from Lebanon (the other four being Nahariya and Akko to the west, and Safed and Kiryat Shmona to the east).150 The rockets started landing in the area on July 13 they hit Karmiel regularly throughout the conflict several rockets hit Majd al-Krum to the west and the industrial zone in the eastern sector of Karmiel they seemed more dispersed throughout Karmiel and its surroundings The rockets caused few physical casualties in Karmiel itself apparently because its residents were well-drilled in the use of shelters and safe rooms One-third of the population left town for part or all of the conflict The only resident to suffer more than a minor injury was Boris B. a fifty-seven-year-old Russian immigrant who asked that his family name be withheld a rocket went through the roof of the apartment building and blasted into his living room Boris suffered moderate injuries to his arm and leg as well as minor shrapnel wounds all over his body as many as 600 buildings in Karmiel sustained some damage from shrapnel and especially from the ball bearings that filled the warheads of many of the rockets Koren said that the damage was worse from rockets that landed in open areas because they caused a broader shower of shrapnel than when a rocket directly hit a building “A rocket that fell in the open in one neighborhood could spray ball bearings into a four-story building in another neighborhood,” he said Hezbollah hit Karmiel with three basic types of rockets: most were 122mm rockets loaded either with steel spheres or with submunitions containing smaller steel spheres About six 220mm rockets and six 240mm rockets also struck in and around Karmiel “have a lot more explosive power and their effects are horrifying.” Koren noted that two or three of these larger rockets landed outside of the town in the last days of the war Perhaps these were the same type of rocket that had hit Haifa earlier but Hezbollah could no longer reach Haifa due to having been pushed farther north from their positions closer to the border All of the 122mm rockets that the police were able to reach in and around Karmiel contained steel spheres or submunitions This stands in contrast to other cities such as Kiryat Shmona which received mostly 122mm rockets with standard shrapnel Hezbollah first hit Karmiel with rockets containing steel spheres on Saturday the day before a ball-bearing filled rocket hit the Haifa rail yard Israel Police say they recorded twenty-two cluster munition rockets that landed in Karmiel, more than any other single town or city.151 A rocket containing submunitions fell toward the end of the second week of the war at the entrance to the electric power station located just behind the municipal building The bomb squad originally wanted to remove it but when they saw all of the unexploded submunitions they decided instead to carry out controlled explosions that night They then poured concrete to fill the hole Karmiel faced special hazards due to the high percentage of unexploded ordnance with submunitions In contrast to rockets loaded with steel spheres cluster rockets release submunitions that often fail to detonate upon impact This presents a risk of explosion to anyone who touches a submunition at a later time the police searched intensively to locate and destroy cluster duds and public authorities conducted a campaign to educate residents to recognize and report them Also hard-hit was the nearby municipality of Majd al-Krum whose 2.5 square kilometers encompass the Arab towns of Majd al-Krum with twenty-six thousand people altogether The edge of Deir al-Assad is several hundred meters west of the Lavon industrial park According to Salim Sleebi, an accountant and former Majd al-Krum city councilmember, the Israeli media stated that a total of 43 rockets struck the Majd al-Krum area, a number to which he gave credence. He said he had personally seen about 30 spots hit by rockets.152 Another rocket on August 10 killed Miriam Assadi of Deir al-Assad and her five-year son Fathi Assadi were killed instantly by a rocket that landed in the street in front of Karim’s house of eastern Majd al-Krum who operates a small shop on the street near where the rocket fell said he was a long-time acquaintance of Karim and talked to him daily Hussein said he was in back of his shop when he heard a warning siren go off He grabbed his wife and ran inside the shop he heard a thud in the street and then some children shouting He looked and saw children gathered near two cars and there was saliva coming from his mouth I knew he was dying.” Hussein said that he believed Karim died of shrapnel wounds in the back but he did not see the wounds Then he found the body of Mana` about one meter from his car: He had been driving. When he heard the alarm, he opened his door to flee, and then the rocket landed about two meters from him. He got all of the shrapnel from the rocket, and died immediately. Imagine that you know a person, then you see him, and you can no longer recognize him.153 A pole on a sidewalk in Majdal Krum that was penetrated by steel spheres and shrapnel from a rocket that landed on the street nearby on August 4 killing two men.