11-Jul-14: Friday afternoon and a war rages on

Running for shelter in Ashdod yesterday as another rocket's arrival
is announced via the Tzeva Adom siren [Image Source]

It's a hot Friday afternoon, and terrorist rockets are penetrating almost all parts of Israel.

• 2:00 pm: The Iron Dome missile defense system [source] intercepted three Gazan missiles in the skies over Ashdod and Gan Yavne in the past half hour. Residents of these south-of-Tel Aviv suburbs are having a hellish day as rocket barrages race towards them from concealed launchers embedded inside Gazan schools, mosques and homes.
• 3:45 pm: What's behind the Hamas escalation, and why now? In an analytical piece ["Israel Under Attack"] for Weekly Standard, Lee Smith writes:
  If Hamas is pacing its missile fire, it means they’re in it for the long haul. If they’re crossing red lines by firing missiles at Dimona as well as Ben Gurion airport, it means they’re going all out. The question is why. Some analysts point to likely Iranian involvement— indeed use of the long-range M-302, not previously in the arsenal of Hamas, underscores that suggestion. It’s true that Hamas’s relations with Iran have been somewhat cooler since they fell out over the Syrian civil war (Hamas sided with their Sunni co-religionists; Tehran has thrown its full weight behind the Assad regime)... If Iran is not in fact driving the campaign, then Hamas may be putting on a demonstration for Tehran of how helpful it can be to the Islamic Republic. With Hezbollah tied down in Syria fighting alongside Assad, Hamas is more useful to Iran than ever—especially since Hamas is now in possession of long-range missiles capable of striking anywhere inside Israel, making it another tool of Iranian deterrence should the Israelis consider striking Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities.
• 3:50 pm: Israel National News reports that Tzeva Adom sirens were heard in Be'er Sheva around 3:30 this (Friday) afternoon, as well as in the Merhavim region, Omer, the Bnei Shimon region, Ofakim, and Tel Sheva. A Gazan rocket crashed to earth soon afterwards in an open area near Be'er Sheva.
• 4:40 pm: As the Sabbath approaches, the city administration in Ashdod has announced a ruling:  Prayers in synagogues that lack a bomb shelter should not take place and the buildings should be shut. Ashdod Mayor Yechiel Lasri says, according to Times of Israel quoting a Haredi newspaper: “Shabbat prayers must not be held in synagogues where there is no protection... anyone who wants to pray should choose a synagogue that has [a bomb shelter].”
• 4:45 pm: We Tweeted this earlier today:

Everyone knows what's meant when we say "women and children first". Now pause to think what it means when the men of Hamas say it.

— This Ongoing War (@ThisOngoingWar) July 11, 2014

• 5:06 pm: Another rocket barrage on Ashkelon city and nearby area and Sha'ar Hanegev region at this moment [Ynet]. A few minutes earlier, Tzeva Adom in Sdot Negev and Sha'ar Hanegev
• 5:20 pm: Ynet reports that the IDF has fired smoke shells at empty areas of southern Gaza
• 6:00 pm: Again, a heavy wave of rockets across parts of Israel's south in the last few minutes
• 6:02 pm: Elhanan Miller in Times of Israel has an intriguing report: "Hamas has requested that citizens not share photos of rockets launched from residential areas in downtown Gaza lest Israel strike those areas. The ministry’s social media department published a video in Arabic Thursday containing guidelines for “cautious and effective” social media engagement on Facebook and Twitter during Operation Protective Edge. The ministry calls on residents to be wary of repeating Israeli “rumors,” and of adopting “the occupation’s narrative.” “Always doubt it and dispel it,” the video advises. “Beware of posting photos of missiles launched from the center of town directed at Israel. This is used as a pretext to strike residential areas in the Gaza Strip,” it continues.
• 6:50 pm: In the skies above Rishon Leziyon, Israel's shopping hub, two Hamas rockets are brought down by the great work of the Iron Dome crews and their machines [Ynet]. Channel 2 News is showing a rocket that landed on one of Rishon's streets just a few minutes ago. 

11-Jul-14: Friday under the rockets

Taking cover in a busy Tel Aviv shopping mall yesterday while rockets crash nearby [Image Source]

We're blogging away from the desk and via a Tablet. Apologies in advance for the inevitable formatting and typo problems.

