Three killed in Galilee rocket attacks

Over 170 rockets land throughout North; Kiryat Shmona factory hit.

rocket haifa 298.88 (photo credit: Associated Press)
rocket haifa 298.88
(photo credit: Associated Press)
Three people were killed when a rocket scored a direct hit at their home on Saturday in a western Galilee Arab-Israeli town. The three were a 60-year-old woman and her two daughters, both in their 30s. They were all in the same room at the time of the strike. They were later identified as Fadya Juma, 60, and her daughters Samira, 33, and Sultana, 31. Some 170 rockets landed in Israel throughout the day, with 120-130 of those falling in one hour in the late afternoon.
WAR IN THE NORTH: DAY 24
The second bombardment covered many cities and towns throughout northern Israel, including Kiryat Shmona, Safed, Nahariya, the Tiberias area, Shlomi, and two strikes in Ma'alot. One of the rockets that landed in Kiryat Shmona hit a factory in the city's industrial zone, causing an ammonia leak. Locals were kept away from the area, as it was investigated whether the leak constituted a public health hazard. Two buildings in Ma'alot were struck in the first attack on the town. However, the residents, who have been alerted by an alarm that sounded in the area, had already left the buildings, and so no one was wounded in the attack, Army Radio reported. One building was also hit in Nahariya. Several fires erupted in the area as a result of the assault. Fires were also reported to have broken out in the Golan Heights. Alarms sounded in Safed, Rosh Pina, Nazareth, Afula and throughout the Upper and Lower Galilee. Earlier, six mortar shells were fired from Lebanon towards the Golan Heights. The shells cleared their target and landed in Syrian territory. The IDF assessed that the launch - the second that landed in Syria in the past 24 hours - was meant to encourage Damascus to join the fight against Israel. In the assault on the Haifa periphery, eight people sustained light wounds from shrapnel and about 16 others suffered from shock. An 85-year-old woman from Kiryat Ata went into cardiac arrest and died during the barrage, as she was leaving a bomb shelter to go back home. A residential building sustained a direct hit, igniting a fire. Firefighters who rushed to the area quickly extinguished the flames. Industrial buildings and several cars were also damaged by the assault, some of which caught fire. As a result of the barrage, some of the electrical power supply was disrupted in the Haifa area. The Israel Electric Company asserted that power should be restored within some two hours Alarms were sounded in Haifa, Acre, Karmiel and Shfaram, though there were no reports of rockets falling within those cities.