31-Aug-11: Rockets and remedies

More Gazan Qassam rockets en route to Israeli towns,
communities, homes, shops, kindergartens, school buses etc etc etc

Two more Qassam rockets crashed into an open area in the Eshkol region around 9 pm tonight (Wednesday). No injuries or damage were reported. [Ynet]

Moshe Arens, writing in today's Haaretz ("Iron Dome is not enough to protect Israeli citizens") shares some pertinent observations:

"The Iron Dome, developed by Rafael, is a superb technological achievement. It follows Israel's first technological breakthrough in ballistic missile interception - the Arrow, developed by IAI. For years the interception of ballistic missiles was considered next to impossible, until the Arrow, designed to intercept missiles launched from a distance of hundreds of kilometers, proved otherwise... The idea that missile interception systems, when eventually deployed throughout Israel, will provide an impenetrable umbrella under which Israelis will be able to peacefully carry on their daily lives even when Israel is attacked by rockets, is an illusion. There are other ways to put an end to the rocket threat, and the government will sooner or later have to resort to them."

Arens, an aeronautical engineer by profession and graduate of both Massachusetts Institute of Technology and California Institute of Technology, served as a member of Israel's parliament between 1973 and 2003, as Minister of Defense three times, once as Minister of Foreign Affairs and as Israel's ambassador to the U.S. When he asserts that Israel is going to have to put an end to the rockets one way or another, it's advice that is very likely being taken into account right now. The current situation is intolerable.

30-Aug-11: Dark clouds over Israel's south - hard to see from most newspapers, TVs and web pages

Sinai terrorist weapon deployment is now out of control [Source]

At this hour, the following headlines dominate the news in Israel:

Haaretz: Home Front Minister: Sinai-based cell may try to attack Israel in coming days / Israel has been warned that a Islamic Jihad-linked cell comprising at least 10 militants may may use Eid al-Fitr as 'right time' to carry out their attacks, says Vilnai; Cairo has deployed more than 1,500 soldiers in peninsula, according to Arab media reports.

Jerusalem Post: Vilnai: 10-man terror cell planning attack from Sinai / Home front defense minister says cell wants to attack Israel on border with Egypt during Id al-Fitr, and adds that the defense establishment has "concrete evidence." / Vilnai said that the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) were working in close cooperation to thwart the attack and that Israel was also coordinating with Egypt.

Yediot Aharonot/Ynet: Report: Egyptian forces raid Jihad cells in Sinai / Minister Matan Vilnai says Israel received warning that a cell comprised of more than 10 terrorists may carry out attack on Eid al-Fitr as some 1,500 Egyptian troops reportedly mount large-scale operation in Sinai against Jihad operatives / Large Egyptian army forces are fighting Jihad operatives in the Sinai Peninsula Tuesday as Israel maintains its high alertness level on the southern border following an alert on a cell said to be comprised of more than 10 terrorists.

As for non-Israeli news channels, the story is a non-starter: check for yourself. A quick but comprehensive review of the online editions of BBC World, the New York Times and other opinion formers during the past hour shows not a word of recognition of this developing crisis.

Greg Sheridan, the foreign editor of the influential national newspaper The Australian has an insightful piece today under the heading "Freedom for extremists could make Sinai the new Somalia":

"There is still much cause for hope in the Arab Spring, but we ought not to look away from the many unpleasant facts staring us in the face. Australia's best friend and closest ally in the Middle East is Israel. In many ways, Israel is the only expression in the Middle East, apart perhaps from some segments of Lebanon, of Western civilisation and values. In the long run, Israel would benefit immeasurably from more representative, democratic and successful Arab societies around it... Although, with Israel's agreement, Egypt has sent more troops into Sinai to try to restore order, it has essentially lost control of Sinai, where non-integrated Bedouin tribes are happy to co-operate with Islamist terrorists."

29-Aug-11: No, it's not quiet in southern Israel tonight, and hasn't been for some time

It's Sunday night, and the Gazan Palestinian terror groups are firing rockets at Israelis again. A Qassam rocket, fired from the Gaza Strip, exploded in an open area in the Eshkol region a short time ago [Ynet]. We're always pleased to be able to report that there are no injuries or damage, but it's not because of the terrorists and not even because of Israel's defensive measures. It's really an unpredictable and fortuitous thing that might just as easily have produced something much worse.

The tension in the south is high for other reasons. The IDF (according to Channel One news tonight, and Ynet) is carrying out a reinforcement of Israel's military presence in the Gaza Strip vicinity and the Israel-Egypt border. It's doing so on the basis of concrete intelligence and what's being termed "a terrorist alert" indicating that the Islamic Jihad terrorists are planning another attack in the area, following the losses they inflicted (including 8 Israelis killed) in their cowardly attack on unprotected, unarmed intercity buses and private cars traveling on public highways ten days ago. The estimates are that a terrorist cell has left the Gaza Strip en route to Egyptian Sinai which has become a hotbed of terrorist activity in recent months. Details of the alert have been shared with the authorities in Egypt.

We're also now aware that on Sunday night (yesterday), a GRAD missile crashed and exploded in southern Israel's Bnei Shimon region, in the general vicinity of Beer Sheba. No injuries and no damage, though not for lack of effort on the part of the terrorists. Credit was claimed by the Tawhid al-Jihad (Army of Islam) terror group.

29-Aug-11: Mostly ignored, jihadist viciousness is channeled at Israeli civilians, the younger the better

The terrorist's knife

About a thousand mostly-teenage Israelis attending a party at one of the best-known clubs in Tel-Aviv were the target of a single-minded Palestinian Arab with Jewish blood on his mind in the early hours of this morning.

Screaming the jihadist war-cry Allah hu Akbar, ramming his car-jacked taxi into Border Police at a nearby roadblock and then leaping onto the revellers in a stabbing frenzy, he managed to injure eight. Two are now in critical condition including one stabbed in the head and stomach, and two are moderately injured [source].

The club is Ha'oman 17, located on the southern edge of Tel Aviv, and one of several operating under the same name around the country.

"I saw the terrorist with a large knife. He wouldn't stop stabbing. He was gripped by insanity, he thrust his knife over and over without stopping or talking. I immediately jumped on him and tried to take the knife out of his hand. I punched him hard to stun him, but he managed to stab me as well... He had murder in his eyes. It took us a few minutes to subdue him. The club was full of kids. If he would have reached them, it could have ended in a bloodbath."

Ynet quoting one of the security guards

In its brief mention of the attack, Al Jazeera's English news channel, taking the traditional role of querying whether this is really about jihadism, writes: "Criminal incidents are frequent in Tel Aviv." In reality, the scale of the injuries was minimized because of Israeli security vigilance and a realization that the end of the Islamic religious period of Ramadan this week is predictably a time when Islamists execute just this kind of vicious attack. Yohanan Danino, the head of Israel Police, was quoted this morning saying that his forces were on alert ahead of the end of Ramadan which is why the checkpoint was set up near the nightclub.

