This Ongoing War: A Blog: 13-Jan-14: As Sharon funeral winds up, two more civilian-seeking attack rockets are fired from Gaza

Monday, January 13, 2014

13-Jan-14: As Sharon funeral winds up, two more civilian-seeking attack rockets are fired from Gaza

Ariel Sharon's fresh grave, beside that of his wife Lily
and in the soil of his farm

Two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel and landed in an open field in the vicinity of the Gaza border fence. There were no injuries or damage reported. IDF is not planning to respond to the attack at this stage.

This report appeared on-line around 4:30 Monday afternoon, very shortly after the Ariel Sharon state funeral had wound up.

We're puzzled by the suggestion that the IDF, confronted with four rockets in two volleys fired indiscriminately by Gaza-based terror forces at Israeli targets, would decide - let alone announce - to do nothing. About this morning's incoming rockets, see "13-Jan-14: Ahead of today's state funeral - rockets".

Times of Israel says the two rockets fell in an open area near the border with Gaza in the Sha’ar Hanegev region, noting that

Many of Israel’s top leaders and dignitaries were nearby at the Sharon family’s Sycamore Farm, located just east of the town of Sderot and only seven kilometers (4.3 miles) from the border with Gaza. Among leaders at the funeral were Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, US Vice President Joe Biden, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and many others.

Another source reports that

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the projectiles had targeted the town of Sderot, which lies very close to the Gaza border, and just four kilometres (2.5 miles) west of Sycamore Ranch, causing no injuries or damage. Given the ranch's proximity to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, the Israeli police and army had beefed up security in the area, with unconfirmed media reports saying the military had deployed a battery of the Iron Dome missile defence system to counter possible rocket attacks.

And on the Haaretz site, columnist Amir Oren writing a day before today's Gazan volleys, presciently observes that the late prime minister, by ordering the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza

laid the foundation for the Hamas takeover [and] helped realize the nightmare scenario that had previously served him as a political accessory: Gaza became a launching pad for rockets on the entire south. The ability of Gazan terror groups to rain fire on his ranch and the hill on which he will be buried is... part of Sharon’s legacy. [Haaretz]

UPDATE Monday 6:45 pm: Contrary to the implication of its earlier report that the IDF had said it would do nothing in response to today's Gaza rocket attacks on southern Israel, Ynet now says "The Palestinians have reported that the IAF has attacked a Hamas military camp in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip. The IDF Spokesperson Unit said that the IAF attacked a military compound in central Gaza Strip and terror infrastructure in the southern part of the Strip."

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