Investigators working the case found that before the attack – during
which Muhand al-Uqbi, a 21-year-old native of Hura, shot and killed IDF
soldier Omri Levi and wounded several other Israelis – al-Uqbi had been
in contact with Hamas for a long period of time before the attack and
that on his phone he had pictures of Hamas members, weapons, and other
materials.
That information came to light in a statement put out
by the Negev police on Sunday, as they presented a pre-indictment motion
against al-Uqbi’s brother, who will be charged with failing to prevent a
crime, after investigators determined that he knew his brother had
acquired a pistol and was “going through a process of radicalization due
to the events on the Temple Mount and did not report it.”
...
According to police, last Sunday at 7:24 pm, al-Uqbi – armed with a
handgun - slipped into the bus station by way of an entryway next to the
McDonald’s at the station. Moments later Levi passed through the same
entrance and al-Uqbi began to follow him, police said, in order to kill
him and steal his assault rifle.
Police said al-Uqbi then saw
Levi head towards a bathroom at the station and he followed the soldier
into the bathroom, pulled out his pistol, shot him dead at point blank
range and stole his rifle.
After stealing the rifle, al-Uqbi
opened fire at a group of police officers who heard the gunshot and were
on their way to the bathroom. He then fled towards the dumpsters behind
the station, where he was shot by YASSAM special patrol officers.
Next to his body a knife was found, but it was not used in the attack, police said.
Bottom line: Al-Uqbi was in touch with Hamas for months and one can only assume that he received logistical support and maybe weapons from them. Lest anyone still think these are random attacks.
Breaking: Five Israelis wounded as two 'Palestinian' terrorists open fire in BeerSheva - UPDATED
Five Israelis were shot and wounded a short while ago by two 'Palestinian' terrorists in the Central Bus Station in Beer Sheva.
According to Channel 2, at least five people
were injured in a combined shooting and stabbing attack at the Beersheba
Central Bus Station, one of them critically.
According to the report, two Palestinian
gunmen opened fire in two different areas of the station. At least one
of them is said to have been killed.
Hope the other one is killed too.
Developing...
UPDATE 10:20 PM
There was apparently only one terrorist.
BREAKING REPORT: 2nd alleged terrorist shot & wounded, an Eritrean who's appearance was mistaken for a terrorist. pic.twitter.com/wWHz3VVNYs
About twenty minutes ago, a Code Red warning went off in Beit Shemesh according to someone who posted on Facebook. It sounds plausible. Hamas shot 30 rockets in 10 minutes this evening and Code Red signals went off in Ashdod, Rehovot... and Tel Aviv.
Hamas fired over 30 rockets in a ten-minute period into Israel on
Monday, with hits reported in Sha'ar HaNegev, the Eshkol Region,
Netivot, Sderot, and Be'er Sheva between 8:00 - 8:10 pm IST.
No buildings were reportedly damaged. One Ashkelon resident is being treated for shrapnel injuries.
"Code red" sirens have reportedly been sounded as of 8:30 pm as far
as Tel Aviv and in Gush Etzion; rockets could be seen from as far away
as Beit Shemesh, just West of Jerusalem, eyewitnesses told Arutz Sheva.
The barrage follows the Security Cabinet decision to prepare for escalation in the South, including a possible military campaign.
Time to root the vermin out. To hell with Obama and Kerry.
UPDATE 8:59 PM
Within minutes of posting this, I got back tweets claiming that the sirens in Jerusalem and Mevasseret (which I did not report) were a false alarm, and another from someone claiming not to have heard anything in Tel Aviv. See the report above.
As you all know, I am in the US right now. I am leaving back to Israel tonight, and will be there tomorrow.
Forgotten people: Half a million Israelis in shelters and the world's reaction...
Let's go to the videotape.
There are half a million Israelis hiding in bomb shelters from a blizzard of rockets being shot by Hamas from Gaza. Pathetically, Prime Minister Netanyahu is being restrained from going after them by the Obama-Kerry junta, at the request of 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen. And the world's reaction is best described by the video at the top of this post.
Some half a million Israelis spent much of their weekend running to bomb shelters, with school camps remaining closed in one city July 6 because of rocket fire from Gaza.
