05-Oct-19: Paying the price of Gazan terror again, two more Gazan Fell Shorts crash into Gaza

Remember our post about Fell Shorts from just a couple of weeks ago? 

In "19-Sep-19 Gazan victims of a cognitive war: Who cares?", we wrote about the almost entirely unreported phenomenon of rockets fired from the rocket-infested, Hamas-occupied Gaza Strip in the general direction of Israel but which fall short, crashing onto the heads of homes of hapless Gazans.

It happened again in the early hours of this morning, Saturday.

Two projectiles fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip on Friday fell short of the border fence, landing inside the Hamas-held territory, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. The launches triggered incoming rocket sirens in the Gaza border community of Kissufim in southern Israel shortly before midnight.
The incident came hours after a Palestinian man was killed during riots along the Gaza-Israel border fence on Friday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, as thousands took part in weekly protests.
Alaa Hamdan, 28, was shot in the chest by IDF soldiers in a clash near Jabalia in northern Gaza, the ministry’s spokesman said. The IDF had no immediate comment on the death.
Israel’s Channel 12 said the death may have been caused by a Palestinian grenade.
[Times of Israel, October 5, 2019]

Haaretz adds that

A statement from the Eshkol Regional Council on the Gaza border said that although phone apps sent out an alert of a rocket siren in the area, no such siren was activated, and no explosions were heard. The Israel Defense Forces clarified that it identified two launches [from Gaza], which did not cross into Israeli territory. 

Who was injured in Gaza by the Gazan rocket? What damage was caused? We'll likely never know. Media coverage of Gaza from within Gaza is strictly controlled by Hamas, the Islamist terrorist organization that has ruled it since violently wresting control from Fatah in 2006. Unless the news can inflict harm on Israel, it will never be reported.

08-May-18: War crimes, incendiary neighbors

Image Source

People who have suffered the usually-minor indignity of having passers-by or neighbors flick a still-lit cigarette into their homes or gardens will have an advantage in relating to the latest technological 'breakthrough' to emerge from Gaza.

As Ynet reported on Monday evening ["Incendiary balloons from Gaza cause damage to Israeli fields", May 07, 2018]

Several incendiary balloons flown from the Gaza Strip on Monday afternoon caused fires in seven different locations on the Israeli side of the border. No one was hurt, but great damage was caused... The incendiary balloons, like incendiary kites, are affixed with an already-lit Molotov cocktail [fire bomb]... The westerly winds push the balloons, which are filled with helium gas, towards Israel. After a short while in the air, the fire from the Molotov cocktail causes the balloon to explode in midair, with the incendiary contraption dropping to the ground. The IDF has been working on a solution to thwart these contraptions by intercepting them using drones before they can land in Israel and cause damage.

[Video source: YouTube] 

At this point, we know of one such incendiary device igniting wheat fields on the land of Kibbutz Mefalsim in the Shaar HaNegev Regional Council. Another landed in the Eshkol region's Be'eri Forest, setting off a blaze. With spring turning to summer and harvest time, the economic losses are significant to the agricultural communities attacked by the Palestinian Arabs.

From another report last week ["Incendiary kite from Gaza causes massive fire in Be'eri Forest", Ynet, May 02, 2018] 

An incendiary kite flown Wednesday from the Gaza Strip by Palestinian terrorists caused a huge fire in the Be'eri Forest in southern Israel that continued to rage into the evening. No casualties were reported. The conflagration is the biggest to have erupted since Palestinians in the strip began flying the incendiary kites across the border. By 7:30pm, the fire continued to slowly reduce hundreds of dunams of woodland to ash, as ten firefighter teams scrambled to contain it, battling high temperatures, dry weather and strong easterly winds that fanned the flames. Incendiary kites are the latest improvised weapon to have been added to the Palestinian rioters' arsenal as part of the weekly "March of Return" protests on the Gaza Border, enabling Palestinian rioters to wreak havoc on Israel's southern towns without approaching the border fence and risking their lives.  Around three to four of the kites are sent across the Gaza-Israel border each day, and have so far incinerated agricultural lands in Israel's southern region, with wheat fields being set aflame and ecological damage caused to the country. 

Shedding some dim light on the state of mind of the pyromaniacs, images of Gazan kites (like the one below) festooned with Nazi swastikas accompany many of the reports.

Image Source: AP

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court - the treaty that established it and entered into force on 1 July 2002 - defines destroying the environment, even if no one is killed, as a war crime. In September 2016, the ICC prosecution issued a policy directive stating that it would place a special priority on prosecuting war crimes against the environment, something it had never done until then.

Hard not to notice the tone of pride and enthusiasm as certain media outlets report on the incendiary attacks by Gazan Palestinian Arabs. "Palestinian ‘Fire Kites’ Spark Huge Blaze in Zionist Settlements near Gaza Border" [Al Manar, May 02, 2018] for instance, and "Flaming kites mark fifth Friday of Gaza protests" [Mondoweiss, April 29, 2018].

Almost as if burning down the neighhbours' crops - or setting mountains of rubber tires ablaze and generating carcinogenic smoke and fumes - will get the attackers a better life. 

03-Jan-18: Wednesday rocket fire on southern Israel - and more Fell Shorts

Far from reporters' eyes and awareness, the southern half of Israel has come under rocket attack three five times in the past several days. In chronological order:

• On Friday, as we noted at the time ["29-Dec-17: Midday rockets from Gaza: two are intercepted in the air, one lands inside Israel"] three somethings (maybe mortars, maybe rockets - Israeli reports are divided, no one else cares) were lobbed into southern Israel in an attempt, it is speculated, to disrupt a well-attended ceremony for the missing-believed-killed IDF soldier Oren Shaul "whose remains are being held by Hamas in the coastal enclave" in the words of a Times of Israel report today. Two were intercepted in mid-air by Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile defense system. The third crashed into an Israeli community causing some building damage. It was announced yesterday (Tuesday) that the IDF has concluded that Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group serving as a well-armed proxy for the Iranian military carried out the attack.
• The on Monday night (not reported by us), a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip at anything Israeli crashed into an open field in the Eshkol region. Neither injuries nor damage resulted which was not and never is the intention of the terrorists doing the firing.
• This afternoon (Wednesday), a mortar fired from the Gaza Strip crashed into a field in the Eshkol region according to Times of Israel which says the IDF's early-detection systems spotted the launch as it happened but the site of its impact is still being sought. No Tzeva Adom (Red Alert) warnings were sounded, evidently indicating that once the trajectory was known, it was calculated not to be heading towards a populated area. For its part, Ynet says there were two rockets this afternoon: one around 2 pm, the other around 3:30 pm. (We see now that Times of Israel agrees.) Both crashed into the Eshkol region, and in neither case was there significant property damage or any injuries.

Several additional rocket and mortar firings during these past few days fell on top of Gazan homes and land and perhaps people. They're what we know as Fell Shorts. The Arab side never reports these, perhaps out of embarrassment. It's exceedingly rare for them to be mentioned at all by the major news syndication agencies like Reuters, AFP and Associated Press.

This is a pity because, as we see it, nothing expresses contempt for the lives and well-being of Gaza's Palestinian Arab population more clearly than the steady stream of rockets that fall short and land in their midst.