• 08:00 am: An unwelcome sign of more trouble - a rocket fired from the Lebanon side of Israel's northern border in the past hour. It did not come with a return address, so there is speculation at this hour over who is taking the trouble and risk. The version that makes the most sense to us at this stage is that it's not a Hezbollah undertaking but rather Lebanese affiliates of the Hamas-Fatah axis. (In Lebanon, the reports say there were three rickets. One evidently Fell Short on the Lebanese side.)
• 08:05 am: We're still looking at overnight reports. What's clear is that in the widely-separated major Israeli cities of Haifa and Be'er Sheva, incoming rockets featured prominently in the middle-of-the-night thoughts of hundreds of thousands of Israeli families as well as on the minds of hundreds of terror-addicted Gazan Palestinian Arabs
• 08:35 am: A major barrage in the past half hour with multiple rockets fired and Tzeva Adom sirens heard in Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gan Yavne, Nes Ziona, Netivot, Kiryat Malachi, Shaar Hanegev, and Hof Ashkelon (Times of Israel). A gas station in Ashdod took a direct hit. "There is one person seriously injured in the rocket strike on the gas station in Ashdod, say rescue personnel. Firefighters, police, and ambulances are at the site, where thick black smoke is rising out of the fuel tank that was hit." Trouble. UPDATE 10:15 am Now appears no fewer than 8 people injured, one in critical condition.
• 08:45am: 9 rockets were fired at Ashdod the latest barrage, and Hamas claims credit (Ynet).
• 09:20 am: Status report from Times of Israel: Hamas had launched 200 rockets from Gaza in the 24 hours prior to the press briefing a little earlier today. That means about 550 indiscriminate rocket firings since the formal start of Operation Protective Edge on Monday. "Hamas has launched barrages especially during morning and evening rush hours, making it more difficult for Israeli civilians to make it to shelter."
• 09:25am: We tweeted a short time ago that if can imagine certain red lines beyond which the terrorist thugs of Hamas would never go, you have surely failed to comprehend how a war waged by terrorists works.
• 10:00 am: We just Tweeted this... When propagandist D. Butto says on CNN that civilians must be "in the center of this", take it seriously. Hamas does .
  
  Beyond watching a CNN presenter demolish the credibility of a guest, this is worth viewing just for the experience of seeing how a slick apologist for the jihadist thugs and their incomprehensibly vast arsenal of rockets manages to charge ahead with counter-factual claims, assuming (and life has taught Butto that it's a safe assumption) that the interviewer is likely to be utterly ignorant of the facts. Fortunately this one happens to be non-ignorant, and Butto's manner is - well, the right word for her is the one she keeps using: reprehensible. Very worth the 6 mins. that it will take. Keep in  mind this woman was for years one of arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat's advisers at the Palestine Liberation Organization. From personal experience, her skill at grabbing and throwing any self-serving statement within reach, irrespective of it being true or a total willy, has not declined over the past decade.
• 10:12 am: Hof Ashkelon hearing Tzeva Adom at this moment.
• 10:45 am: Another rocket barrage underway right now - sirens blaring right across Greater Tel Aviv: Tzeva Adom sirens reported in Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Kfar Chabad, Palmahim, Rishon Letzion, Holon, Bnei Brak, Givatayim, Ramat Gan, Bat Yam and at Ben Gurion Airport. Reports of explosions. More when we can update.
• 11:00 am: Via the modern miracle of the life-saving Iron Dome system, reports of three Gazan long-range rickets and their explosive payloads being blasted out of the sky over Tel Aviv. Given the scale of potential devastation had they continued on their trajectory, "Thank Heavens" is the appropriate response.
• 11:30 am: From under the steady hail of more rockets every few minutes, we lift our heads to see what the nations of the world are able to share with us, based on their accumulated wisdom and expertise. And behold, it's now the turn of one of our closest, most important neighbours. As quoted by Times of Israel, and direct from the blood-soaked streets of Cairo, some fresh guidance from Egypt whose Foreign Ministry says it "rejects the irresponsible Israeli escalation in the occupied Palestinian territory, which comes in the form of excessive and unnecessary use of military force leading to the death of innocent civilians... This represents a continuation of the oppressive policies of mass punishment.” We are searching now to see if they have offered any comparable advice to the leadership of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, currently cowering in bunkers deep beneath Gaza's hospitals and mosques. When we find it, we will share here. Meanwhile we're still puzzling over their criticism of "unnecessary" force and wondering at what point - after 500 rockets?, after 5 million rockets? - force stops being unnecessary and begins to be necessary.

Continuing to follow events over here.

10-Jul-14: Thursday: Israeli life in the terrorists' crosshairs

At the Highway 5 security checkpoint today: sappers take
the suspect's car apart [Image Source: Ynet]

This is a continuation of our earlier Thursday post.

