4-Jul-14: The rockets and where they're taking us

It's a hot Friday morning, and incoming-rocket sirens have been wailing right across the south of Israel all night and into the morning, after days of the same. Sderot, and the Eshkol, Sdot Negev and Sha'ar Hanegev regions have taken the brunt of the indiscriminate Palestinian Arab fire, and the authorities are warning of the certainty of more.

According to a Times of Israel tally, 15 rockets were fired at Israel by the terrorists of Gaza during last (Thursday) evening. There was one injury, and considerable property damage, and a great deal of fear and apprehension on the part of the ordinary people who live in those southern communities with the misfortune of being closest to the border with the terror-infested Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Residents are being advised to stay within 15 seconds sprint of bomb shelters.

Times of Israel says the Israeli government issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the Hamas regime in Gaza during Thursday. They are warned to halt their fire - or face a massive Israeli strike. This was conveyed to Hamas leaders via Egyptian intelligence. The response was not long in coming: Israel, a Hamas spokesperson said, will “be surprised” by its rocket arsenal and range.

“We promise that one stupid move your leaders make will constitute sufficient ground to turn all of your towns, even those you wouldn’t expect, into targets and burning cinders,” said Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing. Israel may initiate the escalation, “but it doesn’t know how it will continue and how it will end... The threats the occupiers issue, and the allusions to war against Gaza, are threats that have no meaning in our dictionaries, other than drawing the hour of vengeance and difficult lesson-learning closer,” Ubaida added. [Times of Israel]

Updates to come.

2-Jul-14: Our side and theirs: an email to a well-meaning friend

A friend from the US, a deeply committed Christian, wrote us earlier today kindly saying that

you and all of Israel have been on our prayers with the recent escalation in tension and violence, due to the murder of those three young men and the retaliation which is following. It seems hopelessly dire, from a distance, and I'm sure you feel hopeless at times too, that any resolution to this conflict can be found when people continue to act in such a fashion.  

Here's the response we offered him:

Your prayers and good wishes are much appreciated. The society in which my family and I live, and whose values are on display constantly, is pained and angry but not threatened (as a society) by the dangers and hatefulness directed at us from the other side. Those values, and the lives illuminated by them, go on even as all of Israel is immersed in grief as it is today.

I see reports this morning, unconfirmed and sketchy at this hour but already circulating widely, of a "revenge" abduction and killing. I despair when I see those reports set up a kind of duality as if we and those on the other side were somehow two sides of one coin.

The reality is that while both sides have their share of psychopaths and haters as all societies do, theirs has adopted the values of psychopathy and hatred at all levels up to the highest. The realities of this speak for themselves even when they are ignored.

The values I just mentioned are fundamental drivers of the education delivered through their schools, summer camps and educational TV to their children, ensuring they get more and more firmly rooted. They are affirmed and celebrated by political and religious leaders from the very most senior level down to the smallest villages. Nowhere in the full spectrum of their communal life is there any public sign of a contrary view.

As a society (and perhaps not as individuals -  but there is no real way to know), they are heart-and-soul for the abductions, the killings and the glorification of the perpetrators. They demand the release of all the convicted killers among all the terrorist prisoners held behind Israeli bars, with not the slightest acknowledgement that those people executed hideous plans in full knowledge of the consequences. They reacted with joy and pride right across the spectrum when the abduction of the three Israeli boys became known. They Tweeted and Facebooked photographs of their own innocent children holding up three fingers.

Escalation and violence there may be, as you say. But it is the sort of escalation one sees when the criminals carry out a crime wave of larceny,  rape and murder and the police respond with all the reasonable means, violence included, that are sometimes needed to protect threatened communities.

This is neither retaliation nor the second side of a coin. It is what societies must do when challenged by unremitting evil.

It goes without saying that Keren Malki continues, along with every other part of Israeli society, to help those who request it and need it, with zero regard for the factors that sometimes divide us.