© 2006 Bonnie Docherty/Human Rights Watch Visiting the site of the attack on September 30 Human Rights Watch saw a filled-over hole in the street that Hussein said the rocket had caused as well as shrapnel damage on nearby poles and street signs and her son Fathi were killed instantly by a direct rocket hit on their multi-story home in Deir al-Assad Fathi’s three-year-old brother Faris lost a leg in the attack All of the family members were on the first floor of the house when the rocket hit showed Human Rights Watch a handful of the 6mm steel spheres he said sprayed from the rocket when it detonated The family has since rebuilt the wall that was hit and resurfaced the shrapnel damage but the scars are still visible on the trunk of a tree in their back yard Asked about potential military targets, Assadi Fathi mentioned that about two kilometers northeast of Deir al-Assad, atop a hill known as Har Chalutz, Israel had placed an artillery piece that fired constantly into Lebanon during the war. He speculated that rockets landing on his family home may have been over-shots aimed at the artillery piece. Then he added, “We’re just citizens of Israel. What happens to the others happens to us.”155 Hezbollah’s wartime communiqués never mention attacks on the Arab towns of Majd al-Krum or Deir al-Assad But an August 10 statement mentions an attack on nearby Karmiel at 11:20am a time close to the time of the attack that killed Miriam and Fathi Assadi More than twelve rockets landed in the eastern part of Majd al-Krum during the conflict three of these landed on July 13—the first full day of the war—and four on August 13 One that landed between the house of Soheil Idriss and the house of a neighbor destroyed a wall and riddled his car with holes from steel spheres and also slightly injured two of his children the rockets that hit Majd al-Krum/Deir al-Assad caused serious injuries in one other case A rocket that landed near the main road outside of Majd al-Krum on August 6 inflicted shrapnel wounds to the head of village resident Yassir Bshouti was paralyzed as a result of his injuries; the others in his car escaped injury Since the 1960s, more rockets have hit Kiryat Shmona than any other Israeli city. Between 1968 and “Operation Grapes of Wrath” in April 1996 inclusive, a total of 3,839 rockets hit this city located three kilometers from the border, killing eighteen persons, injuring 310, and causing another 175 to seek treatment for shock, according to a city official. 157 Palestinian groups and not Hezbollah were responsible for some of these strikes The 2006 conflict was no different: more rockets landed in the city than any other. However, Kiryat Shmona’s 22,100 residents, long accustomed to being under fire, suffered no fatalities. About half of the residents left the town, according to Danny Kadosh, managing director of the municipality,158 while the rest relied on “safe rooms” in their homes and the extensive network of shelters What made 2006 different from previous periods of rocket attacks—and what made it hard to endure—was its duration and intensity Never before had the city been hit with so many rockets and over such a long period of time According to the tally provided by the IDF 1,017 rockets landed in or near Kiryat Shmona Hezbollah’s wartime communiqués listing rocket attacks on Israel mentions Kiryat Shmona as a target on more than twenty occasions 122mm rockets made up the vast majority of weapons hitting Kiryat Shmona There were no cluster munitions or steel-sphere-loaded rockets Forty-five residents sustained physical injuries including twelve who suffered internal injuries who were first diagnosed as having light wounds; then it turned out they had shrapnel embedded in their heart or other organs and required re-hospitalization.” About 380 persons received treatment for trauma or shock About 2,000 buildings in and around Kiryat Shmona were damaged mostly surface damage from shrapnel that sprayed out from the point of impact The eastern side of town was hit more than the west He speculated that this is because of the shape of the mountain that separates the city from the border Rockets fired from Lebanon are more likely to fly over western Kiryat Shmona and land beyond it in the eastern part of the city Kadosh said there was a small base attached to the IDF command located inside the city “The nearest fighting base is based in Metullah,” he said Humanitarian law requires that military and civilian medical units used exclusively for medical purposes be respected and protected in all circumstances.159 “Medical units” include “hospitals and other similar units, blood transfusion centers, preventive medicine centers and institutes, medical depots and the medical and pharmaceutical stores of such units.”160 However military command centers are legitimate targets During the war, the fighting base in Metullah, a border village 7 kilometers to the north, moved some of its operations to the outskirts of Kiryat Shmona, Shimon Kamari, the city’s deputy mayor said. 161 Human Rights Watch saw an artillery battery firing into Lebanon from a location northeast of the intersection between the main north-south highway (No 90) and the road heading east to the Golan Heights (No it was close to housing on the city’s northern edge even before Katyushas fell on Kiryat Shmona an artillery battery was moved from the border down to here They make more noise and frighten the people here more than the Katyushas but there is no choice: They were attacked when they were on the border That is why they moved them down here.” to avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas Hezbollah may have known the location of the artillery cannon firing from near Kiryat Shmona which was on the easier-to-hit eastern side of the town But the widespread dispersion of strikes in and around this border city throughout the conflict strongly indicates that Hezbollah’s target was the city itself If Hezbollah was in fact trying to hit the city’s small IDF command base or the nearby artillery piece some or all of the time Hebrew for “the towns,” refers to the coastal suburbs between the city of Haifa to the southwest and Akko to the north HaKrayot’s population is about 300,000 It includes both vast industrial zones as well as residential areas HaKrayot towns make up most of the Zvulon police district which also includes some smaller inland towns Zvulon Police Chief Kobi Bachar said that rockets fell on the region throughout the 34 days of the conflict In addition to the 122mm and 220mm rockets three 240mm Fajr-3 type rockets and one 302mm “Khyber” rocket landed in the district The latter landed in the inland Arab village of Ras ’Ali Rockets killed one and injured about eighty civilians in HaKrayot not counting some three hundred who required treatment for shock or anxiety Bachar added the casualties were not higher because the residents are well-trained to use shelters and safe rooms and because a large percentage fled the region for part or all of the war Bachar said the pattern of rocket landings in the district indicates that Hezbollah was trying at times to hit industrial plants and at times civilian-populated areas.162 There were direct hits on houses in Nesher (southeast of Haifa) and Kiryat Yam and hits in residential areas of Kiryat Tiv’on Hezbollah hit the Delek oil terminal near Kiryat Chaim on July 16. On that day, Nasrallah gave a speech on al-Manar television in which he claimed that, while Hezbollah was able to strike Haifa’s chemical and petrochemical plants, it had refrained from doing so in order to avoid “pushing matters into the unknown.”163 In the view of both Bachar and Haifa Police Chief Meri-Esh Hezbollah sought to hit Kiryat Chaim’s ammonia and ethelyne storage facilities as well Bachar said a number of rockets landed within a 500 meter radius of these facilities including many that fell in the sea nearby He said the stocks in these tanks had been emptied at the start of the war to minimize the hazards if a rocket struck them while ammonia is an irritant gas that could create a public health emergency if released into the atmosphere But a danger remained since neither could be emptied entirely As noted in the subsection on Kiryat Yam below Bachar also believes Hezbollah was trying to hit the Rafael Armament Development Authority complex that starts at the northern limits of that city Industries may or may not be military objectives depending on whether they directly contribute to the war effort: An ammunition factory is a target; an automobile factory is one only if it is producing vehicles for military use The only rocket fatality in the Zvulon district was Habib Awad killed when a rocket hit the carpentry shop in Kiryat Ata where he worked Most of the rockets landing in the Zvulon district were loaded with steel spheres either the 220mm rockets like the ones that hit Haifa or 122mm rockets loaded with submunitions The 122mm rockets contained 39 grenades containing tiny steel spheres who said the police found 13 rockets with submunitions in the district steel-sphere loaded rockets are effective against soft targets One of the worst-hit Krayot towns was Kiryat Yam, a working-class, heavily immigrant community of 37,400, situated 27 kilometers south of the border. About forty rockets fell in Kiryat Yam, according to town spokesperson Nati Silverman.165 The rockets first hit on July 15 and continued until the end of the conflict They tended to hit between 10 and 12 in the morning and between 3 and 5 in the afternoon Steel spheres were responsible for all of the physical injuries the IDF has no base in or next to Kiryat Yam is a large complex belonging to the Rafael Armament Development Authority the police commander for the Zebulon district said he believed that Hezbollah was trying to hit Rafael He said that his command responded to three rockets that landed inside the complex and that Kiryat Yam’s northern Savyonei Yam neighborhood He added that additional rockets could have hit the Rafael complex that were handled by IDF bomb removal units rather than by the police Hezbollah strikes on the Rafael complex do not explain the scattershot distribution of rocket landings throughout Kiryat Yam the city hosted no other significant military objectives during the war The distribution of rocket strikes throughout the 5-square kilometer town—assuming that the aerial photograph of the town displayed in the mayor’s office represents them accurately—leaves little doubt that Hezbollah was firing indiscriminately even if it had hoped to hit the Rafael complex Another indication of Hezbollah’s intentions was that nearly all of the rockets fired on Kiryat Yam were loaded with steel spheres Steel spheres are an anti-personnel weapon “If they had wanted to hit the Rafael plant they wouldn’t have used the steel spheres Human Rights Watch visited “HaMiflasim” (the road-builders) public elementary school in Kiryat Yam which a steel-sphere loaded rocket hit on the afternoon of August 13 The rocket slammed into an outer wall of the school damaging classrooms and causing the characteristic round steel-sphere puncture marks on the school’s exterior wall the perimeter fence and the steel dumpster just outside The school is located in the city’s neighborhood “Dalet” and is surrounded by low-rise apartment buildings and small houses but during the 2006 conflict children attended a morning daycare program in the basement A wall of the elementary school “HaMiflasim” in Kiryat Yam damaged by steel spheres from a rocket that hit an adjacent classroom on August 13 © 2006 Bonnie Docherty/Human Rights Watch Hezbollah provided no specific information about its attacks on Kiryat Yam or its intended targets there; it has not replied to Human Rights Watch requests for information about these attacks The town of Ma’alot-Tarshiha (population 21,100) sits on seven square kilometers on hills about ten kilometers south of the Lebanese border The town is the result of a merger between the Jewish development town of Ma’alot built alongside the older and more compact Arab town of Tarshiha The population of the merged towns is about three-quarters Jewish Hezbollah rockets had hit Ma’alot-Tarshiha prior to the 2006 war. During this conflict, the town sustained more rocket hits than any other city beside Kiryat Shmona and Nahariya, according to official statistics.167 These included a single fatal strike that killed three youths Rockets hitting the town also caused a handful of light physical injuries and shock to scores of others According to records provided by the municipality, the first rocket hit Ma’alot-Tarshiha on July 16 and from that day until August 13, one or more rockets landed on 21 of the 34 days that the war lasted.168 They landed mostly in the far larger There were no injuries and almost no property damage in the town of Tarshiha Shanati Shanati, just shy of his eighteenth birthday, was As`ad Shanati’s third child. “But he