29-Dec-17: Midday rockets from Gaza: two are intercepted in the air, one lands inside Israel

Kfar Aza around noon today [Image capture from this video]

It's a short and overcast Friday. In winter, the Sabbath arrives a little after four in the afternoon. But today, for thousands in Israel's south, the usual Erev Shabbat routine wasn't so routine.

Around 11:50 this morning, inbound rocket warnings were heard in dozens of Israeli communities in the a broad swathe of south-central Israel adjacent to the rocket-infested Gaza Strip.

Israel National News:

Sirens sounded in southern Israel as rockets were fired from Gaza at the Sdot Negev and Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Councils and two were intercepted by Iron Dome missiles. No one was hurt, but at least one building was damaged. According to an IDF spokesperson, three rockets were identified as being fired towards Israel, and the Iron Dome intercepted two of them. Arab media reported that IDF tanks responding to the rockets shot at targets in Gaza.

People attending a ceremony in Kfar Aza to mark the birthday of Oren Shaul took whatever cover they could as the photo above shows. To remind readers who do not recognize his name, the IDF has determined that he was killed in the fighting with Hamas during the summer of 2014. Hamas continues to hold his body for ransom.

Times of Israel says the third of today's three rockets

fell in Israeli territory in the Shaar Hanegev region, on the Gaza border.  Police said they found the rocket at the entrance to a building that had sustained damaged from the fall. Rocket warning sirens were heard shortly before midday in the Shaar Hanegev and Sedot Hanegev regions, sending frightened residents running to shelters. There were no immediate reports of casualties...

Zahava Shaul is accompanied to a nearby shelter as the rocket warnings are
heard [Image Source: Ynet]

UPDATE 2:30 pm December 29, 2017 | According to an updated Times of Israel report ["Gaza rockets apparently target ceremony for captured soldier", Times of Israel, today]:

The three rockets fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel on Friday appeared to have been launched to deliberately coincide with a ceremony marking what would have been the 24th birthday of an IDF soldier who was killed, and whose remains were captured by Hamas, in 2014. A military official could not yet say that this was definitively the case, as the army was still investigating the issue, but said it “absolutely could be,” noting the uncommon timing of the attack. 

Ynet quoted Oren Shaul's mother, Zahava - imagine what the event must have felt like for her - saying "It's an unpleasant and frightening experience. The most important thing is that no one was hurt." The head of the Zionist Union political party Avi Gabbay who attended the ceremony said: "The rocket fire in the middle of the ceremony proves, more than a thousand witnesses, that deterrence has been lost. They knew there was a ceremony happening here, and they fired. It's intolerable. I hope our government responds properly." Among the other dignitaries present: Communications Minister Ayoob Kara (Likud); MK Oren Hazan (Likud); Golani Brigade Commander Shlomi Binder; Maj. Gen. (res) Hagai Topolanski, the former head of the IDF's Manpower Directorate; Haim Jelin MK, former head of the Eshkol Regional Council.

Times of Israel points out that

This month saw two weeks of near-daily rocket launches, the largest incidence of missile-fire from the Strip since the 2014 Israel-Hamas war. These daily attacks had recently seemed to have come to an end. According to Israeli assessments, the rockets are not being launched by Hamas, but by other terrorist groups in the Strip. However, analysts have noted that Hamas has been either unwilling or unable to clamp down on the groups, as it has in the past.

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-Mar-17: Again tonight: A Gazan rocket in search of Israelis

From a documentary video about Sdot Negev [here]

A rocket from Gaza crashed into southern Israel tonight around 10:15 pm, landing in the Sdot Negev region in what Ynet calls "an empty and uninhabited field". No injuries are reported at this stage, and no property damage. This, it bears repeating, was not the intention of the attackers doing the firing.

In a compact country, Sdot Negev - though relatively remote from the population centers of Israel - is hardly devoid of people. It includes within its boundaries 16 communities made up of two kibbutzim, twelve moshavim and two communal settlements. The population of Sdot Negev is mostly made up of Israelis from the Dati Leumi ("Modern Orthodox") stream.

Despite the depressing frequency of missile attacks from the rocket-rich nearby Gaza Strip, Sdot Negev's population has grown by an estimated 55% ["Even Rockets Can't Keep Israelis Away From Towns Near the Gaza Strip", Haaretz, May 31, 2012] in the five years up to 2012. The explanation seems to be connected to high quality of life of communities in the region.