Our people are not necessarily better than those on the other side but our society's values most certainly are. This has huge consequences. Tremendous misunderstandings and error follow when they are belittled, ignored or (as I have seen in the past 24 hours) denied.

Hoping for much better days, and with good wishes.

2-Jul-14: Wednesday rockets and mortar attacks on southern Israel

The evening is wearing on. Further to our post of a couple of hours ago ["2-Jul-14: About those mortars fired into southern Israel this afternoon..."], it's now reported that two rockets were fired on the southern coastal city of Ashkelon. 

Ynet says one was intercepted in mid-air and brought down by the Iron Dome system. The second fell in an open area causing no significant damage. The Jerusalem Post, quoting military sources, says there were two Iron Dome intercepts tonight: one over Ashkelon and the other in the Sdot Negev region.

The Wednesday fire has been substantial. The IDF says there have already nine incoming mortars from Gaza, fired at various parts of southern Israel. All appear to have landed in open areas in the Eshkol region. The Israel Air Force struck a mortar launcher in the southern Gaza Strip some hours ago, that had been used to fire shells into Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, which is located in the Eshkol region.

The same Ynet report says there appear to be plans in the air for a wider military strike, most likely focused on Hamas in Gaza.

IDF reservists reported receiving calls from the army to update their personal details including telephone number, address, and bank account numbers. While these check-ups from the army are routinely conducted for most reservists every several months, calls made during the severe escalation in Israel has given rise to speculation that reserve forces could be called up for a ground operation. [Ynet]

Update 9:15 pm via Ynet: Yet another rocket was fired from Gaza, crashing and exploding in the Eshkol region; no injuries and no significant damage. There have been more than twenty such attacks since this morning [Times of Israel].

2-Jul-14: Opinion poll: Arabs increasingly view their terrorists unfavorably

Hamas inner circle of child abusers: Suffering from
decline in their poll numbers [Image Source]

A major opinion survey published yesterday by Pew Research Center in Washington ["Concerns about Islamic Extremism on the Rise in Middle East"] has some bad news for the terrorists, and maybe for us too. Here's an abstract:

Hezbollah, the militant organization headquartered in Lebanon with strong ties to the Shia-led Iranian government, is seen unfavorably in every Middle Eastern country surveyed... Overall, most people surveyed have an unfavorable impression of Hamas, a militant Palestinian organization that is in control of the Gaza Strip and designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. This includes people who live under its rule. More than half in the Palestinian territories (53%) have an unfavorable view of Hamas, with only about a third (35%) expressing positive views. Negative views are higher in the Hamas-led Gaza Strip (63%), up from 54% in 2013.

Why is this bad news for us? Because when the terrorists, who have a huge investment in continuing the control they wield, sense a weakening in their support base, they do what usually works well in the Arab world: they whip up the masses via more acts of terrorism.

We may be at another of those moments.

2-Jul-14: About those mortars fired into southern Israel this afternoon...

Ynet in a report posted at 3:50 pm this (Wednesday) afternoon says three mortar shells fired from Gaza landed in open areas in the Eshkol region. These follow several volleys fired from Gaza into southern Israel yesterday. The IDF Spokesperson's Office says there have been five mortar attacks since midnight last night. And from Gaza itself, the GANSO people said some hours ago that "07/02/2014 | 07:30 |
MU, 02 JUL: Overnight, Pal. ops. fired 7 rockets".

Think mortars are child's-play? Arab-on-Arab mortar fire yesterday in Iraq killed six people. Arab-on-Arab mortar fire in Syria on Monday killed at least seven people and wounded 30 others in the north-western province of Idlib. Ukrainians were killed and injured in mortar fire on their turf today as well.

All in all, we're thankful that the Gazan Palestinian Arab mortar fire on anything Israel produced no serious results today, but as we repeatedly point out that's never the intention of the Palestinian Arabs who do the firing.

Update 5:00 pm: At the Hebrew Walla! news site, they say a Qassam rocket fired from Gaza crashed and exploded in the Sha'ar Hanegev region during the afternoon hours today. No reports of injuries or serious damage.