The attacker, a man of 20 from Nablus, is in the custody of Israeli police after having his injuries treated in a Tel-Aviv hospital.

29-Aug-11: Sha'ar Hanegev region in southern Israel is hit yet again

A Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, indiscriminately seeking Jewish victims, crashed into open space  in the Sha'ar Hanegev region on Sunday night. Fortunately, and contrary to the prayers of the Islamist terrorists who dispatched it, this rocket caused neither injuries nor damage. [Source]

28-Aug-11: Another Gazan GRAD rocket seeks Beer Sheba victims

It's Sunday morning and in the Middle East, that's the start of the working week. And the jihad-minded terrorists of Gaza are indeed at work. At about 7:15 this morning, a GRAD-class rocket (range about 40 km, probably made in China and supplied by Iran) was fired in the general direction of the Israeli city of Beer Sheba (population about 200,000). Though Ynet reports it was intercepted by an Iron Dome anti-missile missile, we are aware of another report (in Hebrew) saying the GRAD in fact landed harmlessly in open land on the edge of the city without causing damage or injury. JPost, correcting an earlier report, now also says it crashed outside the city limits.

28-Aug-11: Another unquiet Sabbath

Archive photo shows Sha'ar Hanegev residents
extracting an earlier Gazan Qassam from one of its fields
[Source]

Tonight, around 10 pm [Ynet], a little after the end of the Sabbath, another Gazan Qassam rocket was fired into southern Israel's Sha'ar HaNegev region seeking Israeli targets: people, homes, cars, anything. Fortunately, it crashed to earth in an open field with no reports of damage or injury. (This benign outcome was not the intention of the terrorists, of course.)

The previous night (Friday), two Qassam rockets were fired in the same general direction at around the same time, 10 pm [Ynet]. These also exploded in open areas with no injuries or damage reported.

And a little before that, also on Friday night, a more-destructive Grad rocket exploded near Ashkelon. Again, thankfully, no injuries are so far reported.

As for the previous day, Thursday, a total of 11 Gazan rockets (Ynet's count) exploded across southern Israel, landing in open spaces adjacent to Ashkelon, Sderot, and in the territory of several of the neighboring regional councils.

26-Aug-11: Tentacles in Nigeria

Two years ago, TIME Magazine wrote: "A huge government operation against
the group in 2004 ended with police claiming victory. (Now the terrorists) are
back, stronger and more vicious." [Source]

Major terrorism in Africa today: An explosion at the United Nations offices in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, killed at least 18 people and injured more than 60 today. A vehicle penetrated the protective barriers at the compound and crashed into the main UN building on Independence Avenue in Abuja's central business district. (Voice of America says about 400 people work inside the UN building, located near other diplomatic offices including the U.S. embassy.)

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the blast. But SMH says the speculation is that it was the Islamic group Boko Haram. The media are fond of writing that they draw their inspiration from Afghanistan's Taliban movement. The reality is more complex: Boko Haram opposes Western education, Western culture and modern science. Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf, then the group's leader (his career ended permanently shortly afterwards), said in a 2009 BBC interview that he rejects claims that the earth is a sphere, a view that would be contrary to Islam. He opposes Darwinism and the fact that rain comes from water evaporated by the sun. Leaving serious ideology aside, the group's goal is the imposition of Shariah law in Nigeria's northern states.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, sits on what TIME Magazine calls a religious fault-line, the population (150 million) roughly split between a mainly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south. For many years, the northern Muslim élite (says TIME) have dominated Nigerian politics, using their positions to enrich themselves and their families. More than 14,000 people died in ethnic and religious clashes in the ten years to 2009. Evidently that number was too small for the jihadists.

TIME says:

"Over the past few years a new breed of young Muslim activists, most of them educated and from the middle class, have aggressively embraced a stricter version of Islam, rejecting anything Western and Christian."

Sound familiar? Like jihadists everywhere, the Boko Harams seek (in the words of Jihad Watch) to create chaos and terror, and to create a vacuum of stable governance, and then move to fill the void with Sharia, the only "solution" they will accept to the problem of their own deliberate making.

In mid June, angered by the statement of a Nigerian police chief that 'the days of Boko Haram are numbered', they delivered this self-fulfilling message in a hand-written note to a news agency: "

"Very soon, we will wage jihad. We want to make it known that our jihadists have arrived in Nigeria from Somalia where they received real training on warfare from our brethren who made that country ungovernable... This time round, our attacks will be fiercer and wider than they have been [and] will target all northern states and the country's capital Abuja".

This ongoing war has many fronts. And the forces of good are not winning.

26-Aug-11: Friday 4:00 pm rocket

There is a report in the last few minutes (just after 4 pm Friday) that a terrorist Grad rocket exploded in an open field south of the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon; fortunately no injuries or damage are reported.

25-Aug-11: Still more rocket barrages from the terrorists of Gaza

An Israeli vehicle took a direct hit in
Wednesday's night's Gazan salvo and was destroyed [Source]

It's hard to look at the reports of incoming barrages of rockets like those we describe below without drawing the inference that the terrorists of Gaza are engaged in deliberate provocation - taunting Israel by firing off rockets that have not the slightest pretensions to fulfilling a military or strategic role.

Their strategy seems plain: hit anything Israeli - houses, roads, shops, schools, factories, adults, children. And then hope that Israel's response comes. (The cabinet has voted for restraint several times since last Thursday, the day 8 Israelis were cold-bloodedly murdered in this latest chapter of an ongoing war.)

It's a strategy that counts (with justifiable confidence) on the apathy of reporters and their editors who have no intention of publishing news of yet more "home-made" weapons crashing into the desert sands. So long as Israelis are merely terrorized or injured and not killed, it's not headline-worthy.

But Israel's responses invariably are. Visit any of the news photo syndication agencies to see how they dwell on - and therefore promote - images of Gazan families bewailing the death of this or that admitted terrorist (or militant or activist, to adopt the language of BBC, France24, AP, Reuters and Xinhua), and of the injured receiving treatment in Gaza's hospitals.

Context is critical in understanding cause and effect. The Gazan terrorists understand well that Israeli military responses to the indiscriminate and increased fire directed at southern Israel for the past week will be what sets the global news agenda.

That's why it's vital for us to communicate to an apathetic world how the fire from Gaza keeps being renewed and escalated. As we've mentioned here, Israeli intelligence assessments are that there are about ten thousand rockets stockpiled in Gaza, every last one of them intended to blow something Israeli up.

