The Other Victim of Hezbollah Missiles

Hat Tip: Daily Alert

While Israelis in Northern Israel have taken shelter, another victim of Hezbollah has not been sheltered at all. The New York Times is reporting on the huge toll Hezbollah attacks are taking on Israel's forests, starting hundreds of fires in the Galilee:

Officials estimated Monday that as much as 9,000 acres of land, including almost 3,000 acres of forest, has been damaged by fire in the nearly four weeks of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

According to the Jerusalem Post, many of the trees were planted back in the 1950's by the Jewish National Fund, which estimates that it will cost NIS 20 million to replace what has been lost so far and it will take up to 60 for the forests to return to the level they were at before the war.

The silver lining to this is that not only are Arabs from the area joining in to help deal with the fires that are breaking, Israel is also getting extra help from outside of Israel--from Monsey:

Eleven New York firefighters put their lives on hold this week and paid their way to Jerusalem, where they have been volunteering in a number of understaffed stations.

...Nathan Rothschild, commissioner of the Monsey fire district in New York's Rockland County, who planned the whole trip, said 22 more firemen would be coming to Israel next week to replace firemen in other parts of the country.

Some of the firemen from Monsey were interviewed.

Eli Sabo, who is also an undergraduate at Yeshiva University, agrees that there was a very Jewish feeling of duty. "We all feel a strong connection," he said. "As opposed to just sitting there watching what's going on, we wanted to help out."

Meanwhile, back in July, volunteers from Iran are headed to Lebanon to help there--as guerillas.

Technorati Tag: Israel.