was everything to me,” the father told Human Rights Watch. “A son can bury a father, but for a father to bury a son is the hardest thing to do,” he said.169 As`ad Shanati and several Tarshiha residents noted that during the war the IDF had installed an artillery piece on a hilltop about 500 meters north of the site of the deadly strike They said it was the only military target they were aware of in the town’s immediate vicinity said that the rockets started landing in and around Tarshiha only after Israel started firing artillery from the nearby hilltop The municipality’s records show no rockets landing in or adjacent to Tarshiha until July 29 After Israel began firing artillery from near Tarshiha and the houses shook day and night,” recalled Ahmed “There were orders for everyone to remain in shelters So he went out that day and at about 4 in the afternoon it happened.” Hezbollah may have aimed the volley of rockets that afternoon at the hilltop artillery piece and over-shot it a rocket hit for the first time the Arab village of Me’ilia (population 2,700; see below) two kilometers north of where the rocket killed the three youths While the presence of this artillery piece on a hill outside of Ma’alot-Tarshiha might explain this particular volley it cannot explain the rocketing of the populated neighborhoods of Ma’alot throughout the war Resident Maha Morani described the attack on Me’ilia: Hezbollah never disclosed the intended target of any of these strikes to the best of our knowledge; nor did it reply to our request for this information a rocket hit a residential ward of Mazra Mental Health Center the only mental hospital in northern Israel It is located in the village of Mazra (population 3,400) The hospital has a psycho-geriatric ward that includes Holocaust survivors Hospital Director Dr. Ilana Tal said she knew of no military base or other fixed military objective near the hospital.173 She added that the IDF did not fire into Lebanon from the vicinity at any time during the war caused trauma among patients and staff members staff had moved the patients to the back of the building after a warning siren had sounded The shelters on the campus can only accommodate a small fraction of the in-patient population Tal said that by the day of the rocket strike the in-patient population had been reduced from its capacity of 300 to 216 because of the war the staff began transferring all 216 patients to Abrabanel and Sha’ar Menashe hospitals in central Israel five or six more rockets struck on or near the hospital campus which is about 0.15 square kilometers in size Only one of these caused some physical damage; the others landed on open areas The fact that the same hospital was struck twice on consecutive days suggests that the first strike was no accident About forty rockets hit in or near the hilltop town of Mghar in the eastern Galilee a schoolteacher and Mghar resident whose sister was one of two villagers killed by the rockets Located twenty kilometers south of the border the mixed Druse-Muslim-Christian town of 19,000 was hit more than other villages in the vicinity Although Mghar itself contains no military targets There is a sizable IDF base near its entrance and another base between Mghar and Eilabun six kilometers to the south that It is not known whether and how often Hezbollah was targeting either of these military objectives; however it had attacked Hamoul [sic] and Eilabun military bases “with tens of rockets … in response to ongoing Zionist aggression.” International humanitarian law obliges Israel, as a warring party, to the extent feasible, to avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas, and to protect the civilian population under its control from the effects of attack.   According to a report by Israel’s State Comptroller, the Mghar regional council indicated that half of the region’s 19,000 residents had no access to protected shelters.174 the day a rocket killed his younger sister We heard an explosion nearby and we knew it was in our area and looked and saw a pillar of smoke and dust and we saw it was rising from our parents’ house below but Manal lived in one of our family apartments next door I saw that my father had already entered and left the apartment He told me that Manal was “gone.” She had received a serious injury to her head I entered the apartment and found her on the floor One of the neighbors had already come and taken them they brought the children to the ambulance They had been lightly wounded by fragments in their body They were brought to Poriah Hospital [in Tiberias] and treated and released the same day An ambulance took Manal to Abu Kabir [Forensic Institute in Jaffa] She was killed as she was waiting to go to a wedding Her husband was supposed to return from work and pick her up For my parents, this was the second tragedy: we had a brother who was a lieutenant in the IDF who was killed in an automobile accident in 1997.175 The other Mghar resident killed by a Hezbollah rocket was Doua Abbas who was inside her home when a rocket hit it on July 25 The rockets that hit Mghar included some cluster munitions with anti-personnel capabilities Israel police stated that the one Israeli killed by a cluster munition rocket during the conflict was a resident of Mghar Human Rights Watch was unable to confirm that a cluster rocket killed either Abbas or Azzam; however we did collect evidence that cluster munitions hit the town and caused some injuries showed us 3mm steel spheres and pieces of metal that he said he collected in front of his house after a rocket hit it between 2:15 and 2:30 p.m the same day that a rocket killed Doua Abbas The pieces of metal were consistent with the top of MZD-2 Ghanem also said he found in his yard a canister with small weapons stacked on top of each other A man holds pieces of MZD-2 cluster submunitions that he said landed in his courtyard in Mghar 2006.  On the left are the 3mm steel spheres of the type that injured three members of his family.  