This evening's talley so far, as recorded by the Hebrew-language Yeshanews.com website:

6:15 pm - Rocket on its way to Eshkol region
6:20 pm - Rocket crash detected in Merhavim region
6:20 pm - Additional rocket crash reported adjacent to one of the moshavim in Eshkol region
6:25 pm - Additional rocket on its way to Eshkol region
6:35 pm - Rocket crashed and exploded on the outskirts of the southern city of Ashkelon
7:15 pm - Rocket crashed and exploded adjacent to one of the kibbutzim in the Sha'ar Hanegev region
7:40 pm - Rocket on its way into Hof Ashkelon region. (Ynet confirms 3 rocket explosions are recorded in last 30 minutes.)

No one here is predicting a quiet night.

25-Aug-11: Thursday afternoon rocket fire into Israel

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in the past half hour (around 2:30 pm Israel time) landed in open territory in the Sdot Negev region. Ynet says no injuries - some damage was caused to high voltage power lines. Electricity supply is affected.

25-Aug-11: The morning after the night before

An IDF paramedic carries an infant who was lightly injured
when two rockets hit Kibbutz Yad Mordechai last night
[Source]

We wrote earlier today about the mundane reality of being an ordinary person (and by extension, an ordinary civil society) under fire by terrorists with death and mayhem on their religiously-addled minds.

An article by Chana Ya'ar ("Red-Eyed Residents in Southern Israel Resume Routine") published just now on the Israel National News site captures this at street level.

The morning after a night of rocket and mortar attacks in southern Israel, red-eyed Israelis in southern Israel tried to resume their daily routines. In many cases it was a difficult challenge, especially in Be'er Sheva, where near-constant air raid alerts kept residents racing for cover for most of the night.“Don't ask me to perform brain surgery today!' wrote Bracha G., a local resident, on her Facebook page.
Goldman described how Israelis responded to the first of two Grad Katyusha attacks Wednesday evening in the city known as the “capital” of Israel's southern region, home to some 200,000 people.
“We were on the train on the way home from a lovely evening... imagine, the train the stops, the announcement of a siren, and we all lie down on the floor of the train,” she wrote.
“This is madness – why are we not responding more vigorously, and wiping out this terrorist regime once and for all?”
It's a question many are asking in the strong light of day after a 9-month-old baby and a second Israeli, an adult, were wounded during last night's attacks on the Ashkelon area. 

It's worth reading the whole (short) piece. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis are living the lives described above in these hot and dangerous summer days and nights. 

25-Aug-11: Yet another night of terrorist violence

Ofakim, southern Israel - yesterday
[Source]

Globes, quoting Galei Zahel, Israel's army radio, summarizes the violence of the night just ended: 20 incoming terrorist rockets; rocket explosions in Beer Sheba, Ashkelon, Sderot, Ofakim, Netivot and a number of other southern region villages; Code Red sirens wailing throughout the night hours and making sleep and normal life impossible; a baby injured on the grounds of one of the area kibbutzim and hospitalized; damage to a residence in Sderot; several successful mid-air interceptions of Gazan rockets by the Iron Dome defense system in the skies over Beer Sheba and Ashkelon.

The ongoing terrorist assault, including mortars, Qassam rockets and GRAD missiles, continued to cause disruption to life throughout Israel's south, including the cancellation of Premier League soccer matches already postponed from this past weekend, and the cancellation of last night's Ashkelon Breeze festival, among others.

Though the news channels hesitate to discuss this, ask yourself what ordinary people going about their ordinary lives do when they are invited to a wedding or a family gathering on a night when the jihadists of Gaza are busy with their pursuit of those 72 virgins?

24-Aug-11: Southern Israel under rocket fire yet again

The quiet southern Israel community Ofakim
was one of this evening's targets. Residents were warned minutes before
to find shelter and leave the streets.  

It's a little after 9 at night, and a bruised Israel is counting incoming rockets again.

Ynet says five [UPDATE: seven] Gazan rockets struck various parts of southern Israel over the past 2 hours. One exploded in an open field south of Ashkelon. Minutes later, two more crashed into an open area near the town of Ofakim. A little after those, two additional rockets crashed into the Eshkol region. And then two more.

Hundreds of thousands of residents ran for shelter and are under instructions to stay there while security forces size up the situation. Fortunately it appears there is no damage and no injuries.

Still, it's a victory for the terrorists because their invariable goal - whether they are loathsome Palestinian Arab jihadists or drawn from any other part of the terror spectrum - is to terrorize, neutralize and overturn normal civil life with the greatest possible damage to property and life. Claiming a victory of just that kind, the Palestinian Arab Islamic Jihad organization, inspired by Iran and burning with Islamicist fervor for Jewish blood and spoil, asserted that it is entitled to the credit for tonight's attacks.

Israel's response is likely to be not far away.

24-Aug-11: Ashkelon area - incoming rocket fire again

It's a little after 7 pm here in Israel and the authorities here have issued a warning to residents of communities in the south and within range of the jihadists of Gaza to find shelter and stay there.  A rocket crashed into the general area of Ashkelon in the last few minutes, and there is evidently concern about more of the same. The Ashkelon Breeze festival, set for tonight, has just been cancelled.

UPDATE Wednesday 19:35 Reports from all across southern Israel of incoming rockets. Waiting for confirmation.

24-Aug-11: In case we thought the terrorist rocket fire had ceased...

Running from incoming missiles,
Beer Sheba (March 2011) [Source]

The Jerusalem Post reports that the Israeli Air Force this morning (Wednesday) targeted and hit two terrorists in separate locations in the northern Gaza Strip who were attempting to fire rockets into southern Israel. Earlier in the morning, two mortar shells fired from Gaza exploded in open areas in the Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries are reported, but light damage was caused.

Israel's official view on whether there is a truce with the terrorists is explained in the unattributed quote of a diplomat (also in the JPost):

"Israel did not enter a ceasefire agreement with Hamas, and it would continue to take action to thwart any terrorist action, be it the firing of rockets or attempts to infiltrate Israel coming from the Gaza Strip... If there were quiet from the other side, Israel would not initiate a major military action inside Gaza. This decision, he explained, was motivated by a number of factors, including the situation in Egypt, Syria and the Palestinian Authority, as well as the number of Iron Dome batteries Israel could deploy."

Ynet writes that Israelis living in southern communities close to or bordering on Hamas-controlled Gaza are again being asked today to stay no more 15 seconds dash away from a fortified location or shelter.

23-Aug-11: The rockets of Monday, the relative calm (so far) of Tuesday

BBC World Service is reporting that the government of Israel and the Gazan Hamas regime have agreed on a ceasefire. The past five days of fighting started with a terrorist incursion from Gaza into southern Israel on Thursday. 8 Israelis died that day when Palestinian gunmen attacked civilian buses and cars, murdering 8 Israelis in cold-blood and at close range.

