Twelve Israel Defense Forces reservists were killed by a Katyusha rocket yesterday near the entrance to Kibbutz Kfar Giladi, close to the Lebanese border, in the deadliest attack on Israelis since the fighting with Hezbollah began on July 12.
At least five others were wounded, one seriously, hospital officials said. The rocket hit an area where logistics and headquarters officials from the reserve paratroopers battalion, which was recently called up, were stationed.
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The IDF Northern Command said last night that there had not yet been a full inquiry into the incident. The soldiers were apparently not wearing helmets or bulletproof vests during the rocket attack. In addition, the soldiers apparently did not disperse, move vehicles away from each other or try to take cover - as per their orders - when they heard the air-raid siren in Kfar Giladi, which went off a few minutes before the rocket hit. There are ditches in the area that could have saved the lives of at least some of the casualties.
"We don't have bases or reinforced rooms for all the units that arrived," said Brig. Gen. Alon Friedman. "The soldiers were instructed to act according to a basic procedure in the case of a siren - personal protection and maintaining space."
Some units moved personnel from tents to public buildings in an effort to cut down on casualties. A senior General Staff officials told Haaretz that yesterday's rocket attack marked "a serious failure."
"It proves that we don't learn our lessons as we should, and pay for it in blood, even when it's not necessary," he said.
Some 50 reservists were gathered near the entrance to the Kfar Giladi cemetery when the rockets hit.
Moti Tzadok from Ariel left his buddies a moment before the attack "to get a cigarette from the car," when he heard an explosion, followed by quiet. "Afterward I heard someone scream, 'I'm hurt,'" he said. "In the first second I thought he was joking, but then I saw the bodies of my friends in front of me."
The site of the attack was a chaotic hell, First Lieutenant Yaron Nili said from his hospital bed yesterday. Nili, whose reserve unit has been stationed outside Kibbutz Giladi for a week, was lightly hurt due to smoke inhalation.
"There was a barrage of Katyushas," he said, noting that one of four or five rockets that hit the area had caused the disaster. "The blasts were very close to us. A vehicle came toward us and someone shouted that there were casualties. We ran to the other side of the street and saw hell. Two vehicles were burning, there was a lot of smoke there and we saw a lot of bodies. The Katyusha landed right where they were. There was a lot of chaos and in the course of treating and rescuing them, more Katyushas fell, and that made things difficult."
The situation could have been still worse, said kibbutz official Assaf Shapuzhnikov: Three military trucks filled with ammunition were parked next to two cars that were set ablaze by the rocket attack, but the ammunition did not detonate.
Nili and the other wounded were transferred to Rebecca Sieff Hospital in Safed.
"We received casualties with a wide range of shock wave and shrapnel injuries," said Dr. Calin Shapira, deputy director of Rebecca Sieff Hospital. "These are injuries that are typical of war."
Nili said the soldiers didn't heed the siren both because they had gotten used to the sirens and because they had nowhere to go for shelter - a charge that Shapuzhnikov refuted.
"Ten minutes before the Katyusha barrage, we heard the kibbutz public announcement system, which said to get into shelters," said Nili. "We've already been there for a week and have gotten used to the warnings. We didn't take cover, and we don't have anywhere to hide. Most of the troops stationed in the field don't have cover. All week we were joking around that the place where we were was safer than Kiryat Shmona. Today it turned out we were wrong."
However, Shapuzhnikov said there were bomb shelters where the soldiers could have stayed, but that they had refused to use them. "Unfortunately," he said, "the people who were hurt didn't listen to our warnings."
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