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Sign of the times? Third earthquake in two weeks felt in Israel

Although no injuries or damage were reported, for residents of the Jewish State, where earthquakes are uncommon, the quake caused panic.

By World Israel News Staff

A relatively minor 3.7 magnitude earthquake was felt throughout Israel’s northern region late Saturday evening. It was followed by a second one less than 12 hours later  in the same vicinity, which measured 3.5 on the Richter scale.

The epicenter of the earthquake was some 20 miles southeast of Nazareth, not far from Israel’s border with Jordan.

People in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria also said they felt the tremors.

Saturday’s tremors came just two weeks after a stronger, 6.6-magnitude quake occurred off the coast of Cyprus, which was also felt in Israel.

The quake did manage to caused some panic. “I felt a strong earthquake again,” a resident of the northern city of Nahariya told Ynet. “The sofa was moving. A feeling of helplessness.”

A resident of Tiberias told Walla News that she and her family were rattled by the earthquake.

“My whole body was trembling with fear. I started grabbing my kids to get outside,” she said. ‘The bed really moved. All the windows were shaking.”

“It went on for a relatively long time. It moved things around in my house,” a Haifa resident told Walla. “My desk was moving by itself for four or five seconds. The whole house, the bed, the room shook.”

Israeli police reported dozens of calls to its emergency hotlines. No casualties or significant damage was reported.

Dr. Avi Shapira, a seismologist, appeared on Channel 12’s Morning News with Niv Raskin and downplayed the seriousness of the quake.

“This is a fairly small and weak earthquake. Such tremors have been felt in the past,” he said.

Shapira noted that seismologists were not concerned about the two earthquakes occurring in a relatively short time span and shot down fears that the tremors could indicate that a large earthquake is imminent.

“We do not see a change in seismic rate activity,” he said.