Evacuees.

This is coolbert:

It seems that the Israeli military and people really ARE shook up about the current fighting that continues unabated in Lebanon between the Israeli and Hezbollah fighters.

About 500,000 Israeli civilians are said to have VOLUNTARILY left the northern part of the country. To escape the unceasing barrage of rocket artillery fired daily by Hezbollah.

[Israel has about 6 million folks tops. For that number [500,000] to leave is pretty significant. About the same number of people that lived in New Orleans prior to Katrina.]

From the Chicago Tribune:

"On Wednesday more than 180 rockets landed in northern Israel, several of them long-range missiles that fell harmlessly to open areas."

[the latter are Fajr-3 and Fajr-5??]

Furthermore, from the same Tribune, this item headline:

"Rocket casualties force Israel to rethink tactics, technology".

"Hezbollah's unguided and relatively unsophisticated missiles [rockets] have left one of the world's best-equipped armies unable to defend its citizens."

"'I don't think anybody had any way to really grasp the implications of this kind of war.' said Gerald Steinberg, head of the conflict management program at Bar-Ilan University."

"The relentless and indiscriminate rocket attacks - - which increased despite Israeli air and ground wars against Hezbollah in Lebanon - - have undermined the country's faith in both military and political leaders and are likely to force major shifts in Israeli military strategy and tactics"

"The United States and Israel invested in developing a multibillion-dollar missile defense system after Saddam Hussein fired Scud missiles at Israeli cities in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. But the Arrow-2 system is incapable of hitting Hezbollah's long-or-short range rockets, which are launched to close to Israel and land too quickly."

"Israel scuttled development of the defenses against primitive rocketry, deciding the effort was too expensive and might not work."

[this sounds like the THEL laser system which I have mentioned before. I was curious of this defensive system was being used. Evidently NOT!!]

This war IS NOT going well for Israel!!

coolbert.