[bombs in safed]

My brother has a few pictures up of the penny-ante damage that's been done by Katyusha rockets in the northern Israeli town of Safed, aka Zfat, where he's been studying for the past several months.

I'm a bit less sanguine than he is about how safe things really are, but it is interesting to see what kind of damage these rockets usually do, as opposed to the pictures of the few that are bigger or hit something flammable. It's almost as if they were hurling hyperactive fireworks rather than serious weapons. Hyperactive fireworks that can take your head off, but still.

[bombs in israel]

Northern Israel is under attack, and this includes the town of Safed, where my brother is living with a family friend. He tells me he was awakened at 2:30 a.m. by a blast about three blocks away. He's now in the hills out beyond the city, which are hopefully less of a target than the city center. But with bombs raining down and the violence escalating, it's a scary situation. Hopefully he'll get himself to Jerusalem soon, out of range of the rockets, where he can stay with friends. For the moment though, he seems to be stuck. I'm chatting with him now.