On the right are pieces of the top of such a submunition Ghanem’s house is in the western part of Mghar and faces two other houses occupied by family members The July 25 rocket lightly injured his son Rami Rami’s arms bore irregular scars caused by pieces of shrapnel as well as smaller round marks that Jihad said were caused by steel spheres The light injuries and the canister Ghanem found suggest that the submunitions may not have deployed properly the rocket that hit the Ghanem’s property was part of a volley of some 10 to 12 rockets that landed in or near Mghar that afternoon Human Rights Watch could not determine how many of the rockets in this volley contained submunitions but witnesses said that at least one of the other rockets was a cluster munition a brother of Afif Hinou and of Manal Azzam showed Human Rights Watch pieces of it on October 8 who makes plate-glass products for construction said that he collected them in an open field in the Hariq area just outside town These included several clearly identifiable pieces of submunitions and their casings They resemble small cylindrical bells with a ribbon at one end A plastic band full of 3mm steel spheres wraps horizontally around the middle of the cylinder Inside is an armor-piercing “shaped charge.” The steel spheres carried by Hezbollah’s regular 122mm and 220mm rockets—that is those that do not contain submunitions—are 6mm in diameter Hezbollah did not respond to the queries submitted by Human Rights Watch concerning its use of cluster munitions or the precautions it took to spare civilians It is not known whether Hezbollah rockets hit any of the IDF bases situated near Mghar Given the known inaccuracy of the rockets that Hezbollah used there was a substantial risk that even if aimed at these bases The decision by Hezbollah to fire these rockets when they were loaded with submunitions whose area effect makes them especially dangerous in populated areas exacerbates the indiscriminate nature of these attacks An examination of the pattern of rockets falling on the city of Nahariya and public Hezbollah statements leaves little doubt that Hezbollah targeted the city itself rather than any military objective On at least twelve separate days during the conflict Hezbollah issued communiqués stating it had attacked Nahariya earlier in the day providing no details on what had been targeted within the city Nahariya is a coastal city of 50,500 residents living in a mix of houses and multi-story apartment buildings Its population is nearly 100 percent Jewish there was no significant military presence or activity inside the city during the conflict At least 880 Hezbollah rockets struck the Nahariya area during the 2006 conflict killing two persons and wounding 94 or 95 others A handful of the injuries were moderate or serious including one that required amputation of a leg The relatively few fatalities and serious injuries can be attributed to civil defense measures: the city’s residents accustomed to rocket attacks from the past were well-rehearsed in retreating to public shelters Some relocated during the war to other parts of the country while the authorities bused others out for short respites Hezbollah had hit Nahariya with rockets in the past, but “nothing like this,” said Galia Mor, the city’s director of public relations.176 Proximity to the border and being within range of rockets had over the years harmed the city’s tourist industry and curtailed investment forcing some property owners to convert hotels to housing a rocket hit the roof of an apartment building and penetrated into an apartment below killing Argentinean immigrant Monica Seidman The building is located in the residential Neve Yitzhak Rabin neighborhood A Hezbollah rocket killed one other Israeli civilian that day surpassing the number that landed in any other city except Kiryat Shmona Residents and property-owners reported rocket-inflicted damage to 1,500 houses and small businesses Most of the rockets that hit Nahariya were 122mm rockets, according to Kobi Bachar, police commander for the Zvulon region. Some of these were outfitted with steel spheres. A few 240mm rockets also hit the city during the course of the war, according to Michael Cardash, deputy head of Israel Police’s Bomb Disposal Division.177 One possible military target was the factory of Blades Technology The company is a major international manufacturer of blades for jet turbine engines a number of rockets hit the Blades Technology compound during the conflict While she said that the northern part of the city was hit more than the southern part residential neighborhoods around the city were struck again and again showed that the hits were sufficiently scattered as to indicate that Hezbollah was firing at the 10.5 square kilometer city itself whether or not it sought to target the Blades Technology factory but the persistent rocket attacks took a psychological and physical toll on the populace When Human Rights Watch visited bomb shelters in Nahariya Many local residents had been spending days and nights in the shelters since the conflict began Nahariya resident Rosa Guttmann, 52, described the difficulties for the elderly of using shelter: “Access for the elderly is hard with all the stairs,” she said. “It is difficult for them to quickly get down into the shelter and later to climb back out. The shelters are cramped and there isn’t enough room for everyone.”178 Another woman who was staying in the same shelter as Guttman said: We only leave when the emergency services announce on the loudspeaker that we can go out Sometimes we stay at the shelter during the day and go home to sleep at night Yesterday we went home at around midnight to sleep but around 2 a.m We need more mattresses for everyone to sleep here Nahariya’s other fatality was Andrei Zlanski who was killed just outside a shelter in the Ragum neighborhood on the evening of July 18 Human Rights Watch researchers arrived on the scene just after the attack and spoke with eyewitness Eliav Sian The guy put his wife and child into the bomb shelter and then went out; I’m not sure why just a general warning to enter and stay in the shelters I was standing near the entrance of the shelter The guy didn’t make it and was killed instantly by the rocket had stepped out of the shelter to get a blanket for his daughter “There used to be about 70 people in the shelter but after he was killed especially those with kids,” said Yoav Zalgan “And now 30 people are usually here.” The same day, Nahariya resident Moshe Zamir, 56, witnessed a rocket strike on his neighbor’s house. “Around 6 p.m., I went outside to sit on my front porch,” he said. “All of a sudden, I heard a huge boom, and I quickly crouched down on the ground. I saw debris flying all over the place, and I ran back inside my house.” The rocket hit the house of the neighboring Akuka family, who had already left town, he said.179 On the evening that the rocket killed Zlanski Hezbollah announced in a communiqué that it had attacked the “settlement” of Nahariya “in response to the Zionist enemy’s attacks on regions in Lebanon.” When a rocket slammed into the north-facing fourth-floor ophthalmology wing at about 5:30 p.m no one was injured because the patients and the service had already been transferred to the hospital’s basement left a gaping hole in the outer wall and destroyed eight rooms and various systems installed in the ceilings and walls The hit on the hospital looks intentional when viewed in the context of the many near-misses during the war director of the hospital’s emergency room worked at the hospital continuously from July 12 until August 4 “I am sure that they were trying to hit the hospital,” he said “All around the hospital at least ten rockets fell during the war The same morning that the hospital was hit there was one that landed right next to the hospital parking lot.” From the smashed windows of the ophthalmology wing one can easily see the hills on the Lebanese side of the border from which the rockets had been fired “There are no military bases around here nothing military at all,” said Farber “I believe they know perfectly well they are firing at a hospital.” two steel-sphere-filled rockets hit the Arab city of Nazareth The first killed two small boys on the city’s edge and the second caused extensive damage to a downtown auto dealership These were the only two rockets that during the war caused any damage in Nazareth some 40 kilometers from the border with Lebanon an additional four rockets fell in the vicinity of Nazareth but outside the city limits and one fell in the neighboring Jewish city of Nazareth Illit (Upper Nazareth) The frame of a traffic mirror in Nazareth that was pierced by 6mm steel spheres from a rocket that landed nearby on July 19 age eight.© 2006 Bonnie Docherty/Human Rights Watch Zohar Muslai of the Israeli police said, “The two sites that were struck by rockets are one and-a-half to two kilometers apart, as the crow flies. By coincidence the local police chief and I were on patrol about 50 meters from where the two brothers were killed in the Safafra neighborhood. There was immense damage and shrapnel at the site, caused by a 220mm rocket.” 183 When asked about potential military targets in Nazareth that Hezbollah may have been trying to hit Abd al-Rahim Talouzi said he believed that the rocket that killed his two sons had been intended for the al-Qashli police station a large older building that sits atop a hill approximately 100 meters above the steep alley hit by the rocket Talouzi said he believed the police station was a military target because it housed sophisticated communications equipment Human Rights Watch was unable to confirm or refute this assertion There is a military base a few hundred meters from the auto dealership in the Bir al-Amir neighborhood of the city In the region surrounding Nazareth and nearby Arab villages there are various IDF defense industries and military bases including the Kfar Ha-Horesh camp about one-half a kilometer south of the city and the Ramat David (Nahalal) air force base twelve kilometers west of town Kibbutz Saar sits slightly northeast of Nahariya and seven kilometers from the border had departed during the first week of the conflict and those who stayed spent most of their time in bomb shelters a rocket killed kibbutz member David Lalchuk who had stayed in the kibbutz to look after the citrus orchards he left home by bicycle to check the gardens but turned back when a warning siren sounded He had almost made it back to the house when a rocket struck the yard sending out large shrapnel that pierced his body He had immigrated years earlier from the United States; his wife and children had left the kibbutz during the conflict Kibbutz secretary Yair Boymal said the day after the killing that during the three previous weeks seven rockets had fallen on the kibbutz itself and many more in the agricultural gardens and fields belonging to the kibbutz For three weeks we have not been able to take care of our citrus and avocado plantations, as well as the fields. The irrigation systems factory here has been almost shut down. We are losing money, we are losing clients, but we cannot even leave the shelters most of the time, let alone continue the work.185 Hezbollah did not disclose the intended target of this strike and did not respond to a request from Human Rights Watch for this information Human Rights Watch did not ascertain whether there were military objectives near the site of this rocket strike is located on hills 13 kilometers south of the border 74 rockets hit the city and another 397 landed nearby who was killed by a rocket that hit the street near him on July 13 The rockets landed throughout the city but there were two clusters, according to Israel Police’s Michael Cardash: one near the IDF’s Northern Command headquarters on the northeast outskirts of the city and one near Ziv Hospital in the southwest part of the city, about three kilometers away.186 The hospital treats mostly civilians who are often flown in to the hospital’s helipad The IDF Northern Command is a legitimate