“The Ashdod municipality had said on Saturday night that
no classes or other planned activities would be allowed to open, except
inside bomb shelters.”
The Hamas terror organization, which controls Gaza, claimed it can
hit any city in Israel, under its slogan “all cities are close to Gaza.”
A picture depicting a heroic jihadist carrying a Grad rocket can be
seen on the homepage of the Hamas information website and other Hamas-affiliated websites.
There was a steep increase in rockets shot at Israel over the past four days.
“110 rockets
were fired into Israel, 80 of them exploded in urban areas in the
Negev. Ten rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome (defense system).”
Beersheba was targeted for the first time since 2012. Although rockets were fired at the city, they were intercepted by Iron Dome.
How much longer will the Israeli government put up with this?
Islamic Jihad threatens escalation in the next few hours; UPDATE: 1 DEAD
Israel Radio reports (11:00 pm) that Islamic Jihad is threatening that Saturday night's rocket fire is only the beginning, and that they will escalate in the next few hours. Four Israelis have been hurt thus far, one moderately to seriously, one moderately and two lightly.
One of two rockets fired at Ashkelon hit a home and directly struck gas containers causing shrapnel to injure one man moderately. Fire crews were dousing the flames. Paramedics were also treating shock victims.
An hour earlier, a long-range rocket fell in a parking lot between two residential buildings in Ashdod. One person was lightly injured and extensive damage was reported.
Ashdod mayor Yehiel Lasri told Channel 2, "Ashdod is under attack, without a doubt."
A Magen David Adom spokesman said: "This was a miracle. It could have ended much worse."
An additional rocket fell in Eshkol, causing damage.
One rocket hit a school in Ashdod which was empty at the time. A further rocket fell in the Gan Yavne Regional Council where passer-by was lightly injured by shrapnel. He was evacuated to hospital.
A rocket also struck the Be'er Tuvia Regional Council - which was also targeted earlier this week, while another slammed into the Pithat Shalom Regional Council.
Iron Dome is only stationed in Ashdod and Beer Sheva right now, and has shot down one rocket all evening.
What could go wrong?
UPDATE SUNDAY 12:00 AM
As Shy Guy notes in the comments and Israel Radio has just reported, 55-year old Moshe Ami of Ashkelon has died from a shrapnel wound in his midsection, which he sustained while getting out of his car to seek cover when the alarm went off in Ashkelon this evening.
Iron Dome is overrated, cannot protect Ben Gurion Airport from a 'Palestinian state'
Forgive me for pooh poohing our 'great success' but Iron Dome is overrated.
A third Iron Dome battery is to be deployed 'within ten days' outside of Ashdod. The two current batteries are deployed outside Ashkelon and Beersheva.
“We plan to move the Iron Dome forward and within 10 days we will have a third battery which will be able to protect over Ashdod in addition to Ashkelon and Beersheba, if there is another escalation,” Barak said.
By the end of 2012, Barak said that Israel would have nine operational Iron Dome batteries including thousands of Tamir interceptors. Each interceptor costs around $50,000 and usually two are fired at rockets slated for interception.
And what area will those nine batteries cover? No one is saying. But here's a hint: It's 14 kilometers from Ashdod to Ashkelon (see map above) and the government admits that the battery that is covering Ashkelon cannot defend Ashdod. For those of you who are mathematicians, please figure out how many batteries are required to cover the entire State of Israel (except for areas within seven kilometers of the Gaza, Lebanon and possibly - God forbid - 'Palestinian' border which cannot be defended by Iron Dome). An inside source informs me that the number that the government is currently using is 24 batteries to protect the entire country. Color me skeptical.
Barak (as in defense minister Ehud Barak) hints at where this is going:
“This is something that completely changes the way we protect our citizens, who still need standard shelters, but will also increase the government’s operational freedom in the future,” he said.
In case you didn't get the hint, the Washington Times' Eli Lake makes it explicit.
The battlefield success of Iron Dome could change the political calculus in Israel by providing protection against attacks that prevented Israel from withdrawing after it dismantled settlements in Gaza in 2005.