• There have been many rocket attacks on Israeli cities and towns today - more than we can track and recount here.
• 3:00 pm: Signs that a serious terrorism attack has been foiled: A short time ago, Ynet reported that two Palestinian Arabs driving on one of Israel's major central arteries, Highway 5, in possession of "a makeshift explosive device", were detained at a security checkpoint and arrested today (Thursday). The suspicion is that he was en route to conduct a terror attack against Israelis. They found a gas cylinder with electrical wires protruding from it in the vehicle. "Sappers were alerted to the scene and security forces closed down the checkpoint." Times of Israel adds that explosives were found in the vehicle.
• 4:50 pm: The IDF, quoted by Times of Israel, says "84 rockets slammed into Israel since midnight, and 12 were intercepted by the Iron Dome. Six others were fired from the Gaza Strip but did not reach Israeli soil." We call that last category Fell Shorts, and have learned over the years that they sometimes kill Gazan Palestinian Arabs but are never reported in the mainstream media. GANSO, the European-funded service oriented to the needs of foreign workers in the Gazan NGO industry, reports Fell Shorts quite frequently. But Operation Protective Edge underway, and in accordance with their fairly obvious anti-Israel sentiments and pro-Hamas-regime bias, they have stopped reporting them, at least for now.
• 5:45 pm: Tzeva Adom in Sha'ar Hanegev region, and a home is reported to have been hit [Ynet]. Times of Israel says the home took a direct hit and has a photograph of the damage.
• 6:00 pm: Tzeva Adom sirens just now have brought Jerusalem to a stop. One Twitter report says four incoming rockets, two of which were intercepted by Iron Dome. UPDATE: Lazar Berman's Times of Israel update says the two rockets that were brought down by Iron Dome were intercepted over the village of Abu Ghosh which stands astride the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway just a kilometer from the entrance to the capital.
• 6:25 pm: An Arabic website has a brief video clip [here] recording either a rocket or a post-intercept rocket fragment impacting and exploding in a village near Ramallah, which is just a few kilometers north of Jerusalem. More details soon. 
• 6:30 pm: The Rotter,net site has an Arabic video clip [here] capturing the enthusiastic cheers of Arabs congregating outside the Damascus Gate (we know it as Sha'ar Shechem, in Hebrew) entrance to Jerusalem's Old City as the incoming rocket siren is being sounded across the city. For those of us building our families and our lives in this wonderful city, their joy is blood-chilling.  
• 6:30 pm Update: Many more rocket attacks in the south during the past half hour.
• 6:55 pm Rocket alerts (multiple) in Ashkelon
• 7:15 pm: Yoni Alper's (Hebrew) Facebook site is reporting that in Gaza, they're selling their people the message that in Jerusalem there are now some 30 wounded resulting from the cluster of rockets that descended on the nation's capital city a little over an hour ago. Assuming this is a form of psychological warfare, we're neither confirming nor denying the accuracy of what they say in Gaza. But Alper's headline (translated from שקרים בע"מ) is "Lies Incorporated".

Cameron Cardow cartoon from November 2012 [Image Source: The Cagle Post]

• 7:55 pm: A barrage of Gazan rockets has rained over many of Israel's southern communities in the past half hour. Ynet's bulletin reports them crashing into Be'er Sheva just now, with several people treated for shock; at 7:53 pm Tzeva Adom in Yavne, Lod, Ramla, Ness Ziona; at 7:49 Tzeva Adom in Rishon Lezion, Holon, Bat Yam; at 7:45 pm Tzeva Adom in Eshkol region; at 7:42 pm, initial reports of four people injured following rocket fire on Be'er Sheva; at 7:39 pm, Tzeva Adom throughout southern Israel; at 7:36 pm, Tzeva Adom in Mitzpe Ramon and Yeruham, desert communities located far from Gaza. More details to come.
• 7:58 pm: According to Ynet, the Iron Dome system has just now intercepted six rockets in the air over central Israel's Gush Dan region, which is where Tel Aviv is.
• 8:00 pm: Ynet says a barrage of some 20 long-range rockets was fired into the Negev from Gaza in the past minutes. We're waiting now for updates on what is happening in those Negev communities.
• 8:05 pm: Again from Ynet: Hamas is boasting of having fired 10 powerful long-range Grad rockets at Be'er Sheva. No confirmation at this stage.
• 8:10 pm: Times of Israel, in a despatch time-stamped 7:47 pm, reports that "Sirens blare in the Dan region, including Bat Yam and Holon, and in the city of Rishon Lezion. The Iron Dome intercepts at least one rocket."
• 8:42 pm: A Channel 2 (Israel) TV news report just now, which is running in the background as we work, makes the point that the blunting of the Hamas long-range rocket attacks via the Iron Dome system makes it essential, in Hamas eyes, that they pull off a showcase terror attack directed at Israelis. (No one reading this blog needs us to speculate for them on the specifics of what is conveyed by that idea.) 
• 8:45 pm: And while we're on the subject of massive terrorist actions, a reminder of what the "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas, president of the "peace partner" Palestinian Authority, has been saying to the Arab world. This is from an AFP report yesterday:
  Headline: "Abbas: Israel committing 'genocide' in Gaza". Here's the text: "Agence France Presse | RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas accused Wednesday Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza during its military campaign which has so far killed 43 Palestinians. "It's genocide - the killing of entire families is genocide by Israel against our Palestinian people," he told a crisis meeting of the Palestinian leadership in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. "What's happening now is a war against the Palestinian people as a whole and not against the (militant) factions. "We know that Israel is not defending itself, it is defending settlements, its main project," said Abbas."
• 8:56 pm: Channel 2, reporting from Ashdod, has just shown live video of what they estimated to be 9 incoming rockets, 7 of which are destroyed in mid-air by the Iron Dome system. It adds that a vehicle took a direct hit, and a person in the car is badly hurt (thankfully, that appears to have been refuted in the meantime). Times of Israel says there were no fewer than 20 rockets in the barrage just now, and 9 were stopped by Iron Dome. [Israel's Channel 2 can be accessed on-line via this link.]

