For the past two days, over 7,000 residents of Katzrin and about 2,000 residents in the northern Golan have been instructed to stay close to safe zones for long hours and wait for Hezbollah's response to the assassination of the organization's senior member, Fuad Shukr.
Meanwhile, although Hezbollah has not yet responded to the Israeli assassination, it has increased its drone and missile strikes toward the Galilee and Golan communities in retaliation for Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon and continued fighting in the Gaza Strip.
For instance, Hezbollah launched about 50 rockets at Katzrin on Wednesday and hit several homes which caught fire. Ivan, 33, was moderately injured by shrapnel and was evacuated to the Ziv Medical Center in Safed, where his condition has improved.
From his hospital room, Ivan recounted, "I was at home, and suddenly there was a huge explosion. The glass flew everywhere, I jumped out of the window and escaped. I saw that my dog was left inside and couldn’t get out, so I went back in to get him. I couldn't get to the shelter because it was too far, and I thought it was better to stay home than to run in the street. I didn’t imagine that I would be hit."
According to security sources, the barrage was not aimed at military bases near Katzrin but directly at the residential areas. One of the homes that was directly hit and sustained extensive damage belongs to Yelena Lipshitz, who was still in her bedroom moments before the explosion.
She, her two children, and her dog miraculously survived the impact, but she hasn’t found her Persian cat, who has gone missing since the strike. "You can't enter the house, everything is broken and filled with smoke," Lipshitz said in pain, looking at the ruined building she barely escaped from.
"I heard the siren, woke up, and left my bedroom and then the booms started. Suddenly, there was a noise I can’t even describe," Lipshitz recalled. "Everything exploded around us, I fell in the living room and felt I couldn’t move and that my legs were paralyzed. I crawled on all fours, thinking this is it, I’m staying here."
With the help of her children and neighbors, she managed to escape the house with her dog, who is 10 years old. Her house, like her neighbors', does not have a secure room, and the public shelter is far from them. It turns out that running wouldn’t be enough to keep up with the rocket barrages.
One of Lipshitz's neighbors, Chaim Malka, also described the moments of sirens and explosions. "I heard the sirens and the tremendous explosions and then there was an ear-splitting boom. I heard the neighbor screaming 'Help me.' Her house went up in flames, and she escaped by a miracle," he said. "It was a miracle, but I don’t know how long we can rely on miracles. Where is Mr. Security and Mr. Economy," he said, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "What was the purpose of the evacuation? Why did they empty the Galilee?" he wondered.
Hezbollah's attack reached the second floor of the house, leaving holes from all the shrapnel. "This morning I was preparing to travel to my home in Haifa for a few days to get away from the stress here. The suitcase was at the door, and I was waiting for someone to pick me up," Sarit Janach recalled, her hands still trembling from the shock. "I heard the siren and, after a second, the explosions started. I ran to the hallway and lay on the floor in the closet. Suddenly, there was a large gust of dust and smoke, and I screamed my lungs out. The refrigerator doors opened, and everything was shaking."
"I still can’t process what I went through here. I just can’t," she added, holding the broken door at the entrance of her house. Janach said. "It’s ludicrous they spend a month talking about an attack on Tel Aviv and disregard the north. The north should be treated like Tel Aviv," she added. "I want them to come see the damage here. The psychological damage. You evacuated Kiryat Shmona and the Galilee and we have become the front line."
She criticized Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, saying: "Mr. Gallant stands and threatens Hezbollah for 10 months. At least be quiet, don’t tell us about red lines. A couple was murdered, leaving three orphans and nothing changed. Twelve children were murdered in Majdal Shams and they weren’t a red line for you? What are you waiting for?"
In the afternoon, a few hours after the heavy barrage shook the city, police, soldiers, journalists and even some tourists gathered at Katzrin's Ilan's Falafel and Schnitzel stand. While it is a popular spot during tourist season, there was no point in preparing much food for so few potential customers. "Hezbollah struck the city and houses were destroyed. In the adjacent neighborhood, it’s a catastrophe, houses were also hit, and vehicles were destroyed. We’re forsaken here. Forsaken," said Eitan, a volunteer in the emergency squad.
"Hezbollah wants us to stop living, and we’re showing ourselves and them that we are alive and people are living here, and not just fighting here," said Yekhezkel Gabay and his young son Uri. Early in the morning, they had left their home in Kibbutz Shomria in the northern Negev and came up to the Golan for a trip.
The Northern Command issued a long list of travel restrictions in the Galilee and Golan on Wednesday but the public was not informed. "We were hiking at Ein Almin, and there were quite a few people hiking alongside us on the trail," the Gabay family said in surprise.
Yekhezkel said he needed a refreshing dip in the spring water and a nature walk just like he needs air to breathe. "I’m in reserves in Rafah, and last week I went home on leave. I’m returning next week, and I needed to unwind a bit and see nature with the kids. If people can live here, we can also hike here."