1-Jul-14: Ten in-bound rockets so far today, five while the nation buries its three sons

Image from the Israel National News website

Reminding us of their obsession with death - ours, their own, that of their children - the Palestinian Arab terrorists of the Gaza Strip fired rockets into Israel while the entire nation's attention was on the funeral of three Israeli boys.

Around 7:30 pm, this (Tuesday) evening, while the funeral in the city of central Israel city of Modi'in was still underway, five rockets (according to Times of Israel, quoting the IDF) were fired into Israel from Gaza. Two crashed and exploded in the Eshkol region, the same landing zone as several of this morning's rockets. It appears that all of them struck open areas, causing minimal property damage and no personal injuries. This of course was not the intention of the terrorists. For them, rocket fire is an entirely indiscriminate form of attack. Any injury, any damage, on the Israeli side is its own reward. This is why we call them terrorists.

An hour later, around 8:30 pm tonight, an additional rocket was fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip. Reports say the Tzeva Adom (Color Red) anti-missile warning system sirens were heard in the Sha'ar HaNegev region. We are still awaiting word from the IDF as to where it crashed and landed.

Associated Press, quoting the IDF, says 10 rockets have been fired into Israel so far today.

1-Jul-14: Rockets continue coming as Israel deals with tragedy

It's reported (Times of Israel) that a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip early Tuesday crashed into and exploded in Israel's Eshkol region. Damage was caused to several cars and a fire close to a packaging plant which was quickly put out by emergency services. Another rocket landed in the Sdot Negev region, causing no damage or injuries.

Fifteen rockets were fired at Israel a night earlier - the night between Sunday and Monday.

Noah Pollak, writing overnight at the Weekly Standard, pulls some of the strands together for us:

Here is what bias against Israel looks like. Three Israeli teenagers are abducted by the terrorist group Hamas, and after a desperate weeks-long search for the boys, they are finally found—dead in shallow graves near the site of the abduction. While all this is happening, Hamas instigates a new round of missile attacks from Gaza, firing 56 rockets at southern Israeli communities. The Obama administration's response? Express sympathy but call on Israel to refrain from responding.
Moments after the news broke today that the bodies of the teenagers had been found, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. was "urging restraint"—that is, urging Israel not to respond to the murder of its citizens.
Likewise the president's condolence statement concluded with an admonition that "all parties refrain from steps that could further destabilize the situation." Make no mistake—this is not a call on "all parties." It is a call directly to Israel, as Hamas already acted to "destabilize the situation" by abducting and murdering three teenagers and it continues to "destabilize the situation" by launching dozens of rockets a day at Israel... [W]ith Hamas and Fatah joined in an Obama-approved unity government that will continue receiving hundreds of millions of dollars a year in U.S. funding, we arrive at the events of the past three weeks—the increased rocket fire, the abduction and murder of the teenagers, and, of course, the administration's admonition that Israel not respond to events the administration itself has played a role in bringing about. And all the while the Obama administration insists on its "unshakable commitment to Israel's security," a phrase invoked with repetitive meaninglessness. The most important part of that commitment is being a source of moral clarity on days like today, and treating an ally like an ally, instead of a problem that must be contained...

The entire piece makes a strong impact. It's here.

30-Jun-14: The message of the murdering terrorists, its logical outcome and the indispensable support that enables it

A reminder - at this time of intense pain and anger - of the constant encouragement to engage in acts of terror, abduction and murder emanating from the Hamas terror organization and the men who stand at its head. But not only them.