Tonight in Ashdod: impact site of one of the rockets [Image Source: Ynet]

Ashdod: A residence took a hit tonight [Image Source: Ynet]

• 10:20 pm: In the midst of one of the most serious outbreaks of fighting in a generation, official Israeli channels presided yesterday (Wednesday) over the delivery into Gaza via overland crossing from Israel of 94 freight truck loads of a variety of vital goods along with 106 tons of gas [source]. These were delivered through the Kerem Shalom Crossing. Arrangements like these are a mostly-unpublicized daily matter, managed by COGAT on the Israeli side, and the Coordination and Liaison Administration on the Gaza side. What's COGAT? "The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Unit is subordinated to the Minister of Defense and is part of the General Staff. The unit carries out and implements civilian policy of the Government of Israel in the West Bank and vis-à-vis the Gaza Strip in coordination and conjunction with the Prime Minister's Office, other government ministries, the security forces and the IDF General Staff." Yesterday's delivery (including 1,200 tons of food, 290,000 litres of fuel) was smaller in scope than the average traffic into Gaza (as we noted in this post a while back: "4-Mar-13: Trucks filled with food and essential goods are lined up outside Gaza. Would it surprise you to know the role that money plays in this?" But on the whole, we think it's not so shabby given the way the rockets were whizzing by overhead and the general circumstances.
• 10:30 pm: Flights into and out of Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv are, says Ynet, "experiencing delays due to changing IAF directives on the closure of Israeli air space. "We call on the public to check for updates from their airline," the Israel Airport Authority said."

Writing this from a Jerusalem hospital ward where a sick relative is being cared for. Taking a short break now.

9-Jul-14: Wednesday afternoon log

Ashdod: Vehicle struck by a Gazan missile
[Image Source]

The rocket attacks keep coming and the life of a vibrant society continues to be conducted here in Israel despite the intense challenges. This post is updated as often as we can manage as the day's events happen. (It follows on from this earlier post.)

• 2:10 pm: Two incoming rockets were intercepted in the skies over Kiryat Gat in the past few minutes, according to Ynet. In additionto the thousands of homes in the area, some significant civilian businesses are located there.
• 2:20 pm: Haaretz says multiple Gazan rockets were intercepted in mid-air over Sderot and Kiryat Gat.
• 2:45 pm: Reports of Hamas claiming to have fired at Haifa. No indication that they either say they hit it or that it was in fact hit. There are also reports (including via Haaretz) of Tzeva Adom rocket sirens being heard in the Zichron Yaakov area on the Israeli coast north of Tel Aviv about 110 km north of Gaza. UPDATE: Haaretz now says two rockets crashed and exploded in open areas near Zichron Yaakov, injuring one person. That's the furthest north those Hamas rockets have reached so far. Haaretz says the rockets are probably M-302 rockets, "the same make that struck Hadera on Tuesday. On March 5, Israeli naval forces intercepted the Klos-C, a ship carrying 40 Syrian M-302 rockets from Iran to the Gaza Strip."
• 2:55 pm: Additional rockets intercepted in the skies above Sderot (Haaretz).
• 3:15 PM: Anshel Pfeffer from Haaretz tweets: "Media lesson from Op. Cast Lead #Israel allowing foreign journos into #Gaza - Government prefers unfriendly reports to rumors of "genocide"
• 4:05 pm: Tzeva Adom - Ashkelon city, and the Hof Ashkelon region (some details at this Hebrew-language forum)
• 4:15 pm: Tzeva Adom - Bnei Shimon and Merchavim regions (more details here for Hebrew readers)
• 4:45 pm: Tzeva Adom, according to Times of Israel, in the city of Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem
• 5:00 pm: The IDF is claiming [Haaretz] an extraordinary impact for its Iron Dome anti-missile system: which "is activated only when the rockets fired by Palestinian militants at Israel appear likely to hit populated areas. It has been activated to intercept about 27 percent of the approximately 180 rockets fired between Monday night and midday Wednesday. Of the times when Iron Dome was activated, it successfully intercepted the rockets nearly 90 percent of the time, and there have been few rocket hits or serious injuries. The success of the defense system marks an improvement over the 84 percent success rate during Operation Pillar of Defense."
• 5:05 pm: Times of Israel reports that Iron Dome brings down a rocket over the central Dan region. Another in the same area is believed to have crashed in an open area. Immediately before, the Tzeva Adom sirens were heard in Bat Yam and Holon, two satellite cities of Greater Tel Aviv.
• 5:30 pm: At Haaretz, they are now reporting that 6 mortars were fired into the Eshkol region.
• 5:30 Tzeva Adom in Sdot Negev and Sha'ar HaNegev regions
• 5:40 pm: At Rehovot's Kaplan Medical Center, patients from the cardiology and intensive care wards are now being moved to fortified rooms because of the Gazan rocket fire [source]
• 6:00 pm: Haaretz quotes sources in the IDF saying they have bombed 31 tunnels in Gaza since this (Wednesday) morning, plus 60 concealed rocket launchers and rocket storage sites, and 12 buildings used as command centers by the forces at work in Gaza.
• 6:05 pm: Mahmoud Abbas, the "moderate" Fatah chief and president of the Palestinian Authority, is quoted this evening by the AFP newsagency in a syndicated news report in which he says Israel's actions in attacking Gaza amount to genocide. And let's be clear about this: Mahmoud Abbas knows about genocide. "Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday accused Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza during its military campaign which has so far killed 43 Palestinians. "It's genocide -- the killing of entire families is genocide by Israel against our Palestinian people," he told a crisis meeting of the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank city of Ramallah."
• 6:10 pm: At Ynet, they say there has been a massive rocket attack on the Eshkol region in the past hour: 9 rockets in total, and there is some serious damage.