military target; the hospital is not regardless of whether it treats soldiers along with civilians A rocket struck next to the northwestern corner of the hospital at 11 p.m The blast broke windows and blew others out from the first to the fourth floors It also damaged a reinforced concrete platform that holds some of the hospital’s water and gas-processing systems In a communiqué issued late on the evening of the strike near the hospital It announced separately an attack at 10:10 p.m on the IDF’s Northern Command in the city 125 Except where noted all population data for Israeli towns and cities is taken from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics’ provisional data for December 31 http://www.cbs.gov.il/population/new_2007/table3.pdf (accessed May 25 126 E-mail communication from Michael Cardash to Human Rights Watch earlier police tabulation stated that 106 rockets landed in the greater Akko area “War in the North” Powerpoint presentation 127 Human Rights Watch interview 128 Human Rights Watch interview 129 Human Rights Watch interview 130 See Protocol I 131 See Protocol I 132 See Protocol I 133 Human Rights Watch interview 134 Israel police “Rocket Strikes in Haifa,” Powerpoint presentation on file at Human Rights Watch; and Human Rights Watch interview with Nir Meri-Esh Michael Cardash of the National Police gave slightly different figures for Haifa: 56 rockets total inside the city E-mail communication from Michael Cardash to Human Rights Watch 135 “War in Haifa July—August 2006,” PowerPoint presentation provided to Human Rights Watch by the Haifa Police 136 See Human Rights Watch Needless Deaths in the Gulf War: Civilian Casualties during the Air Campaign and Violations of the Laws of War http://www.hrw.org/reports/1991/gulfwar/CHAP8.htm 138 Human Rights Watch interview 139 “Nasrallah: We are ready to face the ground assault,” an-Nahar 141 Human Rights Watch interview 142 Human Rights Watch interview 143 E-mail communication with Human Rights Watch 144 Human Rights Watch interview 145 Human Rights Watch interview 146 Fadi Eyadat “Arab Katyusha Victim Marks Tortuous Year in Intensive Care,” Ha’aretz 147 Hezbollah issued a communiqué that day stating it had attacked Haifa at 11 a.m in response to Israeli “aggression” against Lebanon 148 Human Rights Watch interview 149 Human Rights Watch interview 150 Human Rights Watch interview 151 Handout provided to Human Rights Watch by Nissim Levy head of the Police’s Bomb Disposal Unit 152 Human Rights Watch interview 153 Human Rights Watch interview 154 Human Rights Watch interview 155 Human Rights Watch interview 156 Human Rights Watch interview 157 Human Rights Watch interview with Yedidya Freudenberg head of emergency services in the Kiryat Shmona municipality June 1996 (http://www.hrw.org/reports/1997/isrleb/Isrleb-02.htm#P635_149465) 158 Human Rights Watch interview 159 The protection due hospitals and other medical units is found in both customary international law and treaty law including the 1907 Hague Regulations in art the First and Fourth Geneva Conventions (arts 160 ICRC 161 Human Rights Watch interview 162 Human Rights Watch interview 163 “Nasrallah: We are ready to face the ground assault,” an-Nahar 164 Human Rights Watch interview 165 Human Rights Watch interview 166 Human Rights Watch interview 167 The chart lists the area as Me’ona a district centered on Ma’alot-Tarshiha 168 A copy is on file at Human Rights Watch 169 Human Rights Watch interview 170 Human Rights Watch interview 171 They had also created a website about him 172 Human Rights Watch interview 173 Human Rights Watch interview 174 Israel State Comptroller “The State of the Home Front and its Functioning during the Second Lebanon War,” (He'archut Ha'oref vetifkudo bemilhemet Levanon Hashniya) in Hebrew at http://www.mevaker.gov.il/serve/contentTree.asp?bookid=493&id=188&contentid=&parentcid=undefined&sw=1280&hw=954 175 Human Rights Watch interview 176 Human Rights Watch interview 177 Human Rights Watch interview 178 Human Rights Watch interview 179 Human Rights Watch interview 180 Human Rights Watch interview the presence of wounded soldiers at a hospital does not transform the facility into a military target 181 Human Rights Watch interview 182 Human Rights Watch interview 183 Human Rights Watch interview 184 Quoted in “Hezbollah Leader Apologizes for Attacks Child Victims,” CNN http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/20/nasrallah.interview/ (accessed June 6 185 Human Rights Watch interview 186 Human Rights Watch interview 187 Human Rights Watch interview 188 Human Rights Watch interview to enhance your user experience. By clicking anywhere on the page or scrolling down the content you can temporarily hide this banner you are giving your consent for us to set cookies Now available on numerous civilian markets the Ramon pistol manufactured by EMTAN Karmiel Ltd in Israel comes from a long streak of successful commercial sales worldwide The NATO-standard adoption trial tests of the Spanish Guardia Civil saw the Ramon pistol come out on top with 38 points out of 40 largely overtaking numerous competitors from top brands in the global firearms industry and proving the levels of performance in harsh and difficult conditions it is capable of The Ramon is a compact pistol – comparable in size and weight to a Glock 19 – which is but the latest in a long streak of “Glock-compatible” handguns to have hit the market in the past few years manufactured everywhere from the US to Turkey “Glock-compatible” pistols aim at making maintenance easier by maintaining a high level of compatibility with Glock pistol components which are commonly and readily available worldwide are manufactured in-house in Israel by EMTAN Karmiel Ltd.; the 10,2 cm / 4.02” 4340 steel barrel features six right-hand grooves with a 1:10” twist rate; the railed polymer frame olive drab green and desert tan) features a reversible magazine release catch a highly ergonomic grip with numerous slip-proof contact points and a raised beavertail to facilitate