Mr. [Israel's Ambassador to the US Michael] Oren said 1,000 Qassam rockets were fired into southern Israel from August 2005 to May 2006. At the time, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon formed a political party, Kadima, to complete what he called disengagement, or the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the dismantlement of settlements in Palestinian areas of the West Bank that the Jewish state did not intend to keep within its final borders. The continuous barrage of rockets from Gaza is widely seen as stopping disengagement in its tracks.
“This restores Israel’s deterrence against a weapons system that Israel’s enemies believed Israel was incapable of defending against,” said Patrick Clawson, the director of research for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Second, by doing that, it makes it politically possible to talk about trading territory for peace, even if you are not confident that the new authorities can stop missile attacks by terrorists from that territory.”
That, of course, explains why the Obama administration has given Israel $205 million to purchase four Iron Dome batteries: They hope that Iron Dome's 'success' will 'help' Israel to feel confident returning to the 1949 armistice lines. But what is perhaps more telling is that the IDF has yet to commit to purchasing a single battery of Iron Dome. And for good reason. (Note that this article - contrary to my source - says 16-18 batteries will be enough).
In a radio interview on July 21, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, a former IDF deputy chief of staff, attempted to cool the Israeli public’s response to the July 12 test, explaining that Iron Dome is at best 80 percent effective at intercepting incoming rockets [so far it's at 85% - a bit better than predicted. CiJ]. He also explained that cost issues would prevent Iron Dome from being permanently deployed on the southern and northern borders.
Israel would only be able to procure and maintain a handful of batteries with the $205 million U.S. grant and the IDF has no plans to fund multiple Iron Dome batteries. Ha’aretz estimates that each intercept missile could cost approximately $40,000 and each Iron Dome battery $500,000, while Hamas’ Qassam rockets cost roughly $150 each to produce.
Senior IDF officers, including Deputy Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, continue to insist that the IDF should not have to pay for the system from its budget, and alternate sources of funding, potentially from sales of the system to other governments, have been touted as a solution. India has expressed interest in either the David’s Sling, a medium-range missile intercept system being developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. in partnership with the Massachusetts-based Raytheon Company, or the Iron Dome system, also produced by Rafael. The Israeli government, however, has banned the transfer of David Sling’s technology to foreign customers, a major hang-up that could derail sales negotiations. With funding issues a priority, however, the pressure to reach a deal is high. Singapore has also expressed serious interest in the Iron Dome system.
Ha’aretz reported on July 21 that Gantz, “who observed the trials Monday, was impressed with the system's capability, but was doubtful this would alter the army's view on funding.” His comments suggest that the IDF continues to focus on preparing for conventional ground and air assaults against renewed attacks from Hamas and Hezbollah. Gantz expressed this view previously in a May 31 interview with Defense News, then hinted at further confrontations in Lebanon and warned that Israel has learned from the mistakes of the 2006 Lebanon War and is prepared “to keep all [its] horses in the stable for as long as possible, because when [Israel] let(s) them out, it will be painful [for the enemy].”
Mind you that article is from a year ago. Since then, the cost of an interceptor has risen to $50,000. And the IDF still hasn't committed to purchase a single battery.
MK Avi Dichter (Kadima) pointed out that “we did not hear even a weak condemnation of the terrorist attack and rockets from the Palestinian Authority. Launching rockets from Gaza must be part of the reconciliation between Hamas and the PA.”
Dichter also called for the government to quickly buy and build more Iron Dome missile defense systems.
“The fact that there are only two [Iron Dome] batteries is unacceptable,” Dichter said. “Students lying under school desks while rockets fall are like ostriches burying their heads in the sand.”
MK Amir Peretz (Labor) said the government was supposed to buy 13 anti-missile batteries, and added that the government should find a way to pay for it even if it does not receive adequate funds from the US for the purchase.
Translation: There is NO Israeli money committed to paying for this (Refael - the company that developed Iron Dome - is sort of a hybrid of a private and a public company, and is no longer a part of the IDF as it was years ago).
So to this point, we have shown three weaknesses of Iron Dome: It doesn't work within seven kilometers of any border (did I mention that Ben Gurion Airport is less than seven kilometers from the '1967 borders'? See below), it covers a small area which will necessitate dozens of batteries to cover the entire country, and it is very expensive, especially in comparison with the cost of the 'Palestinian' rockets it is shooting down.