Victims of the property damage and of the injuries that follow are right out of luck, because no news reporters come to hear their stories. For Gaza's Hamas rulers, if no one knows about the Fell Shorts, they never happened. Click Fell Short to see that we have reported on close to a hundred such own-goals.

UPDATE Wednesday January 3, 2018 at 6:05pm: There's been a third Gaza-on-Israel firing - maybe a mortar, maybe a rocket. Times of Israel says unlike the two earlier attacks today, this latest one triggered the Color Red sirens indicating that there must have been a perceived danger to people and communities. As always, the rocket-persons can reliably be expected to continue until they're forcibly stopped.

11-Dec-17: Another Gazan rocket attack this evening

Times of Israel says there has been another Gazan rocket attack on southern Israel this evening (Monday). "At least one rocket", it reports, resulting in Israel Defense Forces "retaliatory fire".

A short while ago, projectiles were launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel,” the military said in a statement... An impact of the Gazan missile was not identified, the army said, but reports indicated the missile landed in an open area near the border fence in the Eshkol region, opposite the southern Strip. No alert sirens sounded in the Gaza border region. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Israel responded by targeting Hamas posts in southern Gaza with tank fire and an air strike, the army said. “The IDF hold Hamas responsible for these aggressive acts originating from the Gaza Strip.” Palestinian media reported that Hamas positions in Khan Younis were hit by the Israeli fire... Tensions have been rising since Wednesday, when US President Donald Trump declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel. Hamas on Thursday had called for a new intifada against Israel... ["IDF hits Hamas posts after missile fired from Gaza", Times of Israel , December 11, 2017]

Because it is so close to the rocket-rich, terrorism-addicted Gaza Strip, Israel's Eshkol region has

been the target of thousands of rocket attacks since 2000. Despite Iron Dome coverage in the region, usage of the system is generally limited to populated areas and allows other rockets to land in open areas. As a result, there has been widespread damage to farms, vehicles and various outlying structures. During the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, farmers reported massive damages to their crops due to rockets landing in open fields. On 26 August 2014 a mortar shell fired from Gaza was reported to have killed one person and seriously wounded two others... [Wikipedia]

Other than via Israeli news channels, tonight's rocket attack - as is often the case - gets no coverage from any news media anywhere as of 8:15 pm Monday night.

09-Dec-17: Friday night rocket-reminder of Gazan rage

Sderot [Image Source]

We're just getting to the developments of the Shabbat just ended, with Tzeva Adom incoming-rocket warnings being sounded three times on Friday evening, after the onset of the Sabbath, in a broad swathe of southern Israel communities. Ynet reports that residents of those cities, towns and homes within shooting distance of Gaza vicinity "who were forced to flee Friday to shelters and protected areas due to rockets being fired from Gaza said Saturday they knew it was coming, but knowing never makes it any easier."

Israel National News:

A rocket fired from Gaza exploded on Friday evening in the city of Sderot in southern Israel. The rocket caused damage to several vehicles but there were no physical injuries. The attack on Sderot was the third rocket attack on southern Israel within several hours. Earlier on Friday evening, Gaza-based terrorists fired two rockets towards southern Israel. One of the rockets was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system. A second may have exploded in an open area. There were no physical injuries or damages in either attack.

Providing some background, Times of Israel adds that

Hamas, an Islamist terror group which seeks to destroy Israel, has called for a new intifada in response to US President Donald Trump’s recognition on Wednesday of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Hamas’s leader Ismail Haniyeh on Friday evening praised as a “blessed intifada” the violent protests held by thousands of Palestinians across the West Bank and in Gaza throughout the afternoon. Two Gazans were reported killed in what Israel said were violent protests at the Gaza border fence and a third was badly injured. Israel holds Hamas responsible for all rocket fire and other attacks emanating from the Strip, which the terror group still overwhelmingly controls despite handing over some power back to the Palestinian Authority.

And over at JewishPress.com, this:

Studied and deliberate editorial disinterest about Israeli victimhood ensures
most people have no idea what the terror directed at Israelis does
[Image Source]

Southern Israeli residents were warned to remain near their shelters and safe spaces after the first Red Alert incoming rocket warning siren shattered the calm of a Sabbath evening at around 6:11 pm, sending families racing to safety in Sha’ar HaNegev, Sdot Negev, Eshkol and the Ashkelon Coastal Regional Council districts. That was followed up shortly after by another at around 7:07 pm, sending families back to the shelters in Sdot Negev and the Bnei Shimon Regional Council districts. A third warning siren activated at around 10 pm, again in the Sdot Negev and Bnei Shimon Regional Council districts. “Due to alarms activating recently in the communities in our area, we are asking residents as a precaution to remain near shelters or protected spaces,” said the announcement from the Sdot Negev Regional Council... ["Sabbath Quiet Shattered Friday Night by Rocket Fire on Southern Israel", December 8, 2017]

Other than by parts of the Israeli news media, Friday night's multiple rocket attacks on southern Israel are ignored by most of the global news-reporting industry. Most people in most places have no idea they happened. (Israeli counterattacks, if and when, are bound to get far wider coverage.)

15-Oct-17: Rockets strike southern Israel from Sinai

Incoming hostile rockets were detected at about 10:15 tonight (Sunday) in southern Israel, and as a result the Tzeva Adom (Color Red) warning system was activated in multiple communities.

The IDF says there were two rockets and unlike the recent spate of inbound missiles from Gaza where Hamas runs everything, these originated in Sinai. The last time we saw Sinai rockets here was during the inaugural Trump visit five months ago: "23-May-17: In the midst of US presidential visit, ISIS plays its hand".

No indication yet of whether there has been any damage to property or worse. Israel National News says explosions were heard in the Eshkol region. Times of Israel quotes the IDF:

A military spokesperson said they were still looking for the rockets, indicating that they likely struck an open field, rather than a populated area. The army did not immediately identify who launched the rockets, but it was likely a Sinai affiliate of the Islamic State terrorist group.

Some background via Ynet:

Earlier in the day [Sunday], suspected Islamic State militants attacked six checkpoints in the turbulent north of the Sinai Peninsula, killing six [Egyptian] soldiers and wounding 37, according to [Egyptian] security and hospital officials. The officials said the near-simultaneous attacks took place at and around the town of Sheikh Zweid, with dozens of militants using heavy machine guns and mortars... Egyptian security forces have for years battled militants in northern Sinai, which borders the Gaza Strip and Israel. But the insurgency there has gained momentum after the Egyptian military ousted an elected Islamist president [Morsi] in 2013.

Sheikh Zuweid (using the more common spelling) is a Sinai town of some 60,000 Bedouin that has been under the control of ISIS since 2015. Reuters adds this evening to what we know from Ynet when it says

At least 24 militants and six soldiers were killed on Sunday in attacks on military outposts in North Sinai, the Egyptian military said in a statement. The statement did not give details, but security and medical sources said about 20 members of the security forces had also been injured when more than 100 militants repeatedly attacked security outposts south of the border town of Sheikh Zuweid. The attackers used car bombs and rocket propelled grenades (RPG), the sources said.

Egypt's Sinai has been in a state of almost complete chaos for the past six years. This Jerusalem Post
backgrounder ["Lawlessness and terror: The Beduin kingdom of Sinai"] from March 2012 traces the spiraling downwards.

