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I went to the north again yesterday to view the damage done to the forests and agricultural fields by fire. Quite a large amount of land was consumed by fires from Hizbullah rockets that missed the populated areas, but still caused damage. A spokesman for the Jewish National Fund recently wrote in an article that the damage to the forests and fields is estimated at several million dollars and will take between five and six years to recover.

I began with a tour of the Naftali hills, which rise above Kiryat Shemona. These hills separate Israel and Lebanon, and many rockets that landed short of Kiryat Shemona sparked fires on these hills. The smoke and ash would pour down the hills, covering the town and valley below. Now that the guns have silenced and the fires all been put out, the full extent of the damage became visible. Much of the hillside is now black and grey. If the trees haven’t been totally destroyed, then they are brownish in color, as if it were autumn.

Down below in the Hula Valley, much of the same. On one side of a road just south of Kiryat Shemona, the trees are all still green, untouched by the fires. On the other side, a Katusha rocket had landed and sparked a fire, burning everything in its path up until the road. Everywhere the smell of fire still remained in the air. In some places the ground was covered with a soft layer of ash that would circulate about as I walked through the area.

I talked with two firemen at the Kiryat Shemona station, who lamented the damage to the forests, as well as to property and lives. They said that every day during the war they were responding to something like 60 calls. They worked at a feverish pace and were even supplemented by fire crews from around the country, but still the task of extinguishing all of the blazes was too much. Only after the fighting had stopped were the firefighters able to extinguish all of the fires.

The Hizbullah intentionally targeted Israeli civilian populations, and whenever they missed often had the added “advantage” of burning forests and fields of crops. It is doubtful that any of this was seen on the news programs. Instead, they chose to focus on the suffering of the poor Lebanese people from the “war crimes” committed by the cruel Israelis. It is amazing that how no matter what the situation or the circumstances, the world media and the UN can find a way to blame Israel for it.

This entry was posted by Will on Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006 at 12:01 pm and is filed under From Israel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.