• October 11, 2011: Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal, speaking on the day of the Gilad Shalit Transaction (1,027 imprisoned Palestinian Arab terrorists walked free in two tranches) said it was a "great achievement" to get so many prisoners in exchange for one man. His message to the remaining prisoners: "We will continue our efforts until we release all of you. Someone who agrees to release 1,000 prisoners will agree to release 8,000 in the future... This is a promise. This is our oath."
• October 12, 2011: Senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya: “The one and only solution is more resistance against the Israeli oppression, and more abduction of Israeli soldiers and settlers," he told the Al Quds satellite television network.”
• October 12, 2011: Abu Obaida, spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas, Izzadin al-Qassam: Gilad Schalit, set to be released as part of a prisoner exchange deal, "will not be the last soldier kidnapped by Hamas as long as Israel keeps Palestinian prisoners detained."
• October 21, 2011, Hamas TV: “A Zionist soldier = 1,000 prisoners. 6 Zionist soldiers = 6,000 prisoners. Capture of 6 Zionist soldiers = release of remaining prisoners. We are still thinking about you. Izz A-Din Al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas military wing)."
• December 8, 2012 Arch-terrorist Khaled Mashaal of Hamas: “We will not rest until we liberate the prisoners. The way we freed some of the prisoners in the past is the way we will use to free the remaining prisoners.”
• May 15, 2102: Spokesman for Hamas, Hammad al-Ruqab, speaking in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip: Calls on Palestinians to kidnap Israeli soldiers to use as bargaining chips in prisoner exchanges, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported. According to the report, al-Ruqab said militant groups (referring to terrorists), particularly Hamas's al-Qassam Brigades, should abduct soldiers, "whatever the cost."
• February 26, 2013: Addressing a rally in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Senior Hamas leader Salah al-Bardawil urged the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers. The abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit led to the release of over 1,000 terrorists in 2011 in a prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel…"A new Palestinian Intifada is about to break out in support of prisoners" al-Bardawil said, urging all PA Arabs to join activities to support detainees.
• May 28, 2013, Abu-Ubaida, spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades: “Those who refuse to abduct Zionist soldiers renounce the pain and suffering of thousands of prisoners yearning for freedom…Operations to capture enemy soldiers and trade them for our heroic prisoners are at the heart of our people’s culture, and are a source of pride for them and their resistance.”
• June 30, 2013: Video clip produced by the Al-Qassam Brigades marking the seventh anniversary of Shalit’s abduction: The clip ends with a Hebrew text reading, “We have started toward our goal, and we will reach the end.”
• October 21, 2013: Abu-Ubaida, spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades: “This tunnel was made by the hand of the fighters of (Izzadine) al-Qassam and they will not sleep in their efforts to hit the occupation and kidnap soldiers… Kidnapping soldiers is the only way to succeed against the occupation."
• June 18, 2014: Khaled Mashaal gives a speech interpreted as a signal for further kidnappings, declaring about a top prisoner “Your letter has arrived. I am aware of your difficulties. The reply will be provided by Iz al-Din al-Qassam.”

(Hat tip: TIP)

We know from painful personal experience how utterly dedicated to the murder of Israeli children the terrorists with "free our prisoners" branded onto their foreheads are. In particular, the former prisoner and convicted murderer who hosts a weekly television program beamed throughout the Arab world, calculated to arouse hateful people to acts of extreme cruelty in the name of the prisoners. Background: "17-Nov-11: A monster walks the streets and she has many accomplices"

But they are far from alone. 

The moral stupidity that their campaigns have encouraged among their people are more than matched by the actions and failures of others located far from Gaza.

It's timely to remind ourselves of the clear and articulate encouragement by the World Council of Churches of the Palestinian Arab strategic focus on prisoners - many of them convicted murderers - held in Israeli prisons. See "11-Jun-14: Where does this strategic deafness and moral blindness at World Council of Churches lead?" It will be interesting to see if they can bring themselves to compose a public response that actually condemns the terrorists and empathizes with the Israeli victims. We expect something preposterously and dishonestly "balanced" and therefore meaningless, if they put out anything at all. We'll see.

And it's appropriate that we remember how the Kerry State Department, confronted with a choice between recognizing convicted Palestinian Arab murderers in Israeli prisons - charged, convicted and sentenced for their crimes - and looking the other way found it expedient last year to say it does not actually know whether those men are what the Israelis say they are, or are "political prisoners" and "freedom fighters". It's on video here ["14-Sep-13: Memo to Secretary of State Kerry: Your staff need some urgent guidance"]. 

