The couple killed in Wednesday’s rocket barrage to the northern Israeli city Kiryat Shmona are Revital Yehud, 45, and Dvir Sharvit, 43. The couple moved to Kiryat Shmona just two years ago.
It is unclear why the couple did not leave the city, despite the evacuation order. Yehud and Sharvit were among about three thousand people who currently stay in Kiryat Shmona, of the town’s 24 thousand population.
‘People stay either for ideological reasons, or because they are too old, or because they do not want to be in a hotel,’ Igal Tzipori, rabbi of Chabad house of Kiryat Shmona, told TPS-IL. ‘Some of the people left soon after the war started on October 7 last year, but then came back.’
The death of Yehud and Sharvit marked the first deadly attack on civilians since the start of the ground operation of Israeli Defense Forces in Lebanon on October 1.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the 20-rocket barrage on mostly-evacuated northern city. Another 40 missiles were fired at the Haifa Bay area. Since the Wednesday’s morning, Hezbollah has fired more than 90 rockets at northern communities.
Fires broke out in several buildings from falling shrapnel and direct hits. Later in the day, the Israel Defense Forces released footage of an airstrike on the launcher that fired the barrage at Kiryat Shmona. Firefighters also battled blazes in Safed, Hatzor HaGlilit, and near the Birya forest.
Image - Ayal Margolin/Flash90