Galilee Residents Fear Returning Home
Ryan R. Jones - All Headline News Correspondent Jerusalem, Israel (AHN) - Residents of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee Panhandle are filled with fear and despair over the prospect of returning to their homes, which continue to take a pounding from Hezbollah gunners in nearby southern Lebanon. Kiryat Shmona has been one of the hardest hit communities in northern Israel since the war with Hezbollah began four weeks ago. Last Saturday, 30 Katyusha rockets slammed into the town in the space of just 30 minutes. According to Mayor Haim Barbibai, some 60 percent of Kiryat Shmona's residents have fled to Israel's southern regions. But most cannot afford to stay away indefinitely, and find themselves with no option but to return to a town under siege. Several of the displaced persons shared with Ha'aretz their feelings on returning north as they checked out of the Orchid Hotel in Eilat Tuesday. Said a woman identified as Barda, "I have a 6-year-old who is wetting his bed again. My friends back home just told me of another rocket landing, another siren. I'm ashamed to be begging the hotel manager to let us stay here." Sima Bartash, who was fortunate enough to be able to remain in Eilat, recounted, "It ripped my heart when [the others] went back. There was a woman with a new baby who was devastated, she wanted to die. I tried to calm her down." Yigal Buzaglo, a Kiryat Shmona city council member, told Ha'aretz that all of the t |