08-Nov-15: Southern Israel - another incoming rocket from Gaza

Israel National News reported around 7:30 this evening (Sunday) that Tzeva Adom in-bound rocket warnings were being sounded in the Sha'ar Hanegev region of southern Israel, close to the Gaza Strip. It quoted "authorities" saying a rocket had struck Israeli territory and that there were neither injuries nor property damage. Ynet adds that the sirens were also heard in the Sdot Negev region.

Times of Israel reports (around 8:00 pm Sunday night) that Israeli security forces located the remains of this evening's rocket in an open field less than one kilometer outside of one of the Sha’ar Hanegev communities. Wikipedia lists 11 communities in Sha'ar Hanegev, comprising 10 kibbutzim and one moshav.

We don't claim that this is either connected or significant but there are Arabic-language reports (this one, for instance) that refer this evening to the firing by Hamas forces today of no fewer than six rockets into the Mediterranean Sea from the Gaza Strip as part of what has been called a rocket test program. There have been numerous such reports (though not 6 in a day as far as we can recall) in the months since 2014's summer battles.

21-Oct-15: Rocket alert in Israel's south

Wednesday at about 6:53 pm, an incoming enemy rocket alert (Color Red or Tzeva Adom) was heard in parts of Israel's south. Areas affected at this moment are Sdot Negev and Shaar Hanegev. Israel National News says the sirens were also heard in the vicinity of Kibbutz Sa'ad and Kfar Aza.

An initial report via the Hebrew news site Walla says a rocket exploded on the Israeli side of the border fence separating Israel from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. No reports of injuries or property damage at this stage. This of course was not what the terrorists (people who fire rockets entirely indiscriminately in the general direction of their foe's territory) intended. We were blessed again with good fortune in this benign outcome.

28-Sep-14: Just another armed young man who slipped through the fence looking for victims

Children of the Kibbutz Alumim community doing art therapy,
August 2014 [Image Source]

No one was killed. And even more significantly, no Israeli killed any Arab. But this is still a news story of significance because it makes concrete the danger of living side-by-side with millions of people who are, daily, fed a cultural diet of "Thou shalt kill because this is what is expected of you".

From the Times of Israel this afternoon (Sunday):

An 18-year-old Palestinian male armed with a knife and a pick was arrested Sunday near Kibbutz Alumim in the Sdot Negev Regional Council. A security coordinator from a local community caught the Palestinian about seven kilometers from the Gaza border fence, which he is believed to have crossed near Kibbutz Nahal Oz. According to Sdot Negev security coordinator Raphi Bibian, local security chiefs received an alert that there had been an infiltration from Gaza, and closed in on the intruder from three directions. The Palestinian man surrendered without a fight. [Times of Israel]

He's not a threat any more...
for now [Image Source]

The brief report might have made a larger mark on the world's news headlines if an Israeli "security coordinator" on the frontier settlement's perimeter had been looking in the wrong direction at the critical moment, or if, instead of taking the armed and motivated 18 year old into custody, the security forces based in the Israeli communities close to the Gaza border had eliminated the threat in the customary way of militaries.

Those are not the things that happened. So this young man will be held in custody for a while and then freed. If he plays his cards right, he may yet get to fulfill the lethal ambitions that others in his world have for him.

Meanwhile those who believe Israel is engaged in "a war of genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian people", as Mahmoud Abbas, the PA president, called it before the UN General Assembly on Friday, will ignore such events. And those who depend on the mainstream news media for an understanding of life in the Arab/Israel conflict will continue to be oblivious to its realities.

(For those interested to see a slice of life in the Alumim kibbutz community, here's a video clip from two months ago.)

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.

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.

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].

30-Jun-14: In Gaza, doing more of what they know best to do - fire rockets indiscriminately across the fence

It continues to be a violent day on Israel's southern front with the Hamas regime (now in a formal sense, the united PA/Hamas regime):

• Ynet, quoting official assessments, estimates that 14 rockets, give or take, were fired during Sunday night and early Monday morning. Most exploded in open areas of the Eshkol region.
• Around 7 this morning, a barrage of ten rockets was fired into Eshkol. All exploded in open areas, causing neither damage nor injuries. 
• At 7:30, at least one more rocket was fired.
• Around 8:30, yet another exploded in the Sdot Negev region, this time inside one of its residential communities (no names are being supplied for reasons of security), with damage caused to one of the buildings.
• Shortly after, another rocket exploded in the same region. 
• A Times of Israel report quotes officials saying this latest escalation is being executed openly and for 'credit' by Hamas. In recent years, they have preferred to allow other terrorist organizations to front for the rocket activity for reasons which make sense in terms of how many foreign countries relate to what they pretend is Hamas policy. That little game appears to have been abandoned for now, though the other little game - that Hamas and Fatah/PA/PLO are now united - goes on.

