3 killed in rocket barrage on Nazareth

[Scurrilous]

Rockets hit Nazareth, killing two siblings and a third person according to police reports. Rockets also land in Afula, Haifa area, Nahariya, Carmiel, Safed, Tiberias and Jezreel Valley. One of the rockets lands near security facility

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3278460,00.html

<snip>

"Deadly attack on Jezreel Valley: Three people, two siblings and another person, were killed Wednesday afternoon in a Katyusha barrage on Nazareth. The Katyushas landed in several places. A house in one of the town's neighborhoods sustained a direct rocket hit which killed two children. Reports about rocket attacks in the Afula area and in Nazareth Illit were also received."

<snip>

"Nazareth Mayor Ramaz Jaraisi told Ynet he heard the reports while driving: "I heard about the attacks on Nazareth."

During the morning hours, the Home Front Command recommended a cautious staet of routine. "Today we held our camps within buildigns. This is a very crowded neighborhood. I have no idea what the identities of those killed are," Jaraisi said.

At the same time, rockets were fired on the Galilee and two other rockets fell on Hatzor Haglilit. Another 12 eockets fell in the Kiryat Shmona area. Four rockets fell in Tiberias and the surrounding region, and a number of people suffered from shock. One rocet struck a house - no injuries were reported. A blaze broke out in the area due to the falling of a rocket in open territoriy. In Carmiel a rocket struck a house - no injuries were reported in that attack either."

[cali]

1. in the grand tradition of bitter irony

the siblings- two little boys- were Arab Israelis.

[bemildred]

2. Bombs are no respectors of persons.

"Precision bombing" is an oxymoron. Pragmatically, it means the bomb "usually" will land near where it was aimed. Bombs are inherently indiscriminate.

[cali]

3. I don't know enought about munitions to

comment, but bombs are inherently anti-human.

[bemildred]

4. Indeed, Sir (or Madam, as the case may be).

:thumbsup:

[pelsar]

5. i do...

katushas and the other types of rockets being aimed at israel can only hit areas, they are very imprecise...so they are ideal for hitting cities.

laser guided munitions can hit to the meter, while the explosion itself is "indiscriminate" in what it destroys, its aimed and hits a definitive object (assuming nothing goes wrong with the mechanics)

[bemildred]

9. The thing is this ...

If you have a bomb that takes, say, a 30 meter divot out of whatever it hits, and damages everything in a range 2-3 times that, then it mis-states the case in some respects to claim it has "precision" of one meter. It is one thing to be able to aim within one meter, and another to have a "precise" effect that damages only what one intended.

Now the whole idea with explosives is to make a big bang, to destroy lots of stuff so that you have a good chance of damaging what you set out to damage if you get the bomb nearby. And the whole idea of "precision" in aiming bombs is to increase the chance of destroying what you wanted to destroy, it has nothing to do with avoiding "collateral damage" or any concern with bystanders, it's just about not wasting the bomb because it fails to get close enough.

So it is in that sense that I am complaining about the use of "precision" as applied to aiming bombs. If you want precise effects, you use precise weapons, guns, or edged weapons, or the like.

[eyl]

10. I think it's just a problem

of military terminology being incompletely translated to common usage.

In miltary parlance, as you say, "precision" refers to how accurately you hit the target; there's a separate term ("kill radius" in the IDF*) to describe how much of the surroundings are damaged.

*At least for light explosives like mortars or grenades, I don't know if they have a seperate term for "real" bombs"

[bemildred]

11. I think it's definitely used as a public relations device too.

I know the US military will start going on about "precision strikes" when it does something embarassing.

[eyl]

7. It should be noted

this wasn't by chance - Nazareth is a town where most of the populace is Arab. Katyushas are innaccurate, but not so innaccurate as to hit the wrong city.

So much for claims that Hizbullah is acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.

[Igel]

6. What's a security facility?

Could it be a place where detainees are kept?

Wouldn't it be ironic if an Allah's Party katyusha hit and killed Allah's Party fighters in detention? "I'm sorry, Mr. Allah's Help (Nasrallah), sir, it would appear that you're responsible for killing the people you wanted to save. Does this mean that you're going to fire katyushas at Allah's-Party-controlled areas now, or merely at yourself?"

(And--since one can never say anything about just one side, however much the OP points to that one side as the topic of conversion some people have their 'topic gauge' set to a single topic for the duration and believe they must defend their topic--yes, it would also be ironic if Israel bombed a Hezbollah target and it turned out to be where Hezbollah was holding the Israelis.)

[Waya]

8. Horrible! And 23 tons of 'equipment' .....

....were dropped on Beirut and surrounding areas.....dozens died there, including children.....

[Scurrilous]

12. Nazareth: No one told us, the Arabs, to take shelter

Residents of predominantly Muslim and Christian town accuse government of failing to sufficiently instruct residents on what to do when rockets hit; ‘If they had instructed us to take cover, as in Jewish towns, death of two children might have been prevented,’ Nazareth man says

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3278550,00.html

<snip>

"Following the fatal rocket barrage that struck Nazareth Monday, residents accused the government of failing to warn the mostly Arab population to take cover in bomb shelters when the Katyushas started flying. “If they had instructed us to enter protected areas, as they did in the Jewish towns, the tragedy might have been prevented,” Nazareth resident Tarek Kubati told Ynet, referring to the deaths of two brothers , 3 and 9, who were playing outside when the rockets hit Wednesday.

The rockets caught local residents unprepared, they related. “We knew it could happen to us too, but when no one is sounding the alarms or distributing instruction flyers, we just continued life as usual,” Kubati said."

<snip>

"Barhoum Jaraisi, who lives in the neighborhood, agreed with Kubati. “When dealing with Arabs, the establishment doesn’t care if we get hit. We’re used to this. It’s nothing new,” he said. “When there were rocket strikes on Monday in Nazareth Illit nearby, their siren went off. But here no one was told to enter shelters. I called the police and asked why, and they said they’d get back to me.”

“No one has gotten back to me back yet,” he added."

[barb162]

13. very tragic news