Sunday, August 01, 2010

1-Aug-10: More incoming Qassams

Idealized image of a Qassam rocket as a gift
being delivered to us Israelis, depicted
on the Hamas Al Qassam website [www.alqassam.ps]
ThisOngoingWar.blogspot.com
A Qassam rocket fired by terrorists in northern Gaza Saturday night crashed into the roof of a regional therapy center for people with disabilities, located in the Shaar Hanegev area, near Sderot. Fortunately there are no reports of injury. YNet quotes a firefighter, seeing smoke billowing from the building: "I have no doubt that had there been people in the building – it would have been a major disaster. It's a miracle..." Serious damage was caused to the building, according to Haaretz which reports that the structure's rooftop and most of the second floor of the building were destroyed.

[For the record, this was the fourth time - according to YNet - that the western Negev rehabilitation center took direct hits from incoming jihadist-terror rockets. The facility serves children with special needs, disabled IDF veterans, victims of terrorist attacks, and post-traumatic stress disorder patients.]

Tonight's rocket fire comes after the IDF responded to Friday's daytime rocket attacks on Israeli civilians from jihadist Gaza. We reported that here: 30-Jul-10: Firing on Ashkelon again

During Friday night, IDF aircraft mounted a pinpoint aerial attack on targets in Gaza during which a well-known Hamas figure, Issa Abdul-Hadi Al-Batran, was reportedly killed. An Iranian news-site calls him one of Hamas' commanders. AFP is a little more precise, terming him "a senior field commander". UPI says he was "a senior Hamas military commander and had survived five previous attempts on his life by Israeli forces". Maan News, a Palestinian Arab source, calls him the leader of the Al-Qassam Brigades. The Guardian reports that he was also a rocket-maker, adding that the targets hit in Friday night's air strike included a military training camp in Gaza City, smuggling tunnels under Gaza's closed border with Egypt and Al-Batran's shack on the outskirts of the Nusseirat refugee camp.

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