It's now 2:00 pm on a hot Tuesday afternoon. Yesterday, several more explosive-laden rockets were fired into Israel's general direction in the Gazan/Islamist version of Russian Roulette ("we don't care who or what gets hit - it's all Jewish and Israeli so we win"). Israel's official policy has been to responded in minimal fashion in the interests of telegraphing the message that escalation is not Israel's plan. Is it working?

From the YeshaNews (Hebrew) site, this chronology and approximate description of the Israeli sites hit Monday:

Monday 12:15 am - Rocket crashed into open land adjoining a kibbutz in the Eshkol region
Monday 12:50 am - A Qassam crashed into open land close to a kibbutz in the Sha'ar Henegev region
Monday 1:20 am - The Iron Dome defence system brought down a missile heading for the city of Ashkelon
Monday 7:30pm - As we reported yesterday, multiple firings of rockets aimed at the city of Ashkelon, and into the Hof Ashkelon region.
Monday 9:55pm - Rocket crashed into open land near a kibbutz in the Hof Ashkelon region.

22-Aug-11: Ireland's NEAR 90 FM examines memory and humanity in a time of terror

Ireland's NEAR 90 FM radio devoted its Global Solidarity program, hosted by Michael Fitzgerald, this week to an interview with one of this blog's authors.

Marking the tenth anniversary of the August 2001 Sbarro Jerusalem massacre that took the life of Malki Roth as well as the lives of fourteen other innocent civilian Israelis, Michael Fitzgerald examines how life looks to a family after the murder of a child by terrorists. Arnold Roth "spoke as a parent of how the trauma of this event affected him, his family and the community he belongs to. In a comprehensive interview Arnold Roth pays tribute to the memory and spirit of a daughter who will never grow old."

The program can be heard here.

22-Aug-11: Rockets are crashing into Israel again this evening

It's now a little after 8pm here, and in the last fifteen minutes, there are reports of a barrage of Gazan rockets that exploded and crashed into southern Israel. At least two of them landed in the coastal city of Ashkelon or in the Hof Ashkelon region. Fifteen other assorted rockets, fired by the terrorists of Gaza, crashed into Israel during Sunday night and today since the bogus ceasefire announced by the media and by some of the Palestinian Arab terror organizations last night.

22-Aug-11: A deeply disturbing silence

The driver was killed when the terrorists attacked this
civilian passenger bus on 18th August 2011. Fortunately
there were no passengers. [Source]

The Jerusalem Post raises a sensitivity that has been glossed over during the past few very turbulent days here. In a story headlined "PA Silence over Terror Raises Questions about Statehood", Herb Keinon describes the  Palestinian Authority's silence over last Thursday's terrorist attack in Israel's south as "deafening". It raises serious questions about the PA's readiness for independence according to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev. Even the master hypocrite Yasser Arafat "would issue pro-forma condemnations of violence during the height of the second intifada", he observes. The PA leadership has not managed to do even that.

21-Aug-11: There's a Gaza ceasefire. No there's not.

Iron Dome anti-missile battery near Ashkelon
(click to enlarge) [Source]

Associated Press, in a syndicated story published an hour ago, says authoritatively:

"Gaza militants agreed to a cease-fire with Israel to stop spiking violence, a Hamas official said Sunday, after a deadly attack on Israelis near the Egypt-Israel border set off a three-day round of Israeli airstrikes and rocket barrages from Gaza."

The ceasefire is said to have taken effect at 9 this evening, Israel time. It's now 10:20pm, and in the past hour (says YNet) the terrorist bombing of southern Israel has continued unabated. [For what it's worth, Haaretz says the Gazans meant 9:00pm according to their clocks. Unlike Israel, they do not have daylight saving time. We'll see.]

Four Gazan terrorist rocket launchings, all of them pointed at anything Israeli, have taken place since 9. Two were flung in the general direction of the hard-hit coastal city of Ashkelon, with one being intercepted and destroyed in midair by the Iron Dome anti-missile defence system. One landed in the Hof Ashkelon region. A fourth Qassam exploded in an open space in the Shaar Hanegev region around 10pm. In addition, three mortar shells were fired into the Eshkol region during the same hour, and at 10:15 pm the Color Red missile alarm was heard in the streets of Sderot (we still do not know the outcome).

Haaretz tonight is quoting Israeli sources who say Israel's low-key strikes on Gaza in the past 24 hours were "an intentional move aimed at allowing Egypt to mediate a cease-fire, as well as out of fear for the defense and diplomatic relationship with Egypt". We wonder how well the pregnant wife of Yossi Shushan who was killed Saturday night in one of the GRAD rocket attacks on Beer Sheba appreciates the strategy.

21-Aug-11: The ongoing barrage on southern Israel

The IDF reports that more than 30 rockets and mortars have been fired into Israel so far today. This evening's talley includes:

• Qassam rocket exploded in an open field in the Eshkol region just before 8 this evening; no injuries reported and no damage [YNet]
• Around the same time, several mortar shells were fired at Kerem Shalom, a kibbutz in the Eshkol region. One was a phosphorus bomb that failed to detonate. Again: no injuries, no damage [YNet]. It's worth noting that there is a crossing point located at Kerem Shalom, through which goods are routinely transferred for the benefit of the Palestinian Arab population of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. To get a sense of what asynchronous warfare means, consider this: the transfer of goods from Israel to Gaza continued today, Sunday, despite the ongoing hail of rockets on Israel, and the fact that even Kerem Shalom itself was targeted by the jihadists. The picture of the goods-laden truck below was taken today - here's the source.  

Kerem Shalom today: under fire, and still functioning as a crossing
point for Gaza-bound relief

• Around 7 this evening, a Qassam rocket was fired from northern Gaza into the Sha'ar Hanegev region, crashing into an open area [Ynet].

An AP article syndicated tonight points out that Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 and since then, under Hamas rule, Gaza's terrorists (AP terms them militants) have increased the quality and range of their rocket arsenals. Most of the rockets launched since Thursday have been military-grade Katyushas smuggled in through tunnels from Egypt.

21-Aug-11: Jerusalem in focus again

Jerusalem's largest shopping mall attracts Israelis of every
strand - Moslems, Jews, Christians and everyone else. Security is noticeably
upgraded there this evening. 

While missiles continue to rain down on the southern regions of Israel, and the death toll of Israelis since Thursday stands at 9, there are high level warnings here in Jerusalem of a possible terrorist threat tonight.

Warnings of this sort don't happen every day, and tend to be taken fairly seriously by this city's beleaguered residents.

