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JERUSALEM - Israel's war against Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas has triggered an Israeli baby boom.
Channel 10 television, quoting statistics from Israel's biggest health maintenance organisation, said yesterday that the number of women now in their fifth, sixth or seventh month of pregnancy was 35 per cent higher than the figure a year ago.
Israel and Hizbollah battled for 34 days before a United Nations-sponsored ceasefire went into effect in August, and ended rocket attacks on the Jewish state and an Israeli air and ground offensive in Lebanon.
Israel experienced a four-year baby boom after the 1967 Middle East War and births increased sharply for two years following the end of its 1973 battles against Egypt and Syria.
- REUTERS