23-May-17: In the midst of US presidential visit, ISIS plays its hand

Manchester Arena, Monday night [Image Source]

Times of Israel reports today (Tuesday) that

a rocket was fired from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula at southern Israel on Tuesday morning, amid a visit to the country by US President Donald Trump, the army said. No injury or damage was caused by the missile, the army said. Israeli troops launched a search for the impact site in the Eshkol region, which abuts the Sinai Peninsula. In some cases, rockets launched toward Israel do not cross the border and end up landing inside Egyptian territory. No organization took immediate responsibility, but previous such incidents have been claimed by the Islamic State terror group’s Sinai affiliate. The incoming rocket alert was not activated during the attack, as the military calculated the projectile was not heading toward a populated area.

Social media reports indicate the rocket was fired into Israel during the morning peak traffic hour, roughly 7:30 am, when large number of Israeli children in the target area are making their way to school.

Claims were made this afternoon that the Islamic State terrorists are also taking credit for last night's horrifying massacre at Manchester Arena:

The attack, which killed at least 22 people, including an 18-year-old college student, and left around 59 injured, was described by British Prime Minister Theresa May as "the worst attack the city has experienced."
The news comes after outlets reported that ISIS supporters were celebrating the bombing on social media, hailing it as a victory against "the crusaders" of the West and framing it as a response to airstrikes in Iraq. According to the Daily Telegraph, one video showed an English-speaking ISIS supporter holding up a sign reading 'Manchester' with the date of the attack. A statement made via ISIS channels on the messaging app Telegram said that "one of the soldiers of the caliphate placed explosive devices in a gathering of crusaders in the middle of the British city of Manchester," hinting that the terrorist incident was not a suicide attack, as it is believed to have been. It said the bombing was a response to Britain’s “transgressions against the lands of the Muslims.” Pro-ISIS accounts had earlier celebrated the attack on social media, framing it as a response to airstrikes in Iraq. [TIME, today]

20-Feb-17: In Sinai, rocket-equipped ISIS jihadists remind Israelis this morning of an ongoing threat

Egyptian soldiers standing guard at a strategic site in Egypt's Sinai Desert, November 2015 [Image Source] 

Times of Israel reports this morning (Monday) that two rockets (mischievously and disingenuously described in a Guardian report today as "hand-made") were fired from Sinai into southern Israel's Eshkol region in the past hour. They crashed into open fields. It's reported that no one was injured and there are no signs of any damage caused in the attack, according to the IDF.

The Iron Dome incoming rocket alert system that has delivered breathtakingly-effective defensive results for the benefit of the thousands of Israelis living within range of the massively-well-equipped rocket jihadists in the Gaza Strip and the Sinai desert, was not activated this time. That's evidently because the system instantly computed that no populated Israeli area was threatened by the trajectory of the rockets.

So far, no terrorist group has claimed credit for the attack. But Times of Israel notes that it came hours after the Islamic State terrorists based in Sinai had accused Israel of killing five of its members in an airstrike.

According to Amaq news agency, an official media arm of the terror group, an Israeli drone struck a car with five Islamic State members in a village in the northern Sinai near the Egypt-Israel border on Saturday. The strike occurred near the village of Shabana, south of the town of Rafah, Amaq said. The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to The Times of Israel’s request for comment, but generally refrains from confirming or denying strikes outside of Israel. ["Two rockets from Sinai hit southern Israel, IDF says", Times of Israel, February 20, 2017]

Ynet late last night (Sunday) quoted an ISIS news agency called al-Amaq saying that an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) had attacked a vehicle in a village in the northern Rafah part of Egypt's Sinai desert the day before (Saturday). It said five members of its local group were killed in the Israeli attack and that, in Amaq's words they "fell as martyrs to the Jewish enemy", naming one of the dead jihadists as Hatab al-Maqdasi.

Ten days earlier, ISIS had claimed credit for four rockets fired into Eilat from Sinai [which we reported here]. ISIS had said then

A number of rockets were launched at Jewish centers in Eilat, known as Umm Rashrash. The Jews and Crusaders should know that the war of the apostles will not save them in any way. ["ISIS says Israel killed 5 of its members", Ynet, February 19, 2017]

A Financial Times article yesterday indicates the scale of what's at stake:

Isis operations in Egypt have largely remained confined to the jihadi group’s northern Sinai stronghold, but the group remains the biggest security threat facing the state. They have killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen and have periodically been able to strike beyond their area with devastating impact... The northern Sinai, a large desert region that borders Gaza and Israel has long been blighted by lawlessness, neglected by Cairo and roamed by smugglers. The Sinai jihadis started out as a local group targeting Israel. But they intensified attacks against Egyptian security forces in 2013 after the army’s ouster of an elected Islamist president. In 2014 they swore allegiance to Isis naming themselves “Sinai Province.” ["Civilians caught in crossfire as Egypt battles Isis in Sinai", Financial Times, February 19, 2017] 

A 2016 BBC Monitoring backgrounder [here] says the Sinai-based jihadists have given signs of softening a previously harsh towards the Islamists of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. It had previously criticized them for adopting "infidel democracy" but later called them "supporters of peacefulness" in encouraging them to revolt against Egypt's President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.

While ISIS have a host of determined enemies, there are obvious strategic reasons why they prefer to be seen as losing martyrs to the Israelis rather than the Egyptians, whether or not the evidence is with them.

23-Nov-15: Monday morning rocket fired at southern Israel

Another missile flung indiscriminately in the general direction of Israel (it's a time-honored strategy) was fired off in the past few minutes by the rocket men of Gaza.

Israel National News reports that it crashed and exploded in the Eshkol region of southern Israel. Because it struck open land, it caused - as far as can be told at this stage - neither damage nor injuries to people.

This, it should be noted, was not and never is the intention of the terrorists. They hold huge inventories of rockets and seek to use them for purposes of terror - not defense of their homes or families, not to conquer portions of Israel, not even to offset the dominant power of the IDF. But purely for terror.

This means a desired outcome, for instance, would be to hit a school bus (this is the hour when the school buses are active) or a kindergarten or a home on the Israeli side. Thankfully, this morning, they failed. They will certainly keep trying. They have been trying for years, and have succeeded.

The Tzeva Adom ("Color Red") incoming-rocket warning system was not heard in this morning's attack, evidently because its computers and sensors estimated that landfall would be in a location where no direct harm would be caused, and therefore did not pose a threat to people or property. We are not always that lucky.

Based on experience, it is highly unlikely this rocket attack, carried out from within the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, will be reported in any mainstream news channels. An Israeli military response, if it comes, almost certainly will.

UPDATE 23-Nov-15 at 10:00 am

There has already been a second Gaza rocket attack on Israel. This one [according to i24News] came in a little after 9 this morning, about two hours after the first. No injuries. No damage. No Tzeva Adom warning siren. And, as usual, hardly any media coverage, other than within Israel.

11-Oct-15: Sunday night rocket attack from Gaza: One crashes inside Israel

A little after 11:00 pm tonight (Sunday), another rocket fired from Gaza and directed at Israel managed to make it across the border - unlike at least one other Gazan rocket earlier tonight which was a Fell Short (and perhaps two).