We have sought, and failed to get, clarification from the State Department and its Diplomat in Chief on this for a year ["9-Apr-14: Analyzing the failure, what role did the Kerry State Department play?"]. Perhaps it will come, too late, now that the three innocent abducted boys are no longer alive.

30-Jun-14: In Gaza, doing more of what they know best to do - fire rockets indiscriminately across the fence

It continues to be a violent day on Israel's southern front with the Hamas regime (now in a formal sense, the united PA/Hamas regime):

• Ynet, quoting official assessments, estimates that 14 rockets, give or take, were fired during Sunday night and early Monday morning. Most exploded in open areas of the Eshkol region.
• Around 7 this morning, a barrage of ten rockets was fired into Eshkol. All exploded in open areas, causing neither damage nor injuries. 
• At 7:30, at least one more rocket was fired.
• Around 8:30, yet another exploded in the Sdot Negev region, this time inside one of its residential communities (no names are being supplied for reasons of security), with damage caused to one of the buildings.
• Shortly after, another rocket exploded in the same region. 
• A Times of Israel report quotes officials saying this latest escalation is being executed openly and for 'credit' by Hamas. In recent years, they have preferred to allow other terrorist organizations to front for the rocket activity for reasons which make sense in terms of how many foreign countries relate to what they pretend is Hamas policy. That little game appears to have been abandoned for now, though the other little game - that Hamas and Fatah/PA/PLO are now united - goes on.

In total, according to AP, damage has been caused today to two Israeli homes in Israel, and two Israelis have been treated in hospital for shock, according to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. AP goes on to quote an IDF source saying about 40 rockets have landed in Israel since three Israeli teens "went missing earlier this month", a reference to the abduction by Palestinian Arab terrorists of Eyal Yifrach, 19; Gil-ad Shaar, 16; and Naftali Frenkel, 16. It adds this:

Rockets fired from Gaza -- most of which are crude, makeshift devices -- rarely cause casualties or major damage, but sow fear in Israeli communities near the border.

If any of our readers work for AP or know someone who does, can you please refer them to the photographs we posted here?

30-Jun-14: Incoming rockets, 3 am Monday, and still more unreported fell-shorts

Two more rockets fired by the terrorist groups of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip struck open areas in the Eshkol region early Monday morning. Lazar Berman of Times of Israel reported around 3 this morning (Monday) that there appear to have been neither injuries nor damage.

The fire from Gaza is, of course, indiscriminate: absolutely anything on the Israeli side or in the general direction of where the Israelis are, is the goal and no one outside Israeli circles ever seems to hold the terrorists to any higher standard. Distinctions between military targets and civilians? None. Schools, kindergartens, buses, cafes - everything and anything is legitimized by the incessant anger and sense of victimhood of the people with the tens of thousands of rockets concealed inside their community buildings. None of this is news.

It gets reported when Israeli measures to eliminate the people who do the firing, or the storage facilities or the places where the explosive devices are made or assembled, succeed.

And as for the frequent "fell shorts" that the terror-addicted Islamists of Gaza routinely visit on the heads of their own people, these are almost never reported outside Israel. There were at least four more of those yesterday and the day before, according to the Gaza-based web log of GANSO:

06/29/2014 | 16:15 | 29 JUN, 1615:Pal. Ope. attempted to fire 2 rockets from Rafah, both rockets exploded at the launching site. Injuries were reported.

06/29/2014 | 07:50 | MU, 29 JUN: Overnight, Pal. ops. fired 6 rockets from NG and GC toward the Green Line; 1 rocket exploded at the launching site. 

