No rockets but no relief: Nahariya residents see no end to war despite Lebanon ceasefire |
NAHARIYA — Less than an hour before a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect at midnight Thursday-Friday, Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets into northern Israel.
In the city of Nahariya, fragments falling from an interception damaged a community center and moderately wounded one man in his 40s. In the city of Karmiel, 31 kilometers (18 miles) away, rockets fired by the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group resulted in serious wounds to a 17-year-old girl and a 25-year-old motorcyclist. In addition, 20 more people were lightly injured, including seven children.
Friday morning dawned sunny, windy and quiet, with the ceasefire holding – as of now.
Nahariya resident Shimmy Levy, who lives a few streets away from the community center, stood on the sidewalk with his two sons, aged 6 and 10, looking at the damage from the previous night’s strike.
“Luckily, the rockets were shot at night, and children weren’t in the kindergarten,” Levy told The Times of Israel, pointing to the kindergarten across the street from the community center, where his youngest son had attended for two years.
There was still the smell of burnt rubber in the air. City workers were cleaning up debris and shattered glass. Drivers slowed down in their cars, pointing at the wall surrounding the center, used for classes and activities, where gouged-out holes were visible.
“I went to that kindergarten,” said six-year-old Amit Levy, staring through the fence at the playground, which received minor damage.
The ceasefire appeared to largely hold throughout the night, though Lebanon’s army accused Israel of violating it by intermittently shelling several southern Lebanese villages.
Since the war began on February 28, when Israel launched its campaign against Iran, alongside the US, to degrade the Iranian regime’s military capabilities, Hezbollah has relentlessly fired thousands of rockets at northern Israel.
Moshe Davidovich, chair of Mateh Asher Regional Council, which borders Nahariya in the Western Galilee, charged that the ceasefire agreement was “signed in Washington” but “paid in blood, in destroyed........