The latest rocket crash-landed in Israel's Eshkol region in, as far as we know at this stage, open land and far from people or property. That of course was not the intention of the Gazan terrorists who take mortal risks in firing rockets from an admittedly huge arsenal in order to inflict what terrorists always seek to inflict: terror, fear, pain.

Fortunately, the damage was minimal tonight.

27-Aug-15: A midnight rocket attack on southern Israel

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel a little after midnight (Wednesday/Thursday) crashed into open fields in the Eshkol region of southern Israel. Reports say there are no injuries and no significant damage to property.

Times of Israel says residents in the area heard no Color Red incoming-rocket sirens but did hear the sound of the explosion. None of the usual array of heroes who customarily fling explosives over the border to see if they can cause damage or worse has taken credit so far, but we will keep watching for the inevitable claims.

The last such rocket attack down south on which we reported happened about three weeks ago ["02-Aug-15: Violence, incitement, double-talk, more violence"]. That was quickly followed by made-in-Gaza allegations on the fact-challenged social networks that this was just Israelis trying to drum up sympathy ["02-Aug-15: Can't make this kind of shot up"].

Ynet says (but we did not write about it at the time) that the last such incidents of Gazan mayhem occurred when a mortar attack on southern Israel, followed shortly afterwards by two rocket attacks, happened a few days after that, on August 7, 2015. The mortar and the first of the rockets landed in open fields on Israel's side of the border, doing no physical damage (which was of course never the intention of the men doing the attacking). 

That second rocket was a "Fell Short". We will probably never know what harm that caused, since news reports from the Arab side systematically avoid disclosing damage done to life and property by such self-inflicted Arab-on-Arab explosions.

07-Aug-15: Gaza rockets again - 2:10 pm Friday barrage

Not much information yet, but a report (in Hebrew) says three in-coming Gazan rockets, and two are said to have crashed inside Israel, in the Eshkol region. The others? Can't say for sure, but may be like the three "Fell Shorts" of last night.

No information at this point about casualties or damage. A 2:36 pm Friday report from the Hebrew-language Walla! site says two rockets exploded in open territory inside the Eshkol region of southern Israel, and that no Color Red alarms were heard. Also no injuries or damage.

For its part, Ynet reports one landing, calls it a mortar.

We live far enough away, in Jerusalem, to feel safe. But we can imagine how difficult it must be for residents of southern Israel who have to cope with the fact and drama of the rockets (this was a second barrage in just 14 hours, and no one is calling it a war) and the apathy of the news. No one is reporting these rockets at all for non-Israeli audiences.

UPDATE Friday 3:30 pm: From Times of Israel, this wrap up. Rocket fire emanating from the Gaza Strip - with one rocket landing in open territory just north of the Kissufim crossing that leads to Gaza. There are no immediate reports of injury or damage but for now IDF forces are scanning the area to locate the precise impact site. It's believed there was a second rocket (a "Fell Short") that did not make it as far as the Israeli side. No one knows that damage that one did in Gaza.

04-Jul-15: Friday's attack on southern Israel: three rockets and a volley of unchallenged disinformation

Screen shot from i24news.tv's coverage

Shavua tov! Following-up Friday's rocket attack on southern Israel:

A third rocket that was part of a volley of projectiles fired into southern Israel on Friday by Islamic State-linked terrorists in Sinai was found in the Eshkol Regional Council region on Saturday. Authorities initially found only two of the rockets on Friday. The two exploded in open ground inside Israeli territory near the Gaza Strip, causing little damage and no casualties. Israeli residents in the area said they heard a third rocket land. The IS-affiliated Wilayat Sinai in the Sinai Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attack. “Three Grad rockets were fired at Jewish positions in occupied Palestine,” the group said Friday evening in a statement on Twitter. [Times of Israel, today]

The reference to "Occupied Palestine" is to the Eshkol and Negev regions of the State of Israel.

No one with even superficial familiarity with international law calls them occupied or Palestine. The only voices that do are those calling for the destruction of Israel as a state, along with the people living within its borders.

Nonetheless, numerous news services - like Aljazeera, Deutsche Welle, Al-Ahram, AFP, France24, and naturally Iran's state-controlled news service - faithfully republished the Islamist tweet in today's global news torrent, making no effort to point out to their news consumers the anti-Israel Islamist propaganda nature of the entirely bogus claim.

It's a fair bet that close to 100% of their audience will swallow the "Occupied Palestine" claim without hesitating for a moment to check the facts - just like those news editors.

03-Jul-15: Inbound rocket warnings heard in southern Israel

Around 4:20 pm Friday (today), Israel's Color Red rocket warning system began sounding across southern Israel. Details are still sketchy but Times of Israel says an explosion inside Israel was detected. Ynet is reporting a rocket landing in

an open area at the Eshkol Regional Council, close to then Israeli-Egyptian border. Because of the proximity to the border, the IDF believes the rocket was possibly fired from the Sinai Peninsula and not from the Gaza Strip.

UPDATE Friday 6:30 pm: According to Reuters:

Militants [a hopelessly inadequate word that deliberately conceals more than it reveals about Islamist terrorists] in Egypt's Sinai peninsula fired a rocket into southern Israel on Friday, causing no casualties, an Israeli military source said, confirming earlier media reports. "Yes, the rocket was fired from Sinai," the source said. Israeli police said the rocket landed in an open area causing no damage or casualties.

A revised version of the Ynet report now [Friday 6:55 pm] refers to a claim of "credit" by an especially notorious group of Islamist savages:

The Islamic State-affiliated Salafist organization in Gaza, the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, claimed responsibility over the firing of the Sinai-made rocket.

The intentions of the terrorists with the rockets were certainly not to hit an open area and to inflict no damage and no casualties. Their intentions were, and routinely are, murderous. This point is somehow overlooked by the editors of news reports like this one who are evidently content to have their readers walk away with the impression that this was something military or militant, whatever that means. This was an attempt to kill people - any people, just so long as they were on the Israeli side of the border. So long as editors allow their timidity and brainless devotion to "We're not comfortable being judgmental about this", most people in most people are going to remain clueless about the dangers posed to them and their communities by terrorists in general and Islamist terrorists in particular.

03-Jun-15: Alarms sounded: Inbound Gazan rockets around 11:00 pm tonight

Tzeva Adom ("Color Red") incoming rocket alarms were heard throughout southern Israel at 10:55 pm tonight (Wednesday). Times of Israel says residents were seen rushing to bomb shelters, the second time this happened in the past week and undoubtedly disrupting the lives of Israeli families with young children who would have had to be dragged out of their beds.

Israel National News says

Two rockets from Gaza exploded in the Sdot Negev region. There were no physical injuries or damages.

Times of Israel reminds us of that previous attack:

On May 26, Palestinian militants shot a Grad rocket into Israel, striking an area outside the town of Gan Yavneh, in an attack that broke several weeks of calm. Palestinian and Israeli officials said the rocket attack, which caused no casualties or damage, was the result of internal fighting within the Islamic Jihad terror group... Last week’s attack marked the first time a Grad rocket, which can go farther than the smaller Kassams more commonly shot out of Gaza, had been fired at Israel since the summer war.

UPDATE 4-Jun-15 at 7:30 am: According to Aljazeera,

At least two rockets have been launched from Gaza into southern Israel, the Israeli police has said. The police said on Wednesday that they were fired at the towns of Netivot and Ashkelon, near the Gaza border. Warning sirens were heard in the area, but no injuries have been reported. A group calling itself the Omar Brigades has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack, prompting Israeli fighter jets to bomb three empty fields used by Hamas fighters in the southern Gaza strip.