On Saturday, the terror groups attempted to break through the intercept system's defenses by firing a particularly large volley of rockets at Be'er Sheva, where one of the batteries is deployed.
...
After the Palestinian launch teams realized that the intercept systems deployed in the past two weeks around Ashkelon and Be'er Sheva provided near-perfect protection from rockets, they began targeting Ashdod and Ofakim more frequently. And when they did aim at Be'er Sheva on Saturday night, they did not fire one or two rockets, as in the past, but rather a volley of seven rockets almost simultaneously. Iron Dome intercepted five of them successfully, but one penetrated the defense system, exploding in a residential area and killing Yossi Shushan.
And wounding eight other people and doing lots of property damage. Seven rockets cost Hamas $1,050 ($150 each). The six that Iron Dome shoots down cost $600,000 to shoot down ($50,000 per interceptor, two interceptors per rocket). The one got through cost one dead Israeli, eight wounded Israelis, and several hundred thousand dollars in property damage. That sounds like a pretty favorable calculus for the terrorists.
Hezbullah is said to be capable of shooting hundreds of rockets at once from the north, which will only make matters worse.
Obama wants us to give up territory for a 'Palestinian state,' which would create a third direction for terrorist rocket fire, with Ben Gurion Airport only four miles (which is less than seven kilometers) away from that 'Palestinian state.' So does our own Left. In other words, in addition to its limited effectiveness, Iron Dome cannot protect Ben Gurion Airport.
Those of you who are long-time readers know that I have been a skeptic about Iron Dome from the get-go more than five years ago. Here's a good summary from former Congressional candidate Liz Berney of why Iron Dome does not resolve Israel's problems with incoming missiles and will not resolve them even if there are tens of Iron Dome batteries around the country.
Buultjens touted experimental Israeli missile shield technology as a probable panacea, while neglecting to mention escalating destructive rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. On April 7 (the day before the professor's Temple Emanuel talk), Hamas terrorists fired a rocket at an Israeli school bus, injuring the bus driver and mortally wounding a 16-year Israeli old boy, Daniel Viflic. (Sadly, the boy died 10 days later.)
This school bus attack followed weeks in which Gaza terrorists fired 120 rockets on Israeli civilians. On April 8, for the first time, an Israeli "Iron Dome" missile shield stopped one incoming rocket fired from Gaza at Israeli civilians. Buultjens touted the one rocket stopped by the missile shield, but never mentioned Hamas's deadly escalating attacks on Israeli school children.
It is of course wonderful that the missile shield stopped a rocket (and several more since the Professor's speech). Every life saved is a great gift, and every person injured or killed by Hamas terrorist rockets is a calamity. However, the missile shield is not a panacea - and Buultjens neglected to mention the shield's serious limitations.
Technion University aeronautics lecturer Nathan Faber, a former Israeli military rocket scientist, has sounded "alarm bells" about the Iron Dome system's weaknesses. The system has difficulty intercepting mortar shells and short-range rockets like Katyushas or Hamas' homemade Qassam rockets. The system has not been tested against large salvos of rockets, and may be completely unable to cope with them. [Actually, we can now say pretty definitely that Iron Dome cannot cope with a large volley of rockets. That's what happened in Beersheva on Saturday night. CiJ] In the next war, Israel is expected to face sustained periods when thousands of missiles and rockets rain on Israeli cities - far worse than during the terrible 2006 Hezbollah-Israel War, when 4,000 rockets fell on northern Israel in 34 days.
The July 2006 Hezbollah rocket attacks killed 43 Israeli civilians (and many of the 120 Israeli soldiers killed in the war), injured 418 Israeli civilians, caused 875 Israeli citizens to go into severe shock requiring medical treatment, displaced 300,000 Israelis from their homes, destroyed 6,000 Israeli homes, caused over one million Israelis to have to live in bomb shelters, and completely disrupted normal life in Haifa and other northern cities.
Today, Hezbollah reportedly has 45,000 rockets and missiles, four times the number it had when the 2006 war erupted, and Hamas has another 12,000 or more missiles. If a Palestinian state is established in the West Bank, particularly along the 1967 borders that Obama has been demanding, tens of thousands of additional rockets will be placed along Israel's longest border, aimed at every square inch of Israel.