The terror alert was elevated significantly this (Sunday) afternoon on the basis of intelligence pointing to a planned terrorist attack in the city. Police patrols have been strengthened and temporary checkpoints have been thrown up in the last few hours on the road between Mt Scopus and the Jerusalem Ma'aleh Adumim as well as along Route 443 at the busy Maccabim and Ofer junctions. Needless to say there are significant disruptions to traffic. JPost reports jams stretching back 10 km. Younger members of our family were in the largest of Jerusalem's malls this evening, and noted the higher levels of security. Responding to their parents discomfort and anxiety, they came home earlier than planned. The Pisgat Ze'ev shopping mall, a few minutes drive from where we live in the northern part of Jerusalem, was evacuated by the authorities.

Reinforcing the tension in the city, dozens of Islamic worshipers tried to force their way through a police checkpoint outside the Old City's Damascus Gate, causing a riot that was broken up by police using riot control equipment including water cannons and shock grenades. Several arrests were made.

21-Aug-11: Sunday morning: How long will the government tolerate southern Israel being turned into a free-fire zone?

From Channel 2's live coverage inside the Beer Sheba school gymnasium
hit by a Gazan rocket in the past hour.

A high school in Beer Sheba took a direct jihadist rocket hit this around 9:15 this morning with the missile passing right through the concrete roof. Israel's Channel 2 (you can view it live here) reported from inside the building. While the reporter was updating us, we heard a fresh Color Red (Tzeva Adom) warning, and then the emergency workers in the sheltered zone of the school building where the cameras were doing the coverage responded in real time to reports that another missile had exploded in Beer Sheba, this time - as it appears in the center of the city.

The screen capture above is from the moment when the report was phoned through to the responsible officer.

Our prayers are with the country's political and military leaders as they prepare the steps needed to be taken to bring the terrorist actions to a halt before more innocent lives are disrupted, damaged and lost.  

21-Aug-11: Violent Saturday night; bombardment of southern Israel continues unchecked

Beer Sheba - Saturday night

It's Sunday morning here, and our hearts are with the million or so Israelis living under the double curse of being within firing range of the vast and unchecked Gazan rocket arsenal and having their plight conspicuously, deliberately ignored by mainstream media's preference for casting the warfare in southern Israel in terms of a clash between Israel and Egypt.

[To illustrate, at this moment - Sunday 09:10 Israel time - the home page of BBC News leads with a main story that is its sole, repeat sole, mention of Israel. The headline reads: "Israeli regrets over clash fail to end Egypt protests | Protesters burned Israeli flags and chanted "Long live Egypt!" | Thousands of Egyptians have rallied outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo for a second day over the deaths of five Egyptian policemen."]

Dozens of Israelis, including babies, have been injured by the ongoing terror attacks that started Thursday afternoon.  A was killed in Beer Sheba last night. JPost says his name is Yossi Shushan, a resident of Ofakim. He heard last night's air raid sirens and became anxious for the welfare of his wife who is in the ninth month of pregnancy, and rushed over to Beer Sheba, where he was fatally injured by one of last night's GRAD rockets.

That's in addition to the eight who were killed up until Friday night. The not-so-new reality is we are in an ongoing war with terrorists that is routinely mischaracterized by those who deliver the reports to your door and your screens. Is this for ideological reasons? Is there another way to look at it?

As for the events of Saturday night, Ynet put it sharply and well: "The IAF refrained from mounting strikes in Gaza overnight, but the Strip's terror groups failed to afford Israel the same courtesy, firing rockets on western Negev communities relentlessly throughout the night."

To some of the details:

• Two children were injured late Saturday night when 4 Gazan rockets exploded in the desert town of Ofakim (population: 20,000), some 20 km west of Beer Sheba.  
• Around midnight, two Qassam rockets flung into the heavens by the terrorists of Gaza in the vague direction of anything Israeli crashed to earth in the Sha'ar HaNegev region, exploding harmlessly in open fields.
• In the small hours, yet another powerful GRAD missile was fired at Beer Sheba, and fortunately was intercepted in mid-air and destroyed by an Israeli Iron Dome anti-missile missile. We don't give enough credit to the technology that makes this intercepts happen. If only Israel had far more such batteries.
• Around the same hour, three additional GRADS were fired at Ashkelon. No reports of injury but there is property damage - no details yet.
• Seven mortar shells landed in open areas of the Eshkol region, also in the hours of darkness.
• The Israeli "Tzeva Adom" (Color Red) incoming-missile warning siren has sounded right through the night and well into this morning at frequent intervals in Beer Sheba, as reported on several on-line bulletin boards in real time. The news channels here report only some of the outcomes. Fair to assume the levels of anxiety in those cities and towns are sky-high.
• Around 6:30 this morning, a Qassam rocket fired from northern Gaza exploded in an open area in the Hof Ashkelon region, with no injuries or damage. [Ynet]
• Then a little after 8 this morning, another Gazan rocket crashed into the outskirts of Beer Sheba [Ynet]. 
• Just before 9, another 3 rockets were fired into Beer Sheba. The Iron Dome defense system intercepted one. A second landed and exploded inside the city causing property damage. The third appears to have landed just outside the city. [Ynet]
• A little after 9, an educational institution in Beer Sheba took a direct hit from a Gazan GRAD [source]. Thank heavens, the building was closed and no one was inside. No reports yet of the extent of the damage.

Every Israeli, reading the news, speaking by phone with relatives in the free-fire zone, running to a shelter with her/his children, knows what keeps being forgotten outside this country. Israel has the fire power to end the bombardment at will. The price in terms of Arab lives would be horribly high, but it is certainly doable from a military/strategic point of view. 

Tolerating this ongoing fire into our homes and towns is a decision that is rooted in political and moral considerations. But at some point, Israel's willingness to tolerate the losses and the fear and the disruption to civil society and to peaceful lives. (What would you do if you were living this life?)

At that point, the faithful consumers of such news sources as BBC World Service and many other brand name media channels are going to be perplexed at the fury and scale of the Israeli response, and will wonder why they weren't told. So will we. 

20-Aug-11: About 85 incoming rockets so far

That's the number of incoming rockets since Friday. Ynet says there were 54 between the time the Sabbath began at nightfall on Friday evening and midnight Saturday night.

The picture above (source) shows one of the Beer Sheba homes hit by tonight's barrage of rockets despatched by the terrorists of Gaza. A man was killed, a woman is gravely injured, and there are numerous other casualties in Israel's largest southern city, ranging from a man whose leg was severed to dozens suffering from shock.  About a million Israelis are currently in firing range of the thuggish Gazan Palestinian Arab terrorists, their almost limitless supply of rockets and their entirely indiscriminate desire to hit and hurt anything Israeli.

