Deaths of two children in rocket attacks shocks Nazareth residents

Published: 2006-07-20

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Two children were killed in direct rocket attacks on Nazareth, Israel, shocking residents of the mixed Christian-Muslim city. The July 19 shelling was the first attack on Nazareth by Hezbollah militants based in Lebanon, although a Jewish area near Nazareth was hit days earlier. Eisam Abu Nasser, a Catholic attorney and father of three small children, said there was no warning; the only working siren in the city was barely audible. He said the children had been playing in the street and added that most of the city's neighborhoods do not have bomb shelters. "I am not a weapons expert, but I think it is hard to aim a Katyusha (rocket), and I also don't think it is so important for Hezbollah where the missiles land," he said in a telephone interview. He noted that Katyushas have already landed in numerous other Arab villages in Galilee, putting Arab citizens of Israel in the line of missiles launched by fellow Arabs in Lebanon. "There is fear and there is shock. We never thought it would be here," he said.

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