The firing has not taken a break but we have, to go take care of family matters.

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.

9-Jul-14: What yesterday brought

Iron Dome battery in Tel Aviv yesterday
[Image Source: Flash 90/Times of Israel]

From Ynet this morning, summarizing in the briefest of terms the events of yesterday, Tuesday, day one of Israel's military counter-offensive against the forces of Gaza:

More than 117 rockets fell in Israeli territory, 29 of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile-defense system on the first day of ‘Operation Protective Edge’. In addition, the IDF carried out 234 attacks and 23 people were killed. 

The Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system intercepted "at least 2 rockets over Be'er Sheva" around 1:00 am, according to this Ynet report.

There have already been several rounds of Tzeva Adom warnings and incoming Gazan rockets since midnight, the most recent one around twenty minutes ago (6:00 am) in the Sha'ar Hanegev region.

8-Jul-14: A torrent of incoming rockets

Thankfully it's quiet outside now. From Times of Israel in the past few minutes (it's now a little after 10:00 pm Tuesday night):

Israel just underwent a massive volley of some 30 rockets, with sirens blaring in southern Israel and as far north as Binyamina, as well as in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Several rockets were reported shot down by Iron Dome, but shrapnel from an interception causes damage to a wedding hall in Ashdod where nuptials are taking place. No injuries reported. In Jerusalem conflicting reports indicate rockets may have been shot down or impacted outside the city. Residents report hearing a series of three explosions.

A  Berry Sakharof musical concert underway at the Sultan's Pool outdoor amphitheatre in Jerusalem, next to the walls of the Old City, was interrupted and the 6,000 people attending were evacuated [Ynet].

Israel's Channel 2 TV station is providing non-stop news coverage with plenty of on-location views. They screened a striking video showing a torrent of perhaps thirty rockets dispatched by the terror-masters of Gaza, piercing the skies over Israel en route to any possible target. (The jihadists don't care who or what.)

If it's true (we don't know at this stage) that Binyamina was hit, that would validate Hamas' claims that they can strike virtually any location in Israel from their Gazan vipers' nest. Binyamina is close to Haifa, on Israel's northern coast.

Here in Jerusalem, the municipal authorities have just announced that the city's public bomb shelters are being opened up in the next few hours. Their location will be posted on the municipal website. Their official notification goes on to say:

The municipality also recommends that residents open their private shelters. In the case of a siren or explosion, residents should go to the closest protected area within a minute and a half and close all doors and windows and stay indoors for 10 minutes. All residents are asked to continue to listen to instructions from the Home Front Command. As of now, all municipal events will take place as scheduled.

The Home Front Command has followed that decision up now by issuing a directive that public shelters in the Sharon area, the city of Beit Shemesh, Jerusalem, and the communties of Israel's coastal plain be opened up.

Ynet says a residence in the Jerusalem area's Mateh Yehuda region suffered a hit in the past hour's attack. More details when we have them.

8-Jul-14: A look back at the day so far

Tel Aviv [Image Source: Wikipedia]

Israel's formal counter to the missile war waged against us by the terrorists of Hamas now has a name as of midnight this past night: Operation Tzuk Eitan [Hebrew: מִבְצָע צוּק אֵיתָן] which the IDF is translating as Protective Edge.

It's been a violent and dangerous day, and there's no reason to think the acts of terror from Hamas and the other jihad-minded grouplets in its domain are about to taper off. Quite the contrary.