20-Aug-11: Southern Israel under major bombardment, ongoing death and injuries; foreign mainstream media yawn

Click here to see the entire front page of
the NYT online edition as of 2.30pm Saturday 20-Aug-11

The terrorists of Gaza operating under their various brand and sub-brand guises (including Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees, Islamic Jihad and numerous others, real or based in fantasy) have stockpiled, according to Israeli intelligence, more than 10,000 missiles, every one of them intended to hit Israeli civilians and civil infrastructure.

Outside Israel, the approach taken by the mainstream media to the barrages that have terrorized hundreds of thousands of Israeli can be summed up by a quick look at one of the world's major sources of news. At the top of this blog, you can view a snapshot of the front page of the online edition of the New York Times. We offer this as a kind of proxy for the mainstream media. You will not find a single word on that page referring to what we describe here.

The incessant terrorist barrage of rockets and mortars caused death, injuries and fear across a broad swathe of southern Israel today. Here is part of what the jihadists "achieved" during the last 24 hours of Sabbath while we were off-line.

• Around 4 am Saturday morning, two rockets crashed into an open area in the western Negev close to the Eshkol region. No injuries or damage were reported. 
• Hamas put out another of its characteristic public statements pretending to have emerged from its peace-loving posture and resorting, against its better judgement and peace-loving nature etc etc etc, to rocket fire against Israelis because they have no other choice.
• Ashdod:: Two rockets landed on the outskirts of the embattled city around 6 am. Three people – identified by Ynet as illegal Palestinian workers – suffered mild to serious injuries and were treated to the best of Israeli emergency medicine at Rehovot's Kaplan Medical Center. 
• 8:30 am, a Gazan rocket hit the Be'er Tuvia area (Tel Aviv suburbs) for the second time in 24 hours. Fortunately no injuries are reported.
• Beer Sheba - a rocket exploded around 9 am, injuring one person directly, and causing injuries to seven others while running to find shelter.
• Noon - two Gazan rockets crashed into the Lachish region.
• Early afternoon - rockets hit Qiryat Gat and Gan Yavne (close to Ashdod, in Tel Aviv's southern suburbs). A mortar shell exploded in the grounds of one of the kibbutzim in the area, causing one person to suffer shock as well as property damage.
• Mid-afternoon Saturday, four mortar shells were fired into the Sha'ar Hanegev region. (The exact locations are routinely omitted from the news reports so as to withhold potentially valuable feedback from the terrorists.) 
• Seven more shells landed in open spaces in southern Israel by early evening.
• Early Saturday evening: a Gazan rocket exploded on a section of Highway 35 between Ashkelon and Qiryat Gat, damaging it severely. No injuries were reported. The authorities have closed the area to all traffic.
• Also early evening, a Gazan rocket headed for Ashkelon was destroyed in mid-air by an Israeli Iron Dome anti-missile rocket.
• Around 7:40pm Saturday night, two more Gazan rockets (according to an IDF report) struck and damaged the Erez Crossing, the pedestrian/cargo terminal on the Israeli Gaza Strip border located at the northern end of the Gaza Strip. We wonder how long before 'humanitarian' organizations renew their calls for Israel to do everything in its power to allow goods and people to pass through the crossing point again.
• Mid-evening, the intensity has picked up. In Ofakim, a house tookm a direct hit around 8:30 tonight. The home itself was unoccupied but several pedestrians are injured including a four-month-old baby, a nine-year-old child and a young man. All are being treated at Soroka hospital in Beer Sheba.
• At about the same time, a Beer Sheba home took a direct hit from an incoming GRAD missile. According to Israel's Channel Two news which we are watching now, one person was killed and at least 10 others were hurt, of whom four are in serious condition. Haaretz says the so-called Popular Resistance Committees took credit for the attack.
• At about the same time, a private vehicle took a direct hit from another PRC GRAD missile (according to Haaretz) in Beer Sheba and is on fire.

A reminder that every single one of these rockets, mortars and missiles was fired NOT at military targets but at any possible thing on the Israeli side of the border. The indiscriminate nature of the warfare conducted at all times by the jihadists of Gaza is, more than anything else, what makes them terrorists.

19-Aug-11 Saving the physical, saving the spiritual

We reported earlier today on terrorist rocket that hit an Ashdod yeshiva and synagogue. Some pictures (click to enlarge) from Daylife:

19-Aug-11: Summarizing the events of Thursday

Eilat, today. Extremely tight security. 

Based on several accounts including that of Haaretz, here is a synopsis of yesterday's jihadist attacks on Israelis:

• The terror attacks began around noon. Three terrorists armed with rifles, grenades and explosives entered Israel from Egypt and stationed themselves at intervals of about 200 meters along the highway to Eilat, Route 12. At that point, the road runs very close to the border with Egypt. 
• At 12:30 pm, they opened fire on Egged Bus 392, a scheduled passenger bus. 7 passengers were injured (light to moderate). Most, not all, were soldiers.
• Minutes later, an empty bus and several cars arrived. The jihadist opened fire again. When the bus stopped, a terrorist ran up to the bus and activated his explosive belt. The driver, Yosef Levy, 57, was killed.
• The terrorists opened fire on two cars. Four people traveling in one, two married couples - the wives were sisters, were killed. [We wrote about this earlier.]
• The driver of another car was killed.
• The first IDF forces then arrived in two vehicles. One vehicle ran down one of the terrorists and killed him. Soldiers in the second vehicle opened fire on the third terrorist. A soldier, Staff Sgt. Moshe Naftali of Ofra, was killed in the fire fight.
• Additional police and army forces then arrived on the scene and killed the third terrorist. They also opened fire on two additional terrorists who were waiting on the Egyptian side of the border.
• Assault helicopters joined the battle, and a terrorist fired a rocket-propelled grenade at one of the helicopters, but missed.
• The two terrorists in Sinai were killed after policemen from the special Yamam anti-terror unit, pursued them a short distance into Egyptian territory. The policemen returned to Israel immediately thereafter.
• While all this was happening, the terrorists also fired mortars at a civilian work crew repairing the fence nearby, but caused no casualties.
• The Egyptian army later reported that it killed two additional terrorists in Sinai. The IDF was in close contact with the Egyptian army throughout.
• After the battle, the IDF brought in sappers, who discovered bombs planted along the road and dismantled them.
• Around 6:45pm, as senior defense officials were briefing reporters on the earlier attack, terrorists opened fire once again − this time at a Yamam force patrolling the border not far from the site of the original attack. One policeman was killed in the assault and another was wounded.

19-Aug-11: Rockets have continued to crash into southern Israel overnight and Friday

Ashdod this morning: a yeshiva took a direct hit [Source]

Eight Israelis died in yesterday's co-ordinated terror attacks carried out by Gaza-based jihadists.