a higher grip and a better alignment between the shooter’s hand and the bore axis The slide stop lever and the disassembly are purely Glock-inspired The precision-machined slide features front and rear slide serrations The light double-action trigger offers a reasonable trigger pull (2,5 kilograms 5.5 lbs) and features a Glock-style trigger safety and standing at 18,4 cm / 7.2” in overall length the EMTAN Ramon pistol feeds through Glock 19 compatible double-stack magazines with 15-rounds magazines coming issued as standard GUNSweek.com is an online platform dedicated to information on the gun culture and history on shooting activities and the diffusion of technical knowledge in the gun world Knowledge to understand better and to a responsible approach to the gun world and its rules Copyright © 2016-2025 Digitoolmedia Srls VAT No. IT12346351005 The DEFEA defence trade fair will take place in Athens from 6 to 8 May2025 Rheinmetall will be there as a strong partner for… a world leader in the design and manufacture of innovative head systems it has been observed that wheeled chassis purchased and operated by the armed forces require additional equipment to enable… Donald Trump makes it clear that Europe must defend itself and take care of its own security The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has published a report titled Trends in World Military Expenditure During a visit by Dmitry Medvedev Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation to the Kapustin Yar missile test range,… Rohde & Schwarz advances their military spectrum monitoring portfolio by launching easily deployable monitoring systems designed to help armed forces optimize their spectrum management,… RAMON IQzoom from Rohde & Schwarz is redefining the boundaries of signal analysis by empowering armed forces to delve deeper into the… Canadian-based Galvion company has announced that their European Production Hub in Poland is now fully operational A photograph has appeared on social media showing soldiers of the Ukrainian National Guard equipped with new 9mm Fort-230A submachine guns,… Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas paid a visit to Stockholm where he held talks with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on defense… As reported by the Australian public broadcaster ABC the delivery of 49 M1A1SA Abrams tanks promised last year to the Armed Forces… The Polish company Creotech Instruments has signed a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to build a national constellation of at least… have signed a strategic agreement outlining the framework for joint efforts… Direct Action offers a variety of chest rigs The Curtiss model is designed to carry three HK… The Belgian company FN (part of the FN Browning Group) has presented a new company logo and brand tagline Streamlight introduces the TLR-8 HL-X flashlight with an integrated laser sight producing a beam with up to 1,000 lumens of power not only popular hydration systems were showcased but also personal ballistic protection—including armor specifically designed… Enforce Tac is an international trade fair aimed at law enforcement officers At the 3rd International Police and Public Security Fair POLSECURE 2024 in Kielce Holsters HPE Poland presented its offer for… a member of the Polish Armaments Group has introduced the semi-automatic designated marksman rifle MSBS Grot .308 S20… To assist with shooting training and beyond various belts and gear configurations have been developed and customized to suit individual needs where every second can determine the outcome of an operation The Polish Police have released statistical data on firearm permits issued in 2024 An increasing number of Poles now hold… The National Police Headquarters has released statistics regarding the number of firearm permits and firearms themselves in the hands of… ATN is a leading manufacturer of daytime optics The innovative features and ergonomic designs… Grand Power is a Slovak manufacturer of the acknowledged good quality firearms Take part in our guided tour with English subtitles The Vanguard is a uniform set from the Polish brand Direct Action designed in collaboration with special forces soldiers The holographic sight is a device known for nearly 30 years and used by professionals around the world At Defense & Security Thailand exhibition Emtan Karmiel presented 3 new assault rifles based on the AR-15/M16 design an Israeli small-arms manufacturer for military and law enforcement use presented 3 new firearms at the Defense & Security Thailand exhibition New products from Emtan are AR-15/M16 pattern rifles 5,56 mm x 45 (MZ-4P) and .300AAC Blackout (MZ-300) The MZ-47 is a 7,62 mm x 39 automatic weapon compatible with the AK standard magazine available in two barrel lengths – 11,5″ and 14,5″ Both lengths feature upper and lower case aluminum 7075 T6 material with 650-850 RPM rate of fire hard chrome-lined bore and rifling with 6 grooves RH and 1 twist in 9,45” and an optional ambidextrous charging handle The MZ-47 is available also in a semi-automatic version MZ-47 is guided towards the countries that have a large supply of 7,62 mm x 39 ammunition but want upgrade from outdated AK pattern rifles The MZ-4P with Piston Operation System is a 5,56 mm x 45 NATO automatic rifle compatible with AR-15/M16 pattern magazines and is available in two barrel lengths – 11,5″ and 14,5″ Both lengths feature upper and lower case aluminum 7075 T6 material and an advanced Piston Operation System eliminating gas exiting at the rear of the rifle that makes it a good supressor host because of the lack of excess gasses escaping from the chamber into shooters face .300AAC Blackout automatic rifle available with optional barrel lengths of 9” It utilizes 5.56 mm x 45 standard bolts and magazines without any alterations Rifles chambered in .300AAC are often considered as good suppressor hosts Despite marketing the MZ-300 as a supressor ready rifle New firearms from Emtan Kamriel can be found at Defense & Security 2017 exhibition