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Nature a victim of Hezbollah strikes
Forests and fields across Israel are being scorched by Hezbollah rocket.
Huge swaths of forests and fields across northern Israel have been scorched by thousands of Hezbollah rocket barrages over the past three weeks, and experts said it would take nature at least 50 years to recover.
Charred twigs stuck out of the ground like gravestones at the Mount Naftali Forest overlooking Kiryat Shemona, entire fields were reduced to heaps of ash and countless animals living among the trees were killed. But with 19 Israeli civilians already killed by the rockets, the plight of the forest has been overlooked here.
"Usually when people get hurt so does nature, and the other way around," said Yossi Sarid, a former environment minister. "People do take precedence over nature and wildlife, but the damage is simply awful."
In all, 16,500 acres of natural land - forests and grazing fields - has been destroyed by the rocket fire, according to Michael Weinberger, the forest supervisor for the Jewish National Fund, the top administrator of Israel's forests. About 1 million trees were destroyed.
This forest was hit by a series of Katyusha rockets earlier this week, setting it ablaze. Afternoon gusts carried the flames, wiping out some 750 acres, and trapping gazelles, coyotes, jackals, rabbits and snakes. The stench of smoke lingered a day later. What was once green is now black and gray. More rockets pounded the forest yesterday.
Firefighters have been stretched to the limit battling the blazes caused by rockets in urban areas and are reluctant to enter the dangerous, dry and potentially deadly terrain of the forest fires.
