With the war over, the bickering has begun over compensation for the damage caused by the thousands of Hezbollah rockets that slammed into northern Israel.
Government inspectors and tax workers set up shop in a community center in the border town of Kiryat Shemona, probably the hardest-hit town. They expected to address close to 5,000 claims after the Israeli government promised to pay for all damages caused by Hezbollah's rockets.
But it could take months, they said on Thursday, and the going wasn't easy.
PHOTO: EPA
In the makeshift claims center, residents newly returned from a month in underground bunkers or from trips to the south, out of harm's way, muttered to themselves as they tried to navigate what would almost certainly prove to be a lengthy and exhausting bureaucratic process.
They first waited in the energy-sapping heat to receive a number. This allowed them to pass to the first floor, where they could grab forms. In the basement many of them pushed toward a waist-high swinging door in an effort to reach a manager, who they later learned wasn't there.
Somewhere in the middle were four police officers and a security guard, each strategically located so one had to walk around them to get anywhere. Everywhere there was yelling and frustration.
"By 10am, there's lots of shouting. You think it's like another war," said Lior Amar, 28
He'd spent four days trying to get his claim work done, Amar said.
His neighbor's house suffered a direct hit from a Katyusha rocket, and his got the spray, he said.
By Thursday, Amar had obtained a claim form from an independent inspector that said the damage to his house was worth 13,549 shekels (US$3,150), but he wasn't confident it would be approved by the government, which has brought around 20 of its own inspectors to Kiryat Shemona.
"It's very difficult for us," said Adi Zidman, a tax worker who helped oversee the claims operation here.
Zidman said the office in Kiryat Shemona was open from 8am to 10pm and sometimes past midnight as workers struggled to process the claims, but the workload was only getting heavier as more people returned home from their refuges across the country.
There is no fixed estimate of how much economic damage Hezbollah caused with its 3,970 rocket strikes on northern Israel, but local media put the figure at around US$3 billion in damages and lost revenue.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia