Tuesday, March 13, 2012

13-Mar-12: A hard day's toll

It's been an exhausting, nerve-wracking day for Israelis, especially the million or so living south of Tel Aviv. 

According to Israel's Southern District police, 42 rockets were fired by the terrorists of the Gaza Strip into Israel on Monday. Haaretz says Monday's toll was actually 47 rockets exploding in Israeli territory and 13 more that were intercepted in mid-flight by the Iron Dome system. The Jerusalem Post says the IDF Home Front Command and the heads of local authorities in the South decided tonight (Monday) to keep schools closed in all communities located between 7 and 40 km. from the Gaza Strip. This applies to Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beersheba, Netivot, Sderot, Kiryat Malachi, Gedera, Rahat, Yavne, Lakiya and the Gan Yavne Regional Council. Among the Gazan rockets that struck Israeli soil today, several exploded about 40 km south of the center of Tel Aviv. An un-named military official is quoted by Ynet saying there is a possibility that the rockets will reach the Tel Aviv-area since the terror groups “are always contemplating whether to fire their (long-range) Fajr rockets, but they realize the consequences and make the cost-benefit calculation.” Still, this may change if, as seems likely, the Palestinian rocket fire continues. And true to form, the BBC World Service's only mention of any of this, to judge from the Middle East section of its much-visited and highly influential website, is a story headlined "Gaza: New Israeli air strikes leave several dead". 

As the French know, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Scenes from the southern coastal city of Ashdod. A woman is evacuated following one of several rocket attacks from the nearby Gaza Strip, on March 12, 2012. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)


Shaken students from a school for religious girls take urgent cover next to their bus as yet another rocket is fired in their general direction by the terrorists of Gaza,  March 12, 2012 in Ashdod, Israel. (Photos by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

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