In total, according to AP, damage has been caused today to two Israeli homes in Israel, and two Israelis have been treated in hospital for shock, according to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. AP goes on to quote an IDF source saying about 40 rockets have landed in Israel since three Israeli teens "went missing earlier this month", a reference to the abduction by Palestinian Arab terrorists of Eyal Yifrach, 19; Gil-ad Shaar, 16; and Naftali Frenkel, 16. It adds this:

Rockets fired from Gaza -- most of which are crude, makeshift devices -- rarely cause casualties or major damage, but sow fear in Israeli communities near the border.

If any of our readers work for AP or know someone who does, can you please refer them to the photographs we posted here?

29-Jun-14: Intense Gazan rocket fire on southern Israel again tonight

It's Sunday night. Around 8:15 this evening, at about the same time as a major rally in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square in support of efforts to safely rescue the three Israeli boys abducted by Palestinian Arab terrorists, the Tzeva Adom (Code Red) incoming missile system began sounding its sirens right across southern Israel. Warnings were sounded in the Hof Ashkelon region, in Sdot Negev which was hit last night as well, and in Sha'ar Hanegev which was also hit last night.

At about the same time, Gazan mortar fire erupted right on the border fence that separates the Hamas-controlled, terrorism-infested Gaza Strip from Israel.

We now know that two of the incoming rockets, classified as GRADs, were intercepted in mid-flight by the IDF's Iron Dome defensive rocket system, and destroyed over the southern city of Netivot (population: 27,000) without doing serious harm.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, the first day of the Islamic holy month, Ramadan, had just concluded at about the time of tonight's rocket volley.

Islamist militancy is running high in Gaza:

About 100,000 students from all over the Gaza Strip joined the “Pioneers of Liberation” summer camps organized this year by the Hamas movement. The camps are organized according to educational level, with primary, middle and secondary school stages... Students ranging in age from 12 to 17 gather in the afternoons for three hours, seven days a week, wearing fatigues, black shirts and green berets. They are trained in the basics of military action and security in the camps organized by the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip during their summer vacation. Forty supervisors affiliated with the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, divide the students into groups. Some groups are trained to carry and use arms and others to navigate obstacle courses, while another group is trained on debarkation techniques and safety. Each year, Hamas holds summer camps for male and female students of various ages. Some of these camps are predominantly recreational and cultural, while others focus on the military drills, all part of a program to promote Hamas and its ideology. Hamza Ahmad, a summer camp official in the Saraya region, said military drills fall in line with Hamas’ conviction that the Palestinians are in a state of conflict with Israel, and they must know the basics of military action in addition to the security and cultural aspects of the program. [Source: Al-Monitor]

Times of Israel, quoting government sources, says Palestinian Arab rocket attacks on Israel during the (still unfinished) month of June are running at 4.5 times the number of the previous month: 13 in May; 60 in June.

29-Jun-14: More Saturday night rocket attacks on southern Israel

Sderot, southern Israel, Saturday afternoon:
Gaza's embedded rocket arsenal has
huge potential for lethality [Image Source]

The Sderot factory about which we reported earlier tonight has burned to the ground.

The photos at right and below are something to keep in mind when those who misleadingly soft-talk what the Palestinian Arab terrorists do ("home-made rockets" and the like) attempt to peddle their preferred image of pathetic, oppressed, helpless and ill-equipped freedom-loving Gazans.

The reality is Gaza is armed to the teeth, with deep reserves of rockets concealed inside mosques, the basements of hospitals, and indoor caches close to schools. It's a fiendish strategy, and tonight's conflagration is a small taste of what can be expected in the future.

Soon after tonight's direct hit on the Sderot factory, the incoming-rocket alarms sounded again across a broad swathe of southern Israel. Times of Israel reports that residents of the Sdot Negev region were forced to take cover around 10 o'clock Saturday night as another barrage of rockets was launched from the Gaza Strip. It says those rockets are now thought to have landed in open territory, without causing injury to people or significant property damage.

