10-Jul-14: Life under the rockets - Thursday [Updating]

Tel Aviv bomb shelter, July 10, 2014: Metropolis under repeated rocket attack [Image Source]

During the night just ended, between Wednesday and Thursday, the Tzeva Adom incoming-rocket sirens were heard again and again in communities right across southern and central Israel. In hundreds of thousands of homes, the night was spent in safe rooms or shelters - and in trepidation. Whatever the scale of the fears until now, Israelis know just a single one of those explosive rockets can change the picture in dramatic ways for individuals, families and society.

What we also know is everyone here lives in the target zone.

05:55 am: Ynet published this brief update of key stats about five hours ago:

"Since Operation Protective Edge began late Monday night, more than 234 rockets fell in Israeli territory, 61 of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system and 590 terrorist targets were attacked."

06:00 am: On the Haaretz site, Ari Shavit writes ["The combination of Hamas' fanaticism, desperation and rocket capabilities are only the precursor to what we can expect over the next years and decades."]

With their backs to the wall, our fanatical enemies to the south have decided to tear down their house over their heads... The first two days of rocket attacks didn’t cause much damage to Israel. For the most part, the Iron Dome worked very well. For the most part, Israelis have stood up to the challenges. But there’s no telling what the future holds, or what the next rocket will bring with it. The dilemma is a difficult one: On the one hand, no state can withstand a violation of its sovereignty. On the other hand, being drawn into the Gaza Strip is akin to being drawn into a perilous trap. What will be will be as the situation unfolds, but it’s already clear that the way things were until a few weeks ago is gone. The bubbles we’ve lived in have burst. The years of calm are over. We’ve now come face to face with the new, wild and violent Middle East."

06:15 am: Ben Hartman in the Jerusalem Post:

On the second full day of Operation Protective Edge, residents as far north as Zichron Ya’acov found themselves in Hamas’s rocket range Wednesday after rockets were reported in the areas of Caesarea, Hadera and elsewhere the night before. While details were unclear and not cleared for publication, there were reports of rocket strikes in open areas in the Hof Hacarmel region, which runs from Caesarea up to Tirat Carmel, as well as in Hadera and Or Akiva. 

08:00 am: Most people understand that the Arab/Israel conflict tends to arouse some severely partisan - but let's call them subjective - sentiments. And just because rockets by the hundred are being flung indiscriminately by the adherents of religiously extreme death cults which in our view is the principal factor characterising the dangerous days through which we're passing is no reason to expect people to suddenly get rational. Case in point: an appallingly tendentious item in The Guardian today. The title pretty much gives away the writer's whole thesis:

"IDF's Gaza assault is to control Palestinian gas, avert Israeli energy crisis | Israel's defence minister has confirmed that military plans to 'uproot Hamas' are about dominating Gaza's gas reserves"

The author, Nafeez Ahmed, is described as "an international security journalist and academic", and says he bases himself on "Anais Antreasyan in the University of California's Journal of Palestine Studies, the most respected English language journal devoted to the Arab-Israeli conflict". The notion that ideologically-rooted rubbish of this sort got past the editors of one of the world's most influential news sources is deeply depressing.

08:50 am: Reports of a major hail of rocket fire directed at Tel Aviv.

09:00 am: Times of Israel: "Hamas says it fired two M-75 rockets at Tel Aviv, shortly after Israeli media reports four interceptions over Tel Aviv. The M-75 has a range of 75 kilometers, and a 60 kilogram warhead, according to the IDF."

09:30 am: Since we're not sure how much information about this is already published, we will simply say there have been further rocket hails over southern Israeli communities in the past quarter hour.

09:35 am: An appropriate moment to mention an article by William Saletan on the salon.com site: "The Gaza Rules"

"According to many critics, Israel is slaughtering civilians in Gaza. It’s “purposefully wiping out entire families,” says an Arab member of Israel’s parliament. It’s committing “genocide—the murder of entire families,” says Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. Iran says Israel has committed “massacres against the defenseless Palestinians.” The charges are false. By the standards of war, Israel’s efforts to spare civilians have been exemplary."

(We will continue the updates towards evening at this location. Sorry for the unavoidable break.)