Soldiers killed in rocket attack

Hezbollah fired an enormous barrage of rockets at towns across northern Israel today, killing 10 people in the worst attack on Israel since the violence began on July 12, rescue services said.

Israel’s Channel Two television reported that nine of those killed were reserve soldiers.

“It was a direct hit on a crowd of people,” Dan Ronen, the chief of te northern police command, told Army Radio.

One of the rockets hit the northern town of Kfar Giladi, causing many of the injuries and deaths, rescue officials said. Army Radio said a synagogue was also hit.

Convys of police and rescue vehicles raced to the town.

“This was the most difficult thing I could have imagined in my career. There are nine bodies here covered in blankets, around us cars are going up in flames,” Army Radio reporter Hadas Shteif reported as she choked back tears.

“On one side is the cemetery, on the other side are the nine young bodies waiting for burial.”

A nearby forest burst into flames from the barrage and huge plumes of smoke rose into the ar.

Witnesses reported the barrage was going on more than 15 minutes after it had begun. One rescue service reported at least two rockets directly hit homes.

All the fatalities were caused by one of the rockets, which landed near the entrance to the communal farm of Kfar Giladi on the border.

Many of the rockets hit the nearby town of Kiryat Shemona, damaging a synagogue and sparking a series of fires, Mayor Haim Barvivai said, calling on all residents to remain in their shelters because more barrages were sure to follow.

The deadly strike was the worst attack in the fighting, surpassing the eight people killed in the city of Haifa on July 16. It brought the number of Israelis killed in the fighting so far to 89.

The attack came hours after the US and France agreed on the framework for a UN Security Council resolution that seeks a full halt to the fighting in Lebanon.

The document charts a path toward a lasting peace along the border, with a ceasefire monitored by international troops, but ignores Lebanese demands for a timetable for Israel’s withdrawal from the south and for Israel to lift a blockade of the country.

Despite the agreement, Justice Minister Haim Ramon said that Israel would continue its attacks on Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon.

Ramon, who is close to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the draft resolution was good for Israel, but the country still had military goals to meet in Lebanon.

“Even if it is passed, it is doubtful that Hezbollah will honour the resolution and halt its fire,” Ramon told Israel’s Army Radio. “Therefore we have to continue fighting, continue hitting anyone we can hit in Hezbollah, and I assume that as long as that goes on, Israel’s position, diplomatically and militarily, will improve.”

The fighting in Lebanon began on July 12, when Hezbollah guerrillas crossed the border and attacked an Israeli army patrol, killing three soldiers and capturing two others. In response, Israel launched a widescale offensive of airstrikes and ground attacks. Hezbollah also has fired thousands of rockets into Israel. At least 660 people have been reported killed in the violence.

Israel said it’s offensive is aimed at weakening Hezbollah and pushing the militia away from the border so an international force and the Lebanese army can take its place.

Ramon said that even if the UN passed a ceasefire resolution, Israel would not withdraw from a buffer zone several miles deep in south Lebanon until the international force arrived.

“There is no doubt that until a multinational force arrives ... Israel will remain in the security zone it is in now, and no one can act against Israel,” he said. “A ceasefire, if it comes, will be one that leaves Israel in a zone of four to five miles.”

The draft UN resolution emphasised that Israel retained the right to defend itself, and Ramon said that would allow it to take pre-emptive action against guerrillas preparing to attack.

“If we see there are launchers who are going to fire Katyusha (rockets) at Israel, we have the right to respond,” he said.

Mohammed Fneish, a Hezbollah member of the Lebanese government, said the guerrillas would not stop fighting until all Israeli soldiers left Lebanon.