Sheva News Service - www.IsraelNationalNews.com
Wednesday, April 05, 2006, 7 Nisan 5766
Editor: Ezra HaLevi

TORNADO, SAND-STORMS AND OVERSIZED HAIL STRIKE ISRAEL
By Ezra HaLevi

A small tornado ripped across the western Galilee Tuesday evening.
Hail the size of golf balls also fell in the region. Scores were
hospitalized. Freak stormy weather across Israel continues.

The tornado touched down during a hailstorm in the Acco region,
striking the Arab villages of Julis, Fassouta and Jedaideh. Hail as
big as ping-pong balls was reported as far away as Nahariya. In
southern Israel, sandstorms reduced visibility to less than three
feet.

Nine foot waves were reported on the Red Sea in Eilat, with telephone
and cellular service knocked out for the entire city. The highways
through the Negev were also covered completely by several inches of
sand.

On Sunday, four Israeli Arabs were killed in northern Israel due to
flooding. Sahar Mehamid, 23, from Umm al-Fahm was killed in Wadi Ara
and three women from the lower Galilee village of Touran were killed
in a car accident after driving through floodwater covering the road.
PA resident Iyad Taha, from a village near Ramallah, also drowned in
the floodwaters.

Tuesday's hail and tornado broke electric poles, overturned cars,
uprooted trees, damaged crops and injured more than 75 people - most
lightly. Most of those injured were struck by objects whipped up by
the strong winds, including two children, who suffered deep
lacerations. The villages lost electricity for many hours.

Farmers report that avocado, lychee and banana crops were severely
damaged by the winds and hail.

Vadim Amar, Mayor of Julis, said that the tornado damaged dozens of
homes and asked that the region be declared a natural disaster site.

Tornados are rare in Israel. The occasional ones that have occurred
have mostly taken place over the ocean and along the coast.

Hail was also experienced in elevated areas such as Gush Etzion on
both Tuesday and Wednesday.

Elsewhere in Gush Etzion, an earthquake simulation exercise is being
held Wednesday in Beitar Illit, in conjunction with the Defense
Ministry, MDA, Israel Police, Israel Fire Department and others. The
three-hour training event began at 11 AM.

ARE RADICAL MUSLIMS FOLLOWING HITLER“S PLAYBOOK?
A7 Radio's "The Tovia Singer Show"

Are radical Muslims following a playbook of anti-Jewish hatred
carefully crafted during Adolf Hitler's reign of terror in
Germany?
That's the shocking conclusion of a book by columnist-author Chuck
Morse, "The Nazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism: Adolf Hitler and Haj
Amin al-Husseini." Morse discusses this startling connection live on
air.