And from inside the Gaza Strip itself, evidence (see screen shot below from the GANSO website) that four rockets were fired at Israel but (which we have not yet seen reported in any news stories) two of them ended up (yet again) crashing on top of Gazan homes and territory: Fell Shorts, in our terms.

20-Dec-14: Rebuilding Gaza and its terror-war capabilities

Source

A rocket, fired from the rocket-rich environs of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, was fired into southern Israel on Friday morning. It landed in the Eshkol region which covers part of Israel's Western Negev desert and is home to 15 kibbutzim, 13 moshavim, and a handful of non-collective communities, with a total population of roughly 6,000 people. The attack received little coverage by news media outside Israel. It was the third such rocket attack on Israel since a ceasefire temporarily ended the last intensive round of fighting, known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge, in August.

During the early hours of this morning (Saturday), the IDF launched an airborne mission into Gaza:

The Israeli Air Force struck a Hamas training facility in the area of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday night in retaliation for a rocket fired at southern Israel earlier in the day. The attack marks the first time Israel carried out an air strike in the Gaza Strip since Operation Protective Edge ended in August. No injuries were reported. [Ynet, today]

A later report clarified that it was not a Hamas training facility but rather "a cement factory intended to rehabilitate the [Hamaa] group's terror tunnels".

The Israeli measure, consistent with how these things go in the news media, was reported. So was a serious-sounding call by the arch-terrorist Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas (the one who has hypocritically sent multiple members of his family into Israeli hospitals when they needed serious and professional medical care, as recently as a few weeks ago). He is quoted saying Israel's actions, coming hours after the explosive landing of the Gazan rocket, amount to

"a grave violation of the ceasefire agreement... We will protect and guard the resistance’s victory in the last conflict... We call on Egypt as the guarantor of the agreement to act and stop the violations by the enemy." [Hamas threatens retaliation following Israeli airstrikes | Times of Israel, today]

This was noted over at the excellent BBCwatch website ["Missile from Gaza not news for the BBC but Israeli response gets headlines"]

Jerusalem bureau correspondent Quentin Sommerville did inform his 24 thousand followers that the Israeli action came in response to missile fire, whilst taking the opportunity to revive the well-trodden BBC theme of “home-made rockets”. There is no evidence to suggest that Sommerville was at the scene of the impact and hence his ‘diagnosis’ of the missile’s nature is apparently based on guess-work. Equally questionable is Sommerville’s geography: there is no city called Eshkol: that name refers to a regional council. Nevertheless, that inaccurate information was retweeted by the BBC World Twitter account... More context-free ‘last-first’ reporting was seen on the BBC News website’s Middle East page on the morning of December 20th where visitors were informed that “Israel launches an air strike on an alleged Hamas site in Gaza, in the first such action since the declaration of a truce in August”, but with no mention in the headline or sub-heading of the missile attack several hours beforehand.

BBC's Somerville: How accurate can you be when you're far from the scene, and rely
on Arab locals for factual reporting?

Factual inaccuracy is not so odd considering that Somerville was retweeting a Tweet from Rushdi Abualouf. He's employed by the BBC's Gazan office, working there since 2009 as a producer. He too appears to have known nothing about Friday's Gazan rocket attack on Israel. In fact, as far as we can tell from reviewing his Tweet stream, the thousands of Gazan rocket attacks fired on Israel appear to be outside his reporting responsibilities.

Israel's strike on a Gazan facility this morning was

the first air strike by Israel on the Palestinian enclave since the northern summer truce that ended the deadly 50-day war between the sides." [SBS, today]

As for the Gazan target being a cement factory, it's worth recalling just how much deliberate disinformation the terrorist regime in Gaza has managed to plant in the media in the past couple of years as a cover for its massive cement-lined attack-tunnel industry.

A report from months before the summer 2014 fighting ["Cement shortage in Gaza leaves thousands jobless", Al-Monitor, March 3, 2014] is a classic of its kind, detailing the heart-tugging misery that Hamas media spinners managed to communicate to the outside world while cheating their own people of a building industry.

Less detailed, but somewhat more accurate, is this disclosure ["Gaza's Next Disaster: No Cement for Rebuilding", July 31, 2014 | Bloomberg/BusinessWeek]

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) estimate that each of the three dozen underground passages that troops have found so far required 350 truckloads of building supplies.

That article appeared before the full extent was known of Hamas tunnel construction and the lethal plans that lay behind it.

The illicit diversion of cement to equip its terrorist forces has been a known component of the Hamas strategic doctrine since it seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2006. Khaled Mashaal, the Hamas supremo, was not shy to disclose this at a conference in Damascus in November 2009:

"Outwardly the visible picture is talks about reconciliation...and construction; however, the hidden picture is that most of the money and effort is invested in the resistance and military preparations..." [Source]

For Arab audiences, revelations of this kind are considered heroic. So too are claims by Hamas that the massive destruction suffered by their people during the summer are a 'victory' worth protecting and guarding. There is zero prospect of getting to a state of peace with people who hold to views like these, no matter how much our side wants to.

9-Jul-14: Wednesday in the target zone

File photo: IDF servicemen firing an
Iron Dome intercept rocket [Image Source: UPI]

We're away from anything resembling a desk and working on a small tablet. So apologies in advance for the limitations this imposes on our posts. We plan to keep updating this one at intervals during the day when circumstances allow.