This evening, there's an indication of how dangerous this can be, with the report an hour ago of a failed infiltration by Palestinian Arab terrorists in the vicinity of Kibbutz Zikim (main outputs: mangos, avocados. dairy products, polyurethane) on the Mediterranean sea shore a few kilometers north of the northwestern end of the Gaza Strip. Israel Radio's news report says they came by sea and were met with fire from an IDF force: an IDF soldier was lightly injured in the exchange. Police, according to Times of Israel

have been deployed in great numbers to the area to prevent additional infiltration attempts from the Gaza Strip into Israel. [Times of Israel tonight]

At Israel National News, they say four infiltrators were killed but the authorities are taking no chances that there might be others as yet undetected. So the roads to and around Zikim are now closed.

There's quite dramatic surveillance camera video footage here, showing the terrorists emerging from the sea and being eliminated by IDF action.

Tzeva Adom incoming rocket warning sirens were heard throughout Israel's central metropolis earlier this evening: Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Kfar Shmaryahu, Rishon Letzion, Nes Tziona, Beit Shemesh, Rehovot, Gadera, the Gezer region, Yavne and other communities. Israel National News says there was a barrage of "several rockets", and that the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system made one or more mid-flight hits. No damage has yet been reported. That report says these were M75 rockets, "a domestic creation produced by Hamas in Gaza which features a long range", launched from Beit Hanoun in Gaza. At Times of Israel, they say Palestinian Islamic Jihad

has taken responsibility for the rocket fire on Tel Aviv. The rocket was most likely an M-75, which is made in Gaza and based on the Iranian Fajr rocket.

Over at the Jerusalem Post, they write that

It was the first Gaza rocket that reached Tel Aviv since Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012. Following the attack over central Israel, the Home Front Command instructed the Tel Aviv Municipality to open public bomb shelters in the city. The Home Front Command had earlier instructed Tel Aviv residents to prepare for utilizing protected rooms and shelters in their private homes. Under the same instruction, the division responsible for civil security ordered for bomb shelters in Tel Aviv schools to be opened.
[During Tuesday] the IDF begun actively calling up 40,000 reserves approved to it by the cabinet. Since midnight Tuesday, some 120 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip have exploded in Israel.

As the world's news media focus attention on the rockets emanating from the Gaza Strip and Israel's counter to them, we wonder how often news consumers are going to be reminded that Gaza is no longer just a Hamas-controlled terrorism haven but one that has been under the jurisdiction, since June 2, 2014 of the newly-created Palestinian unity government.

That government resulted from the widely-hailed "reconciliation" agreement between Hamas and Fatah, which makes the head of Fatah and of the PA also the head of whatever legal structure there is in Gaza today. That person is Mahmoud Abbas. As pointed by BBC Watch today, "that aspect of the current Gaza Strip story is being consistently erased from public view by the BBC." And not only by the BBC.

As for why Israel now finds itself again at war, David Horovitz writing in his fine and direct style at Times of Israel ["Why are we fighting with Gaza, again?"] puts it far better than we could:

If there was no rocket fire from this non-disputed enclave, there would be no Israeli response, and nobody would be dying. The sorry fact is that both before and after Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, terrorists in the coastal enclave have been firing rockets indiscriminately into Israel, gloating when they maim Israelis and crying foul to the international community when Israel hits back and, inadvertently, hurts the Gaza civilians whom the terror groups have placed in harm’s way.
That Israelis do not die in greater numbers has nothing to do with Hamas and the other terror groups. They’re doing their absolute best to kill us. They’ve been assiduously smuggling in and manufacturing weaponry so that they now have hundreds of missiles that can reach Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and beyond, while imploring the international community to end Israel’s security blockade so that they can import even more potent means to murder us.
We’ve not been dying in greater numbers only because Israel has maintained that blockade, at terrible cost to its international standing, and because rather than putting its citizens in the line of fire, Hamas-style, to win international sympathy, Israel has built alarm systems, and bomb shelters, and protected areas, and the world’s most sophisticated missile defense systems, to try to keep its people safe.
...Recent days have seen the Israeli leadership clearly seeking not to get embroiled in another major offensive with Hamas — but its offer, its plea, of “quiet for quiet,” was ignored. We brace now for missile fire on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and agonize about the implications of a ground offensive.
Analysts posit that Hamas is firing some of its 100,000-rocket arsenal because it has nothing much to lose anymore — that it has lost the support of Egypt; that it can’t get the money to pay salaries; that it is retaliating for the deaths of several of its terror operatives in a tunnel that collapsed upon them after Israel had the temerity to attack it; that it is seeking to reassert itself as the only credible “resistance” to Israel…
But really, again, why the need to “resist” an Israel that has no presence in Gaza, and that has long since internalized the imperative to seek an accommodation with the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank if this can only be achieved without imperiling Israel’s own existence? Why? Because, for Hamas, hostility to the very fact of Israel’s existence still far outweighs any and all other interests. [Times of Israel]

We plan to track the other events of the day and of this evening in a separate post.

