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.