• 07:30 am: A status update from the IDF says the number of Gazan rockets fired at Israel since January 1, 2014 is 450. Everyone knows the impact of a number like that is close to zero; it's beyond normal human empathy to think in such terms because, while a single rocket attack that you personally endure causes you to quake with fear, 450 of them happening to other people is really just a number.
• 08:05 am: Incoming rocket warning is now being heard in Sderot. How people who live there cope is beyond us.
• 08:18 am: Tzeva Adom now in Sha'ar HaNegev region, yet again.
• 08:35 am: IDF spokesperson says more rockets heading into Tel Aviv now. It's morning rush hour. See Tweet. Other parts of Israel's metropolitan area also hearing sirens. [Around 9:00 am, the IDF says two in-bound Gazan rockets were intercepted in mid-flight thanks to Iron Dome. Fair to assume they were en route to inflict serious damage.]
• 09:00 Tzeva Adom being heard now in Merhavim region of the northern Negev. And 3 minutes later also in Eshkol region.
• 09:20 am: There's a very timely reminder to us Israelis - those of us able to read news reports in between running to shelters and checking in to see that family members are alright in these angst-inducing times - of how we ought to be improving ourselves. The invaluable insight comes from an authority by the name of Philip Gordon, President Obama's special assistant and White House coordinator for the Middle East. Israelis, he declared yesterday at a conference in Tel Aviv as dozens of rockets were fired at our homes, "should not take for granted the opportunity to negotiate... a peace with Abbas, who has shown time and again that he’s committed to non-violence and co-existence and cooperation with Israel.” He made clear that we're actually guilty of worse than "taking for granted". In his words: “How will Israel remain democratic and Jewish if it attempts to govern the millions of Palestinian Arabs who live in the West Bank? How will it have peace if it’s unwilling to delineate a border, end the occupation and allow for Palestinian sovereignty, security and dignity? How will we prevent other states from supporting Palestinian efforts in international bodies, if Israel is not seen as committed to peace?” [Source]   How indeed? Thankfully the Obama administration with its endless run of Middle East and Eastern Europe successes is here to guide us.
• 10:05 am: Several rounds of Tzeva Adom sirens in Ashdod and Ashkelon vicinities. Scant details at this stage of what has happened on the ground but there does appear to be damage.
• 10:30 am: Some interesting issues raised in an article on the Al-Monitor site, written in Gaza, on how the Palestinian case is doing in the media (title: "Palestinian press losing media war in current crisis") while the utterly-indiscriminate rocket fire keeps raining down on our homes and cafes, here. Did we say interesting issues? Actually it provides some insights into the delusional spinning that is a necessary part of running a mini-state on the principles of jihad and child abuse.
• 11:00 am: From AFP: "Jordan calls for immediate halt to air strikes | Jordan, one of just two Arab countries to have signed a peace treaty with Israel, has demanded an immediate halt to deadly Israeli air raids against Gaza. Government spokesman Mohammad Momani said that the raids that killed more than 20 Palestinians in purported response to rocket fire that has killed no one in Israel were "barbaric". Jordan "condemns the military aggression that Israel has launched in the Gaza Strip" and calls for "its immediate halt", Mr Momani said. He said the "barbaric aggression" had "negative repercussions on the Gaza Strip and the whole region".
• 11:30 am: Thanks to Adam Levick for pointing us to this sharp takedown of certain voices of "peace" in these peace-free days through which we are passing. It's from David Suissa, posted early this morning in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal. The whole piece ["The honesty of war"] is thought-provoking and unforgiving, which is a highly appropriate standpoint in view of all that is happening. Here's an extract: "There’s something about war that can make intelligent people look foolish. I’m thinking right now of all those smart people in Tel Aviv who analyzed the subtleties of peace at the Haaretz Peace Conference—only a few hours before Jew-hating terrorists from Hamas began firing rockets all over Israel. I wonder if they even considered having a session at the conference called, “What happens when people want to kill you no matter what you do?” That session might have included, for example, a panel of experts discussing the Hamas Charter, which calls for “the eventual creation of an Islamic state in Palestine, in place of Israel and the Palestinian Territories, and the obliteration or dissolution of Israel.” But there was no such panel at the conference. Instead, they had exclusive contributions from important people like President Barack Obama, who expressed the well-worn mantra of the sophisticated man: “Peace is the only true path to security” ...The Middle East is one of those places where you can’t always rely on the thinking of sophisticated, intelligent people – it’s a place where the brutality of life creates its own dynamic, its own logic, its own rules."
• 11:50 am: Two additional rounds of rocket sirens within a couple of minutes of each other in the Eshkol region, very close to the Gaza fence.
• 12 noon: The Tzeva Adom system reports another hail of rockets in the Lachish region. Times of Israel says Ashdod and Be'er Tuvia as well.
• 12:10 pm: Tzeva Adom in Hof Ashkelon
• 12:25 pm: Tzeva Adom in Eshkol region.
• 12:45 pm: Times of Israel says incoming rocket sirens being heard yet again in Hof Ashkelon region.
• 12:55 pm: Again, Tzeva Adom in Eshkol region.
• 1:00 pm: From Iran via the AFP newsagency, some constructive ideas about how to address terror-fixated jihadists: "Iran urges end to 'human catastrophe' in Gaza | AFP Published 07.09.14, 12:15 | TEHRAN - Iran's foreign ministry on Wednesday condemned Israeli air raids in the Gaza Strip, calling on the West to urge the Jewish state to prevent a "human catastrophe." "We are, unfortunately, witnessing the escalation of savage aggression by the Zionists in recent days against the innocent and defenseless people of Palestine," said ministry spokesperson Marzieh Afkham. Iran calls on "Western countries and supporters of the Zionist regime (to) take firm a stance and prevent a human catastrophe and stop the attacks," she added, while questioning an "unrealistic excuse of the kidnapping of three Zionist settlers..."
• 1:20 pm: Tzeva Adom is heard in Sderot.
• 1:25 pm: The vaunted "moderates" of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization want the Arabic-speaking world to know they too, and not only their jihad-minded rivals in Hamas and the like, are fully engaged in serving up rockets to the Israelis. This is reported by Khaled Abu Toameh in another revealing piece of his on the Gatestone Institute site today:
  "Fatah has several hundred militiamen in the Gaza Strip, some of whom are members of the Palestinian Authority security forces, who continue to receive their salaries from Western governments. At least two Fatah armed groups announced that they had started firing rockets at the "settlements" of Ashkelon and Sderot, cities inside the pre-1967 borders of Israel, with another Fatah group claiming responsibility for firing 35 rockets into Israel since Sunday. So far as Abbas is concerned, "it all started when Israel fired back" in response to hundred of rockets fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip during the last few days. [But] he seems concerned that if the world hears about the role of Fatah in the rocket attacks, the news will affect Western financial aid to the Palestinian Authority, which is dominated by Fatah."
• 1:35 pm: From Times of Israel, this mid-day summary. Forty rockets have been fired from Gaza so far today up until 1:00 pm. (Yesterday's full-day total was 160.) The defensive Iron Dome system succeeded in intercepting eight of today's rockets in mid-flight. We assume that's a statistic that implies many saved lives. In the right hands, super-advanced technology has the power of the divine.
• 1:50 pm: Tzeva Adom again, heard in Kiryat Gat and Hof Ashkelon regions.

Closing this post now and about to open a new one.

7-Jul-14: And now a night in the life...

We will be updating this post as Monday evening wears on.

• Around 8:30 pm, Tzeva Adom siren warnings are heard in a huge swathe of the country including (in no particular order) Ashdod, Nes Ziona, Rehovot, Kiryat Malachi, Beer Tuvia, Kibbutz Brenner, Gederot, Beit Shemesh, Kibbutz Gezer, Gan Raveh, the Yavneh region, Har Hevron area, Hof Ashkelon, Lachish, Nahal Sorek and Emek Hefer. That list includes places that can legitimately be thought of as the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.
• In the Ashdod attacks, we know of one person lightly injured by shrapnel. 
• Haaretz's rocket/mortar count for the day has reached 70. Not much expectation that it is going to taper off without something decisive from the Israeli side.
• A Haaretz report around 9:00 pm makes the astounding statement that the Iron Dome system has just made seven mid-flight rocket intercepts over Ashdod and five over Netivot. This is serious fire. 
• 9:00 pm: An estimated 60 rockets were fired into Israel during the past hour alone. Hamas takes credit (source: Times of Israel). 
• Seven people are treated for shock in the wake of this latest rocket barrage, according to Israel's Channel 2 TV news which also reports Israeli air activity in southern Israel's skies.
• The US State Department says "the US condemns rocket fire from Gaza and supports Israel's right to defend itself". Astonishingly, this does not slow down the incoming rockets.
• 9:20 pm: Incoming-rocket warnings again, this time Hof Ashkelon and Eshkol regions.
• From the BBC, background on Israel's version of what ended the careers of several Hamas terrorists today: "Israeli military spokesman Lt Col Peter Lerner said the tunnel where the men died had been bombarded on Thursday. He said the militants were killed as they went into the tunnel on Sunday to assess the damage and meddled with some explosives, which were apparently detonated accidentally. The Israeli military believes the militants planned to use the tunnels to infiltrate Israel, kill or abduct residents of nearby communities and troops."
• A Tweet just now from NGO Monitor's Prof. Gerald Steinberg (@GeraldNGOM) reminds @HRW @amnesty @btselem @EUinIsrael @kenroth that 65 rockets from Gaza, directed at Israeli civilians, amount to 65 war crimes. The silence from the highly-politicized, self-appointed guardians of human rights is considerably more eloquent than their carefully framed occasional crocodile-tear expressions of regret and sympathy when Israeli victims unavoidably need to be addressed. And in case they want to hide behind professed doubt as to who is doing the rocket firings, Haaretz's Jack Khoury reports that Hamas is proud to take full credit tonight.