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.

6-Jul-14: For Hamas, Fatah and the PA, those rockets are about money, power, foreign aid and (naturally) corruption

A shared concern: Khaled Mashaal of Hamas;
Mahmoud Abbas of PA [Image Source: AP]

It was reported Thursday night that Israel had issued an ultimatum to Hamas in Gaza to halt the rocket fire or face a massive Israeli strike. The rockets have continued. Here's a Saturday night overview.

• The rocket-men of Gaza have been pressing their attacks further and further into Israel today, aiming at Be'er Sheva for the first time since November 2012's Operation Pillar of Defense. At that time, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem all absorbed Hamas rockets. In the course of eight days of fighting, the IDF carried out some 1,500 airstrikes against terrorist targets. Six Israelis and 167 Palestinians were killed.
• There were three rocket attacks on the southern desert city tonight (Saturday evening). One incoming rocket was intercepted in mid-flight by the IDF's Iron Dome defense system. Two others crashed and exploded in open fields with no reports of casualties. Beersheba has a population of 200,000. 
• Times of Israel says shortly after Be'er Sheva was attacked, five additional rockets were fired towards the Hof Ashkelon and Eshkol regions. Three were intercepted by Iron Dome; two crashed and exploded in open areas. 
• Ofakim (population 25,000) also came under rocket fire in another barrage today.
• By nightfall, the tally of rockets and mortar shells was at least 20 and possibly higher. That's also how many were fired at Israel during Friday.
• Times of Israel says: "With the attack on Beersheba, Israeli patience could now be wearing thin."
• Meanwhile a Hamas statement late tonight ["Hamas boasts that all Israeli cities are within its reach"] makes their public posture quite plain.

What's behind the Gaza rockets? According to Avi Issacharoff, who writes for Times of Israel today and has commented for several other media channels, it's about power and cash ["For Hamas, it’s all about the money", posted Saturday night July 5]. He quotes sources in Gaza who say the ongoing rocket fire from Gaza keeps happening because Hamas is seeking to achieve a public relations victory in the eyes of its Gazan public. They prefer to sidestep a larger conflict but they need to be seen as being unafraid of an escalation.

So where's the power? And what's happened to the cash?

• Hamas has threatened the PA that if the salaries of about 40,000 Hamas government employees, (essentially doing nothing for years already but being paid off nonetheless via foreign aid sources) are not paid by next Sunday, it will step back into the government offices in Hamas and take back control.
• Fatah and Hamas have been in a confrontation on this money issue since they created a so-called national unity government in April.
• The PA's president Mahmoud Abbas and his insiders have been saying for some weeks that the "reconciliation" agreement requires that a committee must decide on who gets to continue to be paid by the PA government from its foreign aid sources and who not. Those decisions have not yet been made. Much depends on this.
• The perpetually-broke PA is of course unable to make the payment itself. But no problem: Qatar says it will provide the money. However this is currently easier said than done, as Issacharoff writes: "Banks refuse to transfer the money to Hamas members’ accounts because of international laws restricting aid to terrorist groups, and Egypt refuses to let Qatar transfer cash overland into the Gaza Strip. Abbas, for his part, is not prepared to pay the salaries, and certainly not after the kidnapping and murders of three Israeli teens last month... Perhaps then Hamas feels it’s better to create tension with Israel (not a full-scale escalation) in a bid to increase pressure on Egypt to permit the transfer of funds or salaries to the Gaza Strip."
• The article closes with a quote from an anonymous senior terrorist from Hamas, saying “Those who expect Hamas to stop the rocket fire... should turn to (Palestinian Authority Prime Minister) Rami Hamdallah”. Message: This is really all about those salary payments.

Arguments among Palestinian Arab factions over cash and the payment of salaries to people who don't have to show up to work and who plainly have nothing to do and are not expected to do it are a constant in this ongoing war. The 2013 report of the European Union's Court of Auditors referred to it and got almost no attention. The Issacharoff article will probably get the same treatment. This is not what the mainstream news media want us to be thinking about Arab/Israel conflict.

Some of our earlier posts about the toxic role played by corruption and money in perpetuating the rocket-fire and other forms of Palestinian Arab terror:

• 9-Apr-14: Straight talk, crooked dealings: is the role of foreign aid in financing Palestinian Arab terror about to change?
• 10-Dec-13: EU may have located the billions it "lost" in Palestine. Or not.
• 17-Oct-13: Making sense of never-ending corruption
• 13-Oct-13: Massive scandal in Palestinian Arab financial affairs? No!
• 3-Oct-13: The business of terror: how money-making and power impact the search for peace
• 9-Sep-13: Snouts and troughs
• 12-Jul-12: Secret bank accounts, sweetheart deals for insiders, incredible riches for the president's sons: why would any Palestinian Arab politician ever give this up for... peace?
• 12-Jan-08: Open letter to the friends of our hostile neighbors

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.