Four of them were civilians in a car heading for Eilat on Route 12 near the border with Egypt. Flora and Moshe Gez were traveling with Shula and Dov Karlinski, all of them from Kfar Saba, when the terrorists opened fire from another vehicle at near-point-blank range. Flora and Shula were sisters.

Three Qassam rockets were fired in the general direction of Israeli communities in the western Negev Desert during this past night. Today, Friday, 10 Grad and Qassam rockets were fired by the Gazan jihadists, landing in the areas of Ashkelon, Be'er Sheva and Qiryat Gat. Most fell in open areas without causing damage or injuries, but one of the missiles made a direct hit on a yeshiva building in Ashdod injuring six people, one of them very seriously. We are getting reports from the Ashdod area throughout the day - the residents are under constant pressure.

In the past hour (it's now 5pm Friday afternoon), two additional terrorist rockets struck in the Be'er Tuvia area, exploding in open space in the region, with no reports of injuries or damage. Incoming alerts have been heard in Qiryat Malachi, Gedera, Gan Yavne, and other southern communities.

19-Aug-11 Overnight rocket barrage on southern Israel

The south of Israel was hit by a barrage of rockets Thursday night (says Ynet). Rockets were fired at Beer Sheba, and into the Sdot Negev and Shaar Hanegev regions (exact details are avoided for security reasons). A rocket landed in an open area near Beer Sheba after the air raid siren sounded throughout the city. The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted two rockets out of 4 fired at the city of Ashkelon; the other two exploded in open spaces. Overall there are so far no reports of injuries or damage. More details to come.

18-Aug-11: And again - rockets

From JPost tonight: On Thursday night, a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed south of Ashkelon. Defense officials ordered security officers in communities along the border with Gaza to prepare for an escalation in rocket fire. The Iron Dome counter-rocket defense system later intercepted a Grad-model Katyusha rocket fired from the Gaza Strip at Ashkelon. And from Ynet tonight (around 10:30pm): The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted two more rockets that were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Ashkelon. Earlier, the Iron Dome system intercepted at least one of two rockets fired at the city. The military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for the earlier rocket attacks.

18-Aug-11: Today's multiple terror attacks on southern Israel: 3pm update

Israel television's news room is suffering in the same way that the whole population does when a terrorist attack - a pigua - happens: the phone lines to their live-on-air reporters keep falling, contributing to the rising anxiety and uncertainty.

One report - seemingly stronger than rumor though not confirmed: one of the targets of the terrorists was a private vehicle targeted by a jihadist anti-tank (!) missile while driving along the main highway to (or from) Eilat. We hope this proves wrong but the reports are that four people in the vehicle were killed (murdered).

Ronnie Daniel, Israel Channel 2 TV's veteran on-camera reporter is speaking of the involvement of separate terror groups originating in Egypt (JPost quotes Egyptian sources saying that's "unlikely"), and in Gaza via the multiple tunnels that the foreign media love to report on and photograph. He says there are six deaths on the Israeli side.

The main Hamas news site says this afternoon's attacks on the private vehicle and the Egged bus (those green Egged buses are ubiquitous in this country) were actually on "two Israeli military buses" which in their black-is-white-up-is-down ideological sloganeeing is accurate since all Israelis are soldiers, all Israeli resources are military, all Israeli targets - school-children, pizza restaurants, babies in their prams - are military targets. That terminology is at the black heart of their hatred-inspired terrorism.

18-Aug-11: Multi-location terror attacks; details are still unclear

This is still unfolding but as of now, the reports from Yosephtal Hospital in Eilat, Israel's southern-most point, are that 26 Israelis are being treated for injuries, some critical, as a result of a series of what appear to be co-ordinated terror attacks. The targets: a civilian bus, a private car and other targets. There are unconfirmed reports of deaths as well. Roadblocks have been thrown up throughout Israel and, as usual, all the radio and TV channels are interrupting normal programming to deliver the latest breaking news. Eilat is completely sealed off, and there are concerns that other still-hidden terror cells have not yet made their moves. And on Israel Television, there is a report of yet another terror attack in the area of Rosh Ha'ayin in Tel Aviv's suburbs. Ynet's summary as of 14:45:

• Egged bus number 392, traveling from Beersheba to Eilat was ambushed by a three-man terror cell. Over a dozen people were wounded in the attack, which took place on Highway 12, about 30km north of Eilat, near the Ein Netafim junction.
• Soon after that, in a second incident, multiple roadside bombs and rocket fire were directed at IDF forces patrolling the Israel-Egypt border fence.
• Around 1pm, a third attack - a shooting on a bus and a private vehicle traveling south. Five people are reportedly very seriously injured.

Live media reports are being very cautious about updating the casualty numbers, or the source of the attackers, while reporting that Israel's urgent military deployment in the Negev and the Eilat area is wide and growing. There are three dead terrorists so far. Numerous reports that some part of these attacks, at least,  originated in Egypt, and an eye-witness interview on radio a few minutes ago said the shooters attacking the Egged bus were wearing military uniforms that he thought were Egyptian. Much yet  remains to be clarified.

16-Aug-11: When the powers at the BBC put this much effort into something, they must really care

Fiona Paveley and her late husband Steven Sugar: A courageous ongoing fight

At every opportunity, we say that the unwillingness or inability of ordinary people, the news-reporting media, public officials, analysts and thought leaders of every kind to comprehend terrorism is making the defeat of terrorism, in this ongoing war, so much more difficult.

We say that not everyone carries an equal burden in this war; there are organizations that have enormous influence, and that influence imposes an enormous responsibility.

The BBC, by far the most influential news channel in the world, is at the peak of that list of global organizations with enormous influence. As a public body, its budget was funded by tax-payers to the tune of 3,200 million pounds (translates to US$5.2 Billion) last year. That rate is expected to remain consistently in that range over the next few years. This is one extraordinarily well-funded voice.

But it's a voice with some deplorable practices and well-documented double standards. As solemnly enunciated by Joanna Mills, an editor at BBC World Update, eight years ago: "It is the style of the BBC World Service to call no one a terrorist, aware as we are that one man's terrorist is another one's freedom fighter." This is the bureaucratic fig-leaf that covers the nakedness of the BBC's deplorable practice of terming the jihadist/terrorist killers of innocent Israelis 'militants' and 'activists'. (But not always - see this.)

A British lawyer, Steven Sugar, campaigned tirelessly in the courts to force the BBC to publicly release the Balen Report - the BBC's own investigation into whether it holds an anti-Israel bias. He died in January 2011. Now, as the Telegraph reports below, his widow is carrying on the battle. We wish her the greatest of success, and the courage and energy to keep going.