• And newsagency reports say the same.
• Train travel throughout Israel's south is severely impacted by today's fighting. Many train services are cancelled (Ynet).
• A guest at an outdoor wedding in Netivot tonight (outdoor weddings suit our climate well) captured a video clip of a Hamas rocket being destroyed in mid-flight. Check it out even if Hebrew's not your first language.
• 9:45 pm Another incoming rocket report from Sderot and Sha'ar Hanegev regions, followed a few minutes later by reports from the same two places plus Hof Ashkelon. No reports yet of results on the ground.
• 10:00 pm: In Ashdod, all school classes for tomorrow are canceled. And at Be'er Sheva's Ben Gurion University of the Negev, they have just announced that exams set for tomorrow are postponed until further notice. Same goes for Sapir Academic College in Sderot.
• 10:20 pm Physical damage in the wake of an incoming Gazan rocket that crashed into the Yoav region.
• Around 10:30 pm, says Times of Israel, the Iron Dome system brings down another in-flight Gazan rocket. This one was pointed at Sderot. Three others land crashed and exploded in open areas in Sha'ar HaNegev region and near Sderot.
• A Grad rocket crashed and exploded somewhere close to Kiryat Malachi. There's damage.
• The national ambulance service, Magen David Adom, is now officially on high alert in central and southern Israel. Further Gazan attacks are expected overnight and they need to be ready.
• At Soroka Medical Center, the Be'er Sheva hospital that serves a huge area in Israel's south including (naturally) a very high percentage of Arabs, and is reputed to have more births each year than any other Israeli hospital, they announced in the last hour [Hebrew report] that all preemie babies and newborns have been moved urgently to rocket-protected parts of the hospital buildings. There's no statistical breakdown of the respective number of Moslem, Christian and Jewish mothers/babies because, being Israel, that has no relevance to anything worth talking about.
• Rock-throwing Arabs from Beit Safafa, a generally quiet West Jerusalem neighbourhood, have been causing serious problems ronight for drivers and for the police [Hebrew report]. 
• Acknowledging the way the social media and the Internet can mould people's perceptions, and sometimes manipulate them, a BBC article tonight points out that many of the most-widely circulating images purporting to show Gaza in flames are fakes. "A #BBCtrending investigation has found that many of these images are not from the latest conflict and not even from Gaza. Some date as far back as 2009 and others are from conflicts in Syria and Iraq."
• 11:00 pm Another round of incoming-missile siren warnings from the IDF's Tzeva Adom system. Awaiting details from the areas impacted, principally Sderot and Sha'ar Hanegev. 
• 11:25 pm Yet another rocket attack on Sderot (perhaps on other places too). This one must have been on-course to do real harm because the Iron Dome system was deployed again, and intercepted one of those rockets in mid-flight. The bad news is that the thugs with the rockets have far, far more rockets than Israel has anti-rockets. At Times of Israel they quote Yaakov Amidror, former national security adviser: Hamas has “about 10,000 rockets” in its arsenal (he tells Channel 2) and “we may be in for many more nights” of rocket attacks. And the "good" news? Hamas “does not have any kind of game-changing Doomsday weapon” so we can breathe... easier?
• 11:50 pm Tzeva Adom sirens sounding in Hof Ashkelon region.
• 12:30 am More Jerusalem area clashes tonight involving Arab neighbourhoods - this time Beit Hanina on Jerusalem's north side where some of the locals are hurling firebombs at police.
• 12:30 am Tzeva Adom siren warnings again, and they're unlikely to be the last of the night, being heard now in Hof Ashkelon region again.
• 12:35 am Initial and unconfirmed report [Hebrew] of a shooting attack in a Jewish neighbourhood of East Jerusalem.

7-Jul-14: A day in the life

In a society that values life, a mother shielding a child
as an incoming Gazan rocket pierces the sky is part of an
everyday experience. We hate it, we know we can end it at
a huge price, and we keep hoping the people on the far side of
the fence will be brought to their senses before all of us
pay even more for the hate and the madness.

We happen to be thinly stretched at the moment with family issues, and keeping track of the rapid-fire events going on in our area is beyond our capabilities.

So we are borrowing some work being done over at Haaretz, where they have a live-blog timeline of the rising violence and terrorism now underway. This post is based partly on events they report there, starting from midnight last (Sunday/Monday) night, as well as from other news sources.

Midnight to 3:00 am, Monday

• Twelve individuals are arrested for "rioting and stone-throwing" in parts of the Negev, including the Israeli Arab communities of Tel Sheva (see our earlier post), Hura, Ar'ara and Laqiya.
• It's the middle of the night, but firefighters from Be'er Sheva are rushed in to tackle burning debris caused by that imam-inspired Tel Sheva violence. Police are needed when the firefighters come under attack from locals on arrival. 
• Tzeva Adom incoming rocket sirens are sounding in Sderot and the Sha'ar Hanegev region
• Hamas says four of its militants/activists/revolutionaries are dead following an Israeli air strike in Gaza. On their own numbers, this brings Sunday night's total to six dead terrorists, with no suggestion of any innocents killed in the fire (though deaths of innocents are highly likely under the conditions that prevail in Gaza). Reuters, quoted by Haaretz, calls it "the biggest single Israeli hit against Hamas since 2012's Operation Pillar of Defense". We say they might more helpfully have called it an illustration of pin-point firepower, and a tour de force by an ethics-minded defensive military that takes more trouble to separate combatants from the civilians among whom they are deliberately embedded than any other military has managed to do in modern times.
• Around 2:30 am, the IDF spokesperson confirms an IAF strike on nine targets, including "concealed rocket launchers and other centers of terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip."
• Reuters says, around 2:50 am, that those IAF air strikes on Gaza have resulted in seven deaths.
• According to the IDF, a mortar shell has hit Israeli territory in the northern Golan Heights near the border with Syria. IDF opens fire across the border.

3:00 am to 6:00 am, Monday

• By Haaretz' count, there are now seven dead Hamas "men", along with two dead Islamic Jihad "members", plus three more confirmed wounded as a result of those IAF air strikes on Gaza. Quoting DPA, a major German news agency, it says six of those casualties come from a single strike on the Gazan town of Rafah.
• The IDF spokesperson says another five concealed rocket launchers are targeted by IAF airstrikes in north Gaza and destroyed.
• An AP report quoted by Haaretz puts the overnight death toll in the Palestinian Arab terrorist ranks in Gaza at 9, with the addition of two more from the ranks of Islamic Jihad.