Israel currently has only two operational Iron Dome shields, which can only cover limited areas. The Israeli government has warned Israelis under fire from Gaza that they are not completely protected.
According to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Israel needs "tens of thousands of the short-range interceptors [Iron Dome], thousands of the David Sling [mid-range] interceptors and hundreds of the upper-layers (Arrow-2)." The cost of all this is astronomical. Barak estimated it at $7 billion to $8 billion.
It may run as high as $50 billion or more. Ha'aretz's Reuven Pedatzur calculated that one David's Sling system interception costs $1 million, and one Iron Dome interception costs about $100,000, while Hamas's homemade Qassam rockets only cost at most $200 apiece, enabling the Palestinians in the South and Hezbollah in the North to defeat Israel at the bank. Pedatzur also noted that "the stock of Iron Dome missiles is liable to run out way before the rocket barrages end."
Israel does not have $50 billion or even $7 to $8 billion in its budget for these systems. American aid to Israel is only a fraction of these costs ($3 billion per year), and most is already allocated for other purposes. Last year, representatives of Ashkelon Hospital spoke at Great Neck synagogues, seeking to raise the few million needed to harden the hospital facility against Hamas rocket attacks - funds not available from the government. And as mentioned in my recent article about the Mayor of Itamar's speech at Great Neck Synagogue, the mayor reported that the modest funds needed for sufficient cameras on the security fence to prevent terrorist attacks are not even available.
Read the whole thing. Those who argue that in the missile age Israel can afford to give away territory are clearly mistaken. We cannot and should not be giving away territory.
Iron Dome has worked well enough that the terrorists are changing tactics to avoid it.
On Saturday, the terror groups attempted to break through the intercept system's defenses by firing a particularly large volley of rockets at Be'er Sheva, where one of the batteries is deployed. The Defense Ministry, for its part, has accelerated its timetable in order to double the number of available batteries within six months.
The IAF's Air Defense Corps intercepted 15 of the rockets launched from the Gaza Strip since Thursday. Iron Dome is capable of determining which rockets are liable to hit populated areas, and intercepts those rockets only in order not to waste the expensive intercept missiles on incoming rockets that will land in uninhabited areas.
After the Palestinian launch teams realized that the intercept systems deployed in the past two weeks around Ashkelon and Be'er Sheva provided near-perfect protection from rockets, they began targeting Ashdod and Ofakim more frequently. And when they did aim at Be'er Sheva on Saturday night, they did not fire one or two rockets, as in the past, but rather a volley of seven rockets almost simultaneously. Iron Dome intercepted five of them successfully, but one penetrated the defense system, exploding in a residential area and killing Yossi Shushan.
But the biggest problem with Iron Dome is that there are not enough batteries.
Even before the recent escalation in the south, the Defense Ministry decided to accelerate the production timetable for additional Iron Dome batteries. As a result, the ministry and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, which manufactures the system, hope to deliver a third battery to the IAF in September, with a fourth scheduled for delivery within the next six months. The air force has already trained additional air defense operators for these batteries.
Two more batteries are scheduled for delivery to the IAF by the end of 2012, bring the total number of operational Iron Dome systems to six.
That's all well and good, but if batteries deployed in Ashkelon and Beersheva cannot protect Ofakim and Ashdod, how many batteries do we need to deploy to protect the entire south? What happens when Hezbullah starts shooting in the north at the same time Hamas is shooting in the south? And what happens if they both start shooting before the end of 2012?
Iron Dome is better than I expected it to be as far as it goes, but it is no substitute for rooting out the terrorists entirely via conventional warfare. The failure to destroy the terrorist infrastructure will leave the state of Israel exposed to terror attacks and broke from trying to shoot down missiles. Recall the following from Evelyn Gordon:
[A]side from billions of shekels in development costs, each Iron Dome system costs $15 million (NIS 53 million) for the battery plus $40,000 (NIS 142,000) per missile. During the Second Lebanon War of 2006, Hezbollah fired some 4,000 missiles at Israel; intercepting them all with Iron Dome (had it been available) would thus have cost about NIS 568 million for the interception missiles alone.
