Barely reported, and therefore virtually unnoticed, a rocket attack from Gaza yesterday (Sunday) resulted in a direct hit on a dwelling in southern Israel, injuring a 2-year-old child.The Qassam slammed into a house in Kibbutz Zikkim. The child was playing on the living room floor with his mother sitting a few meters away. The Qassam rocket launched by terrorists from the northern Gaza Strip struck the side of the small kibbutz home. Mother and son were evacuated to Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center for treatment. The JPost report says the house has a "secure room" but the family did not hear any take-cover alarm.
Two hours after the Zikkim strike, another rocket hit a nearby kibbutz.
Islamic Jihad, Syrian-based and funded by Iran, claimed responsibility for Sunday's attacks. A week ago, they announced that their rockets now have an enlarged range, up to 22 kilometers, enough "to hit the far north of Ashkelon". Qassam rockets are normally reckoned to have a range of about 12 kilometers. IJ also boast that they recently formed a suicide brigade of "70 youths, including females". Brainwashing and manipulating impressionable young people into becoming human bombs has long been part of IJ's modus operandi.
CNN, quoting Israeli military sources, says more than 3,600 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza into Israel since Israel removed its communities from there in 2005.
UPDATE (Tuesday 18-Dec-07): YNet describes a remarkably surgical Israeli counter-strike.
2 comments:
I continue to be dumbfounded by Olmert's "response" to the rockets.
True but now there's been a quite effective response by Israel: "Hours after Defense Minister Ehud Barak promised residents of Sderot that the IDF would step up its activities to stop Kassam rocket attacks, in a pair of airstrikes, IAF aircraft blasted two cars in Gaza City after nightfall, killing five Islamic Jihad terrorists, including a senior commander and a master rocket maker. The target of its first airstrike in Gaza City late Monday was Majed Harazin, a senior Islamic Jihad terrorist in charge of rocket squads that have been firing at Israel, the military said. Islamic Jihad spokesman Khaled el-Batch confirmed that Harazin was killed in the first attack. He was a top Islamic Jihad commander for both the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians said, and he rarely traveled in vehicles for fear of an Israeli airstrike. He was on Israel's wanted list for nine years, they said. Another terrorist was killed and a third critically wounded in the airstrike, hospital officials said. Gunfire erupted throughout Gaza after Harazin's death was announced by Islamic Jihad over loudspeakers from mosques. An Islamic Jihad official called his death a serious blow to the group."
Source: http://preview.tinyurl.com/yqvd6w
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