6:00 am to 9:00 am, Monday

• Two rockets explode in the Eshkol region of southern Israel. One explodes inside a built-up area (deliberately fuzzy language for security reasons). A soldier is injured, and cars are damaged.
• The early morning rocket tally, as measured by the GANSO people (funded by the European Union and serving the small army of NGO workers based inside Gaza), was "32 rockets and 20 mortar shells... 3 rockets exploded at the launching site and 1 dropped short." In other words, still more Fell Shorts - the self-inflicted rocket casualties that are never ever reported by the mainstream media channels. To keep in mind when the body counts are published. 

9:00 am to noon, Monday

• According to the Palestinian news agency Ma'an, Israeli air attacks on Rafah and Beit Hanoun cause injuries to six civilians. One is in serious condition.
• The seven Hamas "members" killed overnight died (says Haaretz) in a tunnel collapse. It's unclear whether the collapse was the deliberate result of an Israeli attack. It points out that two weeks ago Hamas lost five other "members" in a mysterious explosion in a Gaza tunnel; at that time, there was no revenge attack by Hamas. "The high death toll overnight may paint a different picture, however. It remains to be seen if last night's airstrikes will prove to be a turning point, leading to an escalation in the rocket fire to Israel's south", writes Amos Harel.
• Israel's prime minister speaks to Hussein Abu Khdeir, father of the Arab 16 year old killed last week; reports say six Israelis have been arrested in connection with the death. "I wish to express the shock Israeli citizens and I feel by the repugnant murder of your son... We've acted immediately to find the murderers; they will be brought to trial and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. We reject any brutal behavior, and the murder of your son is despicable and cannot be accepted by any person." The boy's mother says “They’re only going to ask them questions and then release them. What’s the point? They need to treat them the way they treat us... They need to demolish their homes and round them up, the way they do it to our children.” We consider showing her some of our posts (this one, for instance) about how the head of the Palestinian Authority holds aloft the arms of men who murdered Israeli children and calls them heroes of the Arab nation. For now, we assume the impact of our message might get lost for all the fire-bombing and rock-hurling being done in memory of her son. 
• Around 11:00 am, Hamas confirms six of its "members" were killed in Israeli air strikes at a "resistance location" in Gazan Rafah, early this morning. Haaretz thinks this means a smuggling tunnel. Hamas says via Sami Abu Zuhri that Israel committed a "grave escalation" in violence and threatened to retaliate, saying Israel would "pay the price." For a sense of the moral and war-crimes background, read an earlier post of ours here quoting this same Abu Zuhri disgustingly praising the murder-by-Islamism of an Israeli woman in her seventies. 
• Times of Israel, quoting the IDF, says those Hamas tunnelers died as a result of a “work accident,” when an explosive-laden tunnel that was hit in an Israeli airstrike several days earlier exploded.
• About the same time, an incoming Gazan Grad rocket explodes in open terrain in Be'er Sheva. It's the second rocket fired on the city in 48 hours. The first was intercepted by Iron Dome.
• Haaretz says three of six the suspects in the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir have confessed and reenacted the crime.
• Around noon, there's a report that the speaker of the Knesset asks members of the Israeli parliament to "refrain from statements which could spark violence and legitimize the actions of one side or the other". We think it's worth pausing for a moment to ask when the speaker of any Arab parliament (there are some, not many) did something similar.

AP photo today shows IDF forces
massing on border with Gaza

Noon to 3:00 pm, Monday

• Just before 1:00 pm, two more rockets crash and explode in open areas in the Sdot Negev region of southern Israel. Another explodes in the beleagured Sha'ar Hanegev region. A few minutes later, mortars come crashing in to the Eshkol region, close to the fence with Gaza. And they keep coming.
• By 2:30 pm, Haaretz can report 9 rockets and mortar shells in Eshkol during the past hour alone.
• At about the same time, the government's so-called "Security cabinet" convenes in Jerusalem to decide on a response to the relentless rocket fire from Gaza. Let it be clear that every Israeli, whether politician or ordinary citizen, understands that at any given moment, Israel's massively superior firepower can be turned on the Gaza Strip and the problem will stop. This has always been about the price in moral and political terms that Israel is willing to pay.
• Two more rockets hit the Eshkol region around 3:30 pm.
• A few minutes later, there's mortar fire in Eshkol with resultant damage to unspecified properties (deliberately suppressed).
• A quarter hour later, the Israel Air Force launches strikes on the Gaza Strip.

3:00 pm to 6:00 pm, Monday

• Ynet says Tzeva Adom sirens are heard in the Sha'ar HaNegev region. 
• It's reported that the Security cabinet meeting results in the IDF being instructed to increase strikes against the Gaza Strip "in efforts to halt the rocket fire emanating from the coastal enclave".
• Also reported that some 1,500 IDF reserve soldiers, primarily from the Home Front Command including those trained to operate the Iron Dome anti-missile batteries, are issued urgent call-up papers for service on the southern border. Haaretz quotes an IDF official: “Quiet was not met with quiet, and therefore we are preparing for an escalation.” 
• Times of Israel quotes IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner who says the IDF is "still in a defensive position but has shifted its readiness in order to address an escalation in the ongoing conflict with the Gaza Strip." We're wondering, along with most concerned Israelis, how many warnings there are going to be.
• Around 6, there are (Ynet) four more incoming rockets from Gaza that crash and explode in open areas near or in (we'll keep it vague) Sderot and the Sha'ar Hanegev region. No injuries or damage reported at this stage.
• In all it's been a hot Monday, and it's not ended yet. The IDF says the tally of mortars, Qassam rockets and GRADs, all of them indiscriminately seeking Israeli victims, has reached about 50 today. There were dozens yesterday. (Remember when you last heard of a Hamas rocket hitting a military target? If not, you're closer to understanding their strategy.)

6.00 pm onwards, Monday

• A Times of Israel report says residents of the front-line desert communities of the Shaar HaNegev, Eshkol, and Hof Ashkelon regions being instructed to stay within 15 seconds of shelters, as Tzeva Adom incoming rocket sirens are being continuously heard.
• A directive from the IDF's Home Front Command to residents within 40 kilometers (24 miles) of the Gaza Strip: gatherings of over 500 people are now officially "strongly discouraged". It's bad news for people celebrating weddings at this peak-season time of year. That 40 km radius includes Ashdod, Israel's fifth-largest city with a population of about 210,000 and home to Israel's major sea port, and Be'er Sheva (pop.: 200,000).
• Proving the point, a heavy barrage of rockets from Gaza around dusk Monday night (according to Ynet) rained down on communities across the south. One or more are reported to have been brought down in mid-flight by Iron Dome counter-fire. Tzeva Adom warnings were heard moments before in Netivot, Ofakim, and the Bnei Shimon and Sdot Negev regions.
• Reporting from inside the Gaza Strip, the GANSO website says that last barrage was especially heavy: "07 JUL, 1830: Pal. ops. fired 30 rockets from Gaza toward the Green Line over the last minutes." Hint: that expression "toward the Green Line" is how they refer to Israeli civilians.

Needless to say, this is an ongoing war. Updates to come.