Victim of Beersheva rocket attack on way to 9-month pregnant wife
The victim of the Beersheva rocket attack carried out by terrorists on Saturday night is 38-year old Yossi Shoshan from Ofakim. He was on his way to his nine-month pregnant wife when the sirens went off.
The man killed in the Beersheba attack was named as 38-year-old Yossi Shoshan from Ofakim. Shoshan was on his way to his nine-month pregnant wife after hearing air raid sirens and becoming concerned for her safety, media reports said.
A woman injured in the attack was fighting for her life at Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba.
Doctors there were also treating five more people who were injured by the rocket, which slammed into a residential street, destroying a vehicle and a home.
Television footage showed shell-shocked residents, the remains of the vehicle and the burnt-out home.
...
Sirens were heard in Beersheba shortly before the rocket salvo struck the city. A witness told Channel 10 the injured had stood as close as they could to a wall to seek cover, when the rocket hit right next to them.
The hospital said two people were in critical condition (one was a woman, the other was unidentified), two were in serious condition and two others sustained moderate wounds.
I guess the child will be named after him. What a shame.... Baruch Dayan HeEmeth (may the True Judge be blessed).
Liveblog: 2 killed in Beersheva by Grad rocket (with video)
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.
This is the first live post of the evening - the blog was supposed to be on autopilot for a while longer, but I am breaking in due to events that have occurred.
Two people have been killed in Beersheva within the last hour by a Grad rocket shot from Gaza. It was one of 55 rockets shot at Southern Israel this weekend. [Updated below - one dead and one critical. CiJ]
I have video of the fatal rocket. You can see 6 intercepted, 2 rockets gone through, landed and killed 2 people.
One man died Saturday from injuries sustained when a rocket fired from Gaza exploded in Beersheba. Sirens were heard in Beersheba shortly before a rocket salvo landed in the city, hitting a vehicle and private residence. Sirens could be heard throughout the city shortly before the blast.
Six others were being treated at Soroka University medical Center in Beersheba for injuries they sustained when they were caught running indoors as the rocket barrage landed in the city. Two were in mortal condition, two were in serious condition, and two others sustained moderate injuries. The attack was one in a wider barrage of rockets, with locals reporting hearing at least 11 explosion.
Moments before, a Grad rocket from Gaza landed on a home in Ofakim, starting a fire and sending shrapnel and debris flying that injured a four-month-old baby, a nine-year-old boy and a man in his early 20s. Emergency crews put out the fire and paramedics evacuated the three to the Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba to be treated for light injuries.
Three other Grad rockets were fired from Gaza at the city, one of which landed on a business causing no injuries.
Hamas claimed responsibility for the rockets fired at Beersheba and Ofakim, Channel 2 reported. Saturday morning, they had announced an end to the two-year-old truce with Israel.
In the afternoon, a Grad rocket fired from the Gaza Strip toward Ashkelon was intercepted by the Iron Dome rocket defense system. The Color Red warning siren was sounded in the city prior to the interception. Later five mortars landed in the Eshkol regional council, one of which landed in an area kibbutz causing light damage to one building. Sixteen rockets from Gaza landed in the Eshkol Regional Council alone over the weekend.
Israel Radio just interviewed an eyewitness who said that a man in a car was killed and the man's wife was wounded. The couple had acted in accordance with IDF procedures.
There were more rockets on Saturday morning.
Early Saturday morning, three Palestinians working in Israel were injured when a number of Grad rockets exploded in southern Ashdod.
Emergency sirens could be heard throughout the city before the blasts. A paramedics team that was dispatched to the site of the blast in Ashdod said it was treating three men in their 20s for injuries including shrapnel to the neck, chest, and other parts of the body. Two were in serious condition.
Later Saturday morning, a Grad rocket exploded in an open field north of Beersheba in the Bnei Shimon Regional Council. Eight people were hospitalized at Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba with light injuries sustained while running for shelter as rocket sirens sounded and suffering from shock.
You have 30 seconds in Ashkelon, 45 seconds in Ashdod and 60 seconds in Beersheva.
If you have no shelter, lie down on the ground. Get out of your car.