2-Jul-14: Wednesday rockets and mortar attacks on southern Israel

The evening is wearing on. Further to our post of a couple of hours ago ["2-Jul-14: About those mortars fired into southern Israel this afternoon..."], it's now reported that two rockets were fired on the southern coastal city of Ashkelon. 

Ynet says one was intercepted in mid-air and brought down by the Iron Dome system. The second fell in an open area causing no significant damage. The Jerusalem Post, quoting military sources, says there were two Iron Dome intercepts tonight: one over Ashkelon and the other in the Sdot Negev region.

The Wednesday fire has been substantial. The IDF says there have already nine incoming mortars from Gaza, fired at various parts of southern Israel. All appear to have landed in open areas in the Eshkol region. The Israel Air Force struck a mortar launcher in the southern Gaza Strip some hours ago, that had been used to fire shells into Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, which is located in the Eshkol region.

The same Ynet report says there appear to be plans in the air for a wider military strike, most likely focused on Hamas in Gaza.

IDF reservists reported receiving calls from the army to update their personal details including telephone number, address, and bank account numbers. While these check-ups from the army are routinely conducted for most reservists every several months, calls made during the severe escalation in Israel has given rise to speculation that reserve forces could be called up for a ground operation. [Ynet]

Update 9:15 pm via Ynet: Yet another rocket was fired from Gaza, crashing and exploding in the Eshkol region; no injuries and no significant damage. There have been more than twenty such attacks since this morning [Times of Israel].

1-Jul-14: Ten in-bound rockets so far today, five while the nation buries its three sons

Image from the Israel National News website

Reminding us of their obsession with death - ours, their own, that of their children - the Palestinian Arab terrorists of the Gaza Strip fired rockets into Israel while the entire nation's attention was on the funeral of three Israeli boys.

Around 7:30 pm, this (Tuesday) evening, while the funeral in the city of central Israel city of Modi'in was still underway, five rockets (according to Times of Israel, quoting the IDF) were fired into Israel from Gaza. Two crashed and exploded in the Eshkol region, the same landing zone as several of this morning's rockets. It appears that all of them struck open areas, causing minimal property damage and no personal injuries. This of course was not the intention of the terrorists. For them, rocket fire is an entirely indiscriminate form of attack. Any injury, any damage, on the Israeli side is its own reward. This is why we call them terrorists.

An hour later, around 8:30 pm tonight, an additional rocket was fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip. Reports say the Tzeva Adom (Color Red) anti-missile warning system sirens were heard in the Sha'ar HaNegev region. We are still awaiting word from the IDF as to where it crashed and landed.

Associated Press, quoting the IDF, says 10 rockets have been fired into Israel so far today.

1-Jul-14: Rockets continue coming as Israel deals with tragedy

It's reported (Times of Israel) that a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip early Tuesday crashed into and exploded in Israel's Eshkol region. Damage was caused to several cars and a fire close to a packaging plant which was quickly put out by emergency services. Another rocket landed in the Sdot Negev region, causing no damage or injuries.

Fifteen rockets were fired at Israel a night earlier - the night between Sunday and Monday.

Noah Pollak, writing overnight at the Weekly Standard, pulls some of the strands together for us:

Here is what bias against Israel looks like. Three Israeli teenagers are abducted by the terrorist group Hamas, and after a desperate weeks-long search for the boys, they are finally found—dead in shallow graves near the site of the abduction. While all this is happening, Hamas instigates a new round of missile attacks from Gaza, firing 56 rockets at southern Israeli communities. The Obama administration's response? Express sympathy but call on Israel to refrain from responding.
Moments after the news broke today that the bodies of the teenagers had been found, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. was "urging restraint"—that is, urging Israel not to respond to the murder of its citizens.
Likewise the president's condolence statement concluded with an admonition that "all parties refrain from steps that could further destabilize the situation." Make no mistake—this is not a call on "all parties." It is a call directly to Israel, as Hamas already acted to "destabilize the situation" by abducting and murdering three teenagers and it continues to "destabilize the situation" by launching dozens of rockets a day at Israel... [W]ith Hamas and Fatah joined in an Obama-approved unity government that will continue receiving hundreds of millions of dollars a year in U.S. funding, we arrive at the events of the past three weeks—the increased rocket fire, the abduction and murder of the teenagers, and, of course, the administration's admonition that Israel not respond to events the administration itself has played a role in bringing about. And all the while the Obama administration insists on its "unshakable commitment to Israel's security," a phrase invoked with repetitive meaninglessness. The most important part of that commitment is being a source of moral clarity on days like today, and treating an ally like an ally, instead of a problem that must be contained...

The entire piece makes a strong impact. It's here.