Rockets force first Israeli evacuation in 58 years

The sirens sounded again as two Katyusha rockets came crashing down into the northern Israeli town border town of Kiryat Shmona, about three miles (five kilometres) from the Lebanese border.

"Get us out of this hell," an angry Israeli man told Mayor Haim Barvivai, as the remaining residents scrambled to be included in the authorities' evacuation plans.

Of the town's 24,000 inhabitants, "around 15,000 have already fled to the south, in hotels, in kibbutz or found refuge with their families," Barvivai told AFP.

"Most of the 9,000 residents who are still here want to leave," he added.

Those wishing to be evacuated were invited to inform the authorities of their desire to leave following Israel's announcement that the cabinet would discuss widening its ground offensive in southern Lebanon.

"But we lack the means" to accommodate everybody, "and we had to make decisions," said the mayor.

"I cried and I cried and I cried. I don't want to stay here. The children cannot stay in the shelter any longer," said Shimrit, clutching her 18-month boy to her bosom.

The distressed 25-year-old mother queried why she and two children were not included in the list of 500 slated for evacuation in the next batch.

Miriam, who has two children and is pregnant with a third, was also denied a place on the coveted list.

The 500 residents who made it on the mayor's list were evacuated from Kiryat Shmona overnight and bussed to the coastal city of Netanya, north of Tel Aviv. They will be given temporary accommodation on an army base.

Some of those who had decided to stick it out when Hezbollah started firing rockets into the area four weeks ago are now desperate to find shelter elsewhere in Israel as the daily barrage of Katyusha shows no sign of abating.

Esther, 57, is in an almost constant state of panic attack. Shortly before the buses carrying the evacuees left the deserted town, three rockets ploughed into a nearby neighbourhood.

She ran to her building's shelter. "It's dirty here, there are rats here," she said, her entire body shaking in fear.

This usually peaceful community at the foot of the Golan Heights has been engulfed in violence since Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on the border on July 12.