06/28/2014 | 07:30 | MU, 28 JUN: Over the past 2 days, IAF conducted 6 airstrikes. 2 fatalities reported. IED was detonated E of KY. IF fired 5 shells toward E of KY. 6 injuries were reported. Pal. ops. fired 11 rockets and 3 mortar shells toward the Green Line. 1 of them exploded prematurely and the other intercepted by Iron Dome. More details via email.

29-Jun-14: Intense Gazan rocket fire on southern Israel again tonight

It's Sunday night. Around 8:15 this evening, at about the same time as a major rally in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square in support of efforts to safely rescue the three Israeli boys abducted by Palestinian Arab terrorists, the Tzeva Adom (Code Red) incoming missile system began sounding its sirens right across southern Israel. Warnings were sounded in the Hof Ashkelon region, in Sdot Negev which was hit last night as well, and in Sha'ar Hanegev which was also hit last night.

At about the same time, Gazan mortar fire erupted right on the border fence that separates the Hamas-controlled, terrorism-infested Gaza Strip from Israel.

We now know that two of the incoming rockets, classified as GRADs, were intercepted in mid-flight by the IDF's Iron Dome defensive rocket system, and destroyed over the southern city of Netivot (population: 27,000) without doing serious harm.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, the first day of the Islamic holy month, Ramadan, had just concluded at about the time of tonight's rocket volley.

Islamist militancy is running high in Gaza:

About 100,000 students from all over the Gaza Strip joined the “Pioneers of Liberation” summer camps organized this year by the Hamas movement. The camps are organized according to educational level, with primary, middle and secondary school stages... Students ranging in age from 12 to 17 gather in the afternoons for three hours, seven days a week, wearing fatigues, black shirts and green berets. They are trained in the basics of military action and security in the camps organized by the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip during their summer vacation. Forty supervisors affiliated with the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, divide the students into groups. Some groups are trained to carry and use arms and others to navigate obstacle courses, while another group is trained on debarkation techniques and safety. Each year, Hamas holds summer camps for male and female students of various ages. Some of these camps are predominantly recreational and cultural, while others focus on the military drills, all part of a program to promote Hamas and its ideology. Hamza Ahmad, a summer camp official in the Saraya region, said military drills fall in line with Hamas’ conviction that the Palestinians are in a state of conflict with Israel, and they must know the basics of military action in addition to the security and cultural aspects of the program. [Source: Al-Monitor]

Times of Israel, quoting government sources, says Palestinian Arab rocket attacks on Israel during the (still unfinished) month of June are running at 4.5 times the number of the previous month: 13 in May; 60 in June.

29-Jun-14: More Saturday night rocket attacks on southern Israel

Sderot, southern Israel, Saturday afternoon:
Gaza's embedded rocket arsenal has
huge potential for lethality [Image Source]

The Sderot factory about which we reported earlier tonight has burned to the ground.

The photos at right and below are something to keep in mind when those who misleadingly soft-talk what the Palestinian Arab terrorists do ("home-made rockets" and the like) attempt to peddle their preferred image of pathetic, oppressed, helpless and ill-equipped freedom-loving Gazans.

The reality is Gaza is armed to the teeth, with deep reserves of rockets concealed inside mosques, the basements of hospitals, and indoor caches close to schools. It's a fiendish strategy, and tonight's conflagration is a small taste of what can be expected in the future.

Soon after tonight's direct hit on the Sderot factory, the incoming-rocket alarms sounded again across a broad swathe of southern Israel. Times of Israel reports that residents of the Sdot Negev region were forced to take cover around 10 o'clock Saturday night as another barrage of rockets was launched from the Gaza Strip. It says those rockets are now thought to have landed in open territory, without causing injury to people or significant property damage.

A little later, just after 11:00 pm local time on Saturday night, additional incoming rocket sirens were heard [Hebrew report] in Sderot and the Sha'ar Hanegev region. We do not know the outcome at this stage.

Sderot: The outcome of Saturday afternoon's rocket attack

Sderot: The factory that was destroyed by Gazan rockets

Sderot: The damage that the terrorists' rockets can do is
consistently under-stated by the news media [Image Source: AP]