A little later, just after 11:00 pm local time on Saturday night, additional incoming rocket sirens were heard [Hebrew report] in Sderot and the Sha'ar Hanegev region. We do not know the outcome at this stage.

Sderot: The outcome of Saturday afternoon's rocket attack

Sderot: The factory that was destroyed by Gazan rockets

Sderot: The damage that the terrorists' rockets can do is
consistently under-stated by the news media [Image Source: AP]

13-Mar-14: A reminder tonight of why the terror forces have those rocket stockpiles

Those explosive messages of hatred keep coming tonight.

Shortly after our last post here, The Code Red incoming missile warning system began blaring its "take cover urgently" message across parts of southern Israel. Though not all the reports are in yet, it appears the Shaar HaNegev and the Sdot Negev regions were hit, as was the southern city of Sderot. Ynet says, without being specific about the location (presumably for security reasons) that one of these incoming rockets was brought down by the Israeli anti-missile Iron Dome system around 8:35 pm tonight. (Iron Dome shots are expensive. It's generally assumed that if the system fires off one of its own rockets, that's because the enemy's incoming missile is heading for a human-rich target and must be stopped.)

The injuries we know of are on the Gazan Palestinian Arab side. A growing number of individuals - some active terrorists, some ordinary members of the Gazan public - are reported hurt from exploding Gazan rockets. Avi Issacharoff writing on the Times of Israel site provides some details tonight.

No one here thinks this is over yet. On the other hand, at the BBC they may not even fully realize it's happening or want you to. Their major Middle East headline at this hour is "Gaza militants say truce renewed".

8-Feb-14: With Israelis focused on nature, naturally the jihadists of Gaza focus on Israelis

This weekend is Scarlet South time

February in the northern half of Israel's southern Negev Desert region is the time for a riot of colour. Here's how one travel site describes it:

Every spring, the Negev desert starts to bloom and the ordinarily green landscape is covered with a magnificent carpet of scarlet red anemones. To celebrate this amazing natural wonder, the annual Darom Adom Festival dedicated to the very best of the region takes place during the month of February. Every weekend there will be guided tours, a farmers market, workshops and activities for children, bicycle tours and musical performances in select locations throughout the region. [Source]

Unfortunately February, along with all the other months of the year, is when the terrorism-addicted jihadists of the Gaza Strip celebrate the joys of flinging explosive rockets over the fence into whatever part of nearby Israel they can reach. Sometimes their prayers for victims or damage are answered. Tonight, thank Heavens, they were not, but they keep trying.

At about 4:45 pm today, as the light was failing towards the end of the Sabbath, the dreaded sounds of a different red phenomenon, the Tzeva Adom (Colour Red) incoming missile warning system, were heard throughout the northern south, followed by the sounds of explosion.

So far - as is sadly customary - this has gone almost entirely unreported outside of the usual Israeli channels. The coverage given on the Haaretz web site is stunningly laconic:

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip exploded in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council in southern Israel Saturday afternoon. No casualties or damage were reported. Before the rocket hit, residents in two regional councils near Gaza heard rocket alert sirens. [Haaretz]

Over at Times of Israel, they add that the sirens were heard in several towns and kibbutzim of the Sdot Negev region as well as in Eshkol. Incorporating some 16 communities (two kibbutzim, 12 moshavim and two communal settlements), Sdot Negev's population has grown by 55 percent since 2006:  the local education system, atmosphere and rural lifestyle are quoted as attractions in the region's Wikipedia entry. The Eshkol region, which suffers greatly from incoming Gazan rockets, encompasses 15 kibbutzim, 13 moshavim and three other communities.

It's likely there will be a response from Israeli forces, probably tonight, at which point the horror of living in the Israeli communities that are routinely at the receiving end of randomly-flung explosive rockets fired from Gaza into non-military targets will be ignored in the news reports. What makes headlines, as every editor knows, is Israeli military determination and Palestinian Arab victimhood. Stand by.

