4-Jul-14: The rockets and where they're taking us

It's a hot Friday morning, and incoming-rocket sirens have been wailing right across the south of Israel all night and into the morning, after days of the same. Sderot, and the Eshkol, Sdot Negev and Sha'ar Hanegev regions have taken the brunt of the indiscriminate Palestinian Arab fire, and the authorities are warning of the certainty of more.

According to a Times of Israel tally, 15 rockets were fired at Israel by the terrorists of Gaza during last (Thursday) evening. There was one injury, and considerable property damage, and a great deal of fear and apprehension on the part of the ordinary people who live in those southern communities with the misfortune of being closest to the border with the terror-infested Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Residents are being advised to stay within 15 seconds sprint of bomb shelters.

Times of Israel says the Israeli government issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the Hamas regime in Gaza during Thursday. They are warned to halt their fire - or face a massive Israeli strike. This was conveyed to Hamas leaders via Egyptian intelligence. The response was not long in coming: Israel, a Hamas spokesperson said, will “be surprised” by its rocket arsenal and range.

“We promise that one stupid move your leaders make will constitute sufficient ground to turn all of your towns, even those you wouldn’t expect, into targets and burning cinders,” said Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing. Israel may initiate the escalation, “but it doesn’t know how it will continue and how it will end... The threats the occupiers issue, and the allusions to war against Gaza, are threats that have no meaning in our dictionaries, other than drawing the hour of vengeance and difficult lesson-learning closer,” Ubaida added. [Times of Israel]

Updates to come.