Hezbollah Rockets Hit Nazareth, Killing Two Children

Hezbollah rockets slammed into the Israeli-Arab town of Nazareth on Wednesday, killing two young Arab brothers as they played outside and wounding 18 other people, Israeli authorities said.

The attack came hours after Israeli troops engaged in a fierce firefight with Hezbollah guerrillas inside Lebanon, in a clash that killed two soldiers and one of the militants.

Nazareth is the largest Israeli-Arab town in the country and is the centre of Arab life in northern Israel.

One of Katyusha rockets landed in a densely populated neighborhood, killing Muslim two brothers, Mahmoud Talussi, 4, and Rabiah, 8, as they played outside, relatives said.

The deadly blast hit an alleyway between two houses, leaving a metre-deep crater in the ground and tearing a hole through a wall in one house.

A bathroom inside was exposed and water shot out of burst pipes into the street. A total of 18 people were wounded in the attacks on Nazareth, police said.

Nazareth, the holy Christian site, is revered as the Galilee town where Jesus was raised and is filled with churches, including the Basilica of the Annunciation, the largest basilica in the Middle East, which towers over the town centre.

The basilica stands on the site where Christians believe the Angel Gabriel appeared before Mary and told her of the coming birth of Jesus.

Previous attacks during the 8-day-old rocket barrage have hit the nearby Jewish town of Upper Nazareth, but the rockets fired on Wednesday afternoon was the first to hit near holy places in northern Israel, which is filled with churches built on important Christian sites.