3-Jan-14: Thursday rocket attack from Gaza again but the living in southern Israel's Gaza-fringe communities remains good

Anemone coronaria flowers brighten the landscape in
Sdot Negev's Shokeda desert fields [Image Source: Wikipedia] 

A rocket fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip exploded in the Western Negev region of southern Israel early Thursday evening. Algemeiner says it crashed into an open area in the Sdot Negev region, part of the northwestern corner of the Negev desert. Sdot Negev is home to sixteen communities: two kibbutzim (Alumim and Sa'ad), 12 moshavim and two communal settlements.

No injuries or damage are reported. Israeli military aircraft quickly attacked and destroyed by direct hits what the IDF termed "terror infrastructure" in the central Gaza Strip "and three concealed rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip".

A recent Haaretz article ["Ninety percent of new residents say good school system and rural environment brought them to southern Israel"] focusing on Israeli life in the desert settlements of Sdot Negev quotes the head of the local council praising the constructive outlook of the region's residents who cope daily with being on the doorstep of uncivilized neighbours:

"We don't make a big deal of every Qassam that falls. We don't try to create an atmosphere of despair and misfortune, but rather to convey a sense of a strong society". 

The article notes that the "rocket-battered" Sdot Negev communities have experienced a 55 percent increase in population numbers since 2007, notwithstanding what Israelis likes to call "security issues". Sdot Negev, despite being a stone's throw from the squalor and Islamist passions of Gaza, attracts new residents via a good school system and a notably pleasant rural environment. This, understandably, enrages the Gazan jihadists and their Iranian masters.

11-Nov-12: Dramatic Sunday in southern Israel

Running for cover in Beer Sheva today as long-range rockets were fired
into the city by Gaza's terrorists [Image Source]   

For hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in the south, today has been tumultuous in the worst way. 

Unstemmed rocket attacks have been conducted by one or another of the terrorist groups based in Hamas-controlled Gaza at all hours of the day and night. While it's tempting to look at the absence of deaths on the Israeli side, the reality is any one of these rockets and mortars can easily have exacted the heaviest of prices. It's our great fortune that this did not happen today. 

Based on eye-witness reports we collected during the day (Sunday), here is a summary of the regions in which the Tzeva Adom missile warning system detected an incoming attack or (where Tzeva Adom did not operate for whatever reason) actual rocket-born explosions occurred:

08:50: Sha'ar Hanegev

09:50: Sha'ar Hanegev - no fewer than 4 rockets

10:10: Sderot and Sha'ar Hanegev

10:35: S'dot Negev and Sha'ar Hanegev

10:45: Sderot and Sha'ar Hanegev

11:55: Eshkol, S'dot Negev, Sha'ar Hanegev

12:00: Shaa'ar Hanegev

12:30: A hail of rockets right across Israel's Gaza border area, plus a rocket in Hof Ashkelon
12:55: S'dot Negev
13:00: Hof Ashkelon
14:00: Be'er Sheva. Israel National News reported that two explosions, possibly three, were heard in the city about 90 seconds after the siren sounded the alert for residents to head for the shelters. At least one, and possibly two, of the incoming missiles - believed to be long-range GRAD Katyushas - were intercepted and destroyed by the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system.  

15:55: Hof Ashkelon, Lachish, Sha'ar Hanegev

16:55: Sha'ar Hanegev

17:00: Sha'ar Hanegev

17:20: Eshkol - believed to be four rockets in a single volley

Times of Israel reports that more than 70 rockets in total have been fired into Israel since (and presumably including) Saturday night. 

"On Sunday morning, four Israelis were wounded by shrapnel when Palestinian terrorists fired a barrage of rockets at the Sha’ar Hanegev region. Two people in their fifties were wounded when a rocket scored a direct hit on a car, while a third woman was hurt as a rocket fell near a school in a nearby town. Two residents of Sderot were treated for shock. All of the casualties were evacuated to hospitals in Beersheba and Ashkelon. Hamas’s armed wing announced that it was actively participating in the fighting by firing mortar shells at IDF positions around the Gaza Strip... Television reports noted that recent cross-border fire from Gaza had included highly accurate Katyusha rockets, capable of doing far more damage than previous rocket fire."

TOI summarizes the day's events with this fatalistic commentary under the title "The approach of an unwanted war in Gaza | Neither Israel nor Hamas nor Egypt seems to wish it, but as rocket fire intensifies again, a deeper conflict looms":

Israel doesn’t want war. Hamas doesn’t want war. Egypt doesn’t want war. And yet this weekend’s bloodshed on the Israel-Gaza border, along with the increase in rocket fire, has brought all sides to the brink...