Almost entirely unreported by the media (how much of what we write below was reported in anything that circulates in your community?), another barrage of rockets was fired from Gaza into Israel this evening (Saturday night).The city of Ashkelon was hit, along with other towns and communities in southern Israel, all of them located close to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Haaretz says 4 Qassam rockets and at least ten mortar shells were fired into Israel today. In addition, a mortar shell exploded at Kerem Shalom, close to Israel's Gaza border. Another landed short in the Gaza Strip itself.
Hamas sources in Gaza today said a member of the so-called Popular Resistance Committees was killed while trying to plant an explosive device near the Israel-Gaza fence. The IDF denies the man was killed by IDF fire, leaving open the very common "work accident" explanation. Whatever, another "martyr" for the Palestinian school-books.
On Friday, 6 Qassams pelted the south of Israel. And as happened this evening, one of those hit Ashkelon, this time in the city's industrial zone. A mortar shell was also fired. One of Friday's rockets exploded in a residential area of Sderot. Another landed in the grounds of the Sha'ar Hanegev regional council. Two rockets exploded near the Eshkol regional council offices.
Credit for these attacks was claimed by Fatah - and not Hamas, as we might have expected. That's the "moderate" Fatah, headed by the "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas. Their "moderate" rockets, strangely, achieve as much damage as those of the acknowledged terrorists of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and of Hamas.
Also Friday, Palestinians threw two Molotov cocktails on Friday afternoon at Israeli motorists driving near the West Bank village of Azun east of Qalqilyah. No injuries were reported, although one car was damaged.
On Thursday, the defense ministery of Israel authorized the entry into Hamas-controlled Gaza of 40 trucks carrying basic foodstuffs, 30 trucks filled with cereal, and industrial fuel for the power station.
So what would you do if the people on the other side of the fence near where your family lives engaged in murderous activities like these? Day after day? No matter - practically no one knows about them since they're almost entirely unreported outside Israel.
UPDATE Saturday night 11:00pm - YNet is reporting that IDF aircraft fired a missile at a ready-to-launch Qassam rocket in the northern Gaza Strip Saturday (tonight) and struck the target. At 9:30 this evening, Palestinian sources reported that a loud blast had been heard from the direction of Beit Hanoun, and that an IAF Apache chopper was seen near the town. "The strike was carried out Saturday evening following a rocket and mortar shell offensive directed at southern Israel by the Palestinians. In response to the ongoing fire from Gaza, Defense Minister Ehud Barak ruled that Gaza Strip crossings to would remain closed Sunday. "