Widow takes on BBC over Israel 'bias’
The BBC faces a legal challenge over a report it has kept secret - but the case is being brought from beyond the grave. | [UK Telegraph]

13th August 2011 - For six years, Steven Sugar pursued a one-man legal battle against the BBC in an attempt to force it to disclose a secret report. He was trying to get the corporation to publish an internal assessment off its coverage of the Middle East conflict, which he believed would reveal bias against Israel. Mr Sugar won an appeal for a full court hearing but when he died of cancer in January at the age of 61 it appeared his mission was at an end.
Now, his widow, Fiona Paveley, has taken up the fight to reveal the contents of the 20,000-word document and the case is to be heard at the Supreme Court.
The BBC has spent more than £270,000 on legal fees to prevent the public from seeing the report, written in 2004 by Malcolm Balen, a senior journalist, for Richard Sambrook, then BBC director of news. But a defeat for the BBC could cost the corporation even more because it could weaken its ability to deny requests made under the Freedom of Information Act. Mr Sugar lost at the Information Tribunal, the High Court and the Court of Appeal, but his legal team - who have waived their fees - are hopeful of success in the Supreme Court.
Mrs Paveley said: “I used to tease Steven about his obsession with fighting this so I think he would have a wry smile that I’m carrying it on, but I couldn’t let it drop.” Mr Sugar, a solicitor, first asked the BBC to publish the Balen Report in 2005 under the Freedom of Information Act and refused to accept the BBC’s argument that it was outside the Act’s scope. The corporation successfully argued in the past that the report should not be released because it was held for “the purposes of journalism, art or literature” and, as such, was exempt. It was commissioned to analyse the BBC’s coverage of Middle East issues and make recommendations for improvement. Mrs Paveley, a 48-year-old clinical psychologist, was approached by her husband’s lawyers after he died. They explained that the case could only continue if he was represented at court. “I knew immediately that I wasn’t going to abandon it,” she says. “It would have almost felt like a betrayal to let all his hard work go to waste. He never gave up, so why should I?” Mrs Paveley said that she and her late husband saw an anti-Israeli bias in the reporting of Orla Guerin, the BBC’s former Middle East correspondent, who was accused of anti-Semitism in 2004 by the Israeli government. Mrs Paveley said: “Steven thought that reporting should be balanced. As a publicly-funded body, it seems wrong that the BBC is afraid and reluctant to be more transparent.” Another reporter, Barbara Plett, was found by BBC governors to have “breached the requirements of due impartiality” after she said she cried as a dying Yasser Arafat left the West Bank in 2004. More recently, Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s Middle East editor, was also found to have breached rules on accuracy and impartiality in two reports about the Arab-Israeli conflict.
A BBC spokesman said: “If we are not able to pursue our journalism freely and have honest debate and analysis over how we are covering important issues, then how effectively we can serve the public will be diminished.”

The entire Telegraph article is here.

Just to be clear, we're not hostile to the BBC or its journalists, some of whom we greatly admire. What we are firmly against is the hypocrisy that characterizes its corporate approach to terrorism in our midst (we do mean "our midst") and the high-handedness that has accompanied the Balen Report saga from the outset. The BBC fully deserves to be judged against the very highest of ethical, legal and journalistic standards. Its management's conduct of a campaign to bury the report speaks eloquently for itself.

15-Aug-11: Even longer range rockets attacking southern Israel tonight

There are initial reports of rockets - possibly of the GRAD variety - landing in the Beer Sheva and Meitar area around 11.30pm on Monday night. JPost says there were two rockets, and thankfully neither injuries nor damage. More details when we have them.

UPDATE Tuesday 06:00: Ynet says the incoming rocket, fired as so many before it from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, exploded in an open area outside Beersheba, located deep in Israel's Negev Desert some 40 km from the border with Gaza. Protestors in Beersheba's social protest tent site were forced to run to shelter as the sirens sounded. Beersheba's mayor says he will be asking the Defense Ministry to redeploy an Iron Dome anti-missile battery in the city.  

14-Aug-11: More incoming rocket fire

From Israel National News in the past few minutes: "The Tzeva Adom Code Red early warning alert system sounded late Saturday night as Gaza residents fired a rocket into Israel. The past month has seen a sharp increase in the number of rocket attacks. The rocket hit an open area of the ​​Ashkelon Coast Regional Council area. There are no known injuries or damage at this time. The short range rockets are often called Qassams, named after Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, a Syrian leader who led riots against the Jewish communities in the land of Israel in the 1920s and 1930s. He also organized riots in Syria and Libya." A similar report comes from Ynet. More details when we have them.

11-Aug-11: Incoming rocket... and the back story

Abu Sisi before confessing

Ynet reported around 8.30 this evening (Thursday) that yet another Qassam rocket, fired from the Gaza Strip crashed into southern Israel and exploded near a kibbutz in the Shaar HaNegev region. So far, there are no reports of injuries or damage in the attack. By our calculations, there have been some 30 to 35 missile attacks on southern Israel by the Gazan terrorists in the 6 weeks since 1st July. 

Interesting to see that Dirar Abu Sisi, the Palestinian Arab engineer described previously by the BBC as merely the manager at Gaza's main power plant, as a victim of a heinous Israeli kidnap "for no reason", as a man free of any links with Hamas, as a totally blameless and innocent figure, has dropped the pretense.

A court-imposed gag order was lifted today by the Beersheba Magistrate's Court, and he is quoted directly singing an entirely different song:

"I greatly regret my affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas Movement, my work to develop the missile range, my part in establishing Hamas' military academy, and all the information I handed over to Hamas that can threaten the security of Israel and its citizens... I know the missiles are lethal and take the lives of others, without distinguishing between Arabs and Jews."

As Israeli authorities have been saying for months, this Abu Sisi is a major cog in the Hamas terror machine. He is on trial for membership in a terror organization, murder, attempted murder and arms production. AFP quotes some of the revelations that emerged today about the man:

• Confessed that he was involved in "developing the range of missiles" and "setting up the Hamas military academy", and to "helping strengthen Hamas forces decimated by Israel's Operation Cast Lead between December 2009 and January 2010" after "a large number" of Hamas fighters fled their positions during the fighting.
• Took part in rocket trials in the central Gaza Strip
• Helped improve the performance of Gaza-made rockets
• Was responsible for "increasing their range and ability to pierce steel so as to penetrate IDF armoured vehicles and thus harm soldiers" - and evidently penetrating the sides of unarmoured school buses too.

To which the Jerusalem Post adds: He was appointed by Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari to set up a Hamas military academy after the dismal failure of its fighters in 2008-9. Quote: "I prepared the management side of things for the new military academy". But they're a fickle crowd. He received death threats from senior Hamas officials when he expressed a desire to leave the organization.

Good to know he is safe and sound and in a place where he is likely to be well looked after for a long time to come.