Seven Civilians Dead in Northern Israel

Seven civilians were killed in northern Israel Thursday, October 31st when a barrage of Hezbollah rockets came over into Israel. 

Five people were killed, and one person was seriously hurt in a recent rocket strike near Metula. 

One of the deceased comes from Kibbutz Dafna. The community identified him as Omer Weinstein.

The other four came from Thailand, and were foreign workers. Thailand’s foreign minister confirmed early Friday that they were in fact killed in the attack and he also identified them. They were later named as Akkaphon Wannasai, Prayad Pilasram, Thana Tichantuk, and Kaweesak Papanang.

The rocket, fired from Lebanon, struck an agricultural area near the northern border town. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that they are investigating the incident further.

Two additional people lost their lives just hours later near Gaalim Junction by Kibbutz Afek, with one more individual getting lightly injured after a direct hit occurred in an olive grove where the men were working on the harvest. Israeli media later reported the names. Mina and Carmi Hasson, a mother in her 60s and her 21-year-old son from Shfaram had been harvesting olives at the grove when they were killed in the barrage. They come from an Arab-majority community in Israel’s north.

MDA added that the attack also lightly wounded a man in his 70s, who was being transferred to Haifa’s Rambam Health Care Campus.

In a different incident in the north, a woman was lightly injured by shrapnel in the town of Shefa-‘Amr.