Yes, really, that's what Israel Radio just told us.
Press conference now on Channel 1 television and the radio with police commander Danino and Internal Security Minister Aharonovitch.
Hamas is completely responsible - not any other organization. Israel will react very strongly to these attacks. The shooting must stop. Hamas cannot allow rockets to be shot at the State of Israel. We can't have rockets shot all over Israel. Hamas will pay dearly for this.
Civilians cannot wander around outside because this is what Hamas is seeking. People are screaming at the minister that if this were Tel Aviv the government would have reacted already (search NotInMyBackYard on my blog - they are correct). If the terrorists had shot rockets at Tel Aviv, the planes would be in the air already and the reservists would be called up. And yet, in the south, the police say that the shooting will continue for the next several days. Wonderful.
Netanyahu has called together his kitchen cabinet - the eight ministers. Now they're discussing how to deal with the rockets that Hamas has imported over the last two years. Now they are breaking out the rockets.
By the way, Israel Radio just said that there is only one dead as of now. I was misinformed.
UPDATE 10:55 PM
One dead and seven wounded in Beersheva. Of the wounded, one critical and two serious.
UPDATE 11:03 PM
Hamas has removed from its website a notice taking responsibility for fire on Ashdod this evening. The PRC (Popular Resistance Committee) has taken responsibility for the rockets on Beersheva. [Sorry - Ofakim not Ashdod].
Israel Radio once again in the constant news mode.
The person who was killed was in a house that was hit by a rocket. But the IDF says that most of the people who were wounded did not follow instructions - they were out looking for rockets. They are stressing over and over again to go into a shelter and not look for the Iron Dome show. I'll have two more videos from the Iron Dome show below. The police chief complained in the press conference that there are children wandering in the streets. Please watch your children! (I'm sure the non-Israelis are incredulous at that, but young kids are often in the streets here until 10:00 and 11:00 at night, because there is almost no crime - just terrorists. Not my kids - they have a very strict father). Israel Radio's southern correspondent confirms that many people were outside. He said that the people who were hurt had hidden behind a wall on the far side of the house, but the wall collapsed and they were hit by shrapnel.
UPDATE 11:15 PM
Here are two more videos of Iron Dome in action this evening. Here's the first one.
Let's go to the videotape.
UPDATE 11:16 PM
There's another rocket in the Lachish area. This is a Grad. They're not saying yet where it hit - they don't want to help the shooters to aim.
And here's the second video.
Let's go to the videotape.
UPDATE 11:23 PM
Israel Radio's military correspondent Carmela Menashe confirms that the plan on Thursday was to kidnap soldiers and that the IDF had warnings of an attack in the specific area where it took place but did not stop it.
Now they're interviewing the person who was behind the car in which four people were killed on Thursday. He's very critical of the IDF's handling of Thursday's terror attack.
UPDATE 11:51 PM
Three more rockets: Ashkelon, Shaar HaNegev and Eshkol regions. No injuries, no damage.
UPDATE SUNDAY 12:00 AM
The Beersheva attack totals are one dead, one critically wounded, two seriously wounded and two moderately wounded. Everyone else is lightly wounded.
The police commissioner says that no one would have been hurt in Beersheva had people acted according to the instructions from the IDF Home Front.
Mini-cabinet meeting (eight senior members) now in Tel Aviv. No regular cabinet meeting on Sunday.
Terrorists on Thursday had equipment to kidnap soldiers and civilians. There were eight terrorists who were all killed. There were several cells. IDF did not aim for Egyptian soldiers who were killed - they may also have been attacked by 'Palestinians.' Israel's ambassador to Egypt has apologized for killing of Egyptian soldiers on Thursday and has offered to establish a joint investigation.
UPDATE 12:12 AM
Police on high alert in the south and in Jerusalem until further notice.
UPDATE 2:00 AM
The rocket fire continues. Four more rockets have hit in the Eshkol region in the last hour. All hit open areas and there was no damage and no injuries.
Correction on Beersheva. One killed, one critically injured, two seriously injured, two moderately injured and two lightly injured.
In Ofakim, where a rocket hit a house, there were three people lightly injured, one of them a four-month old baby.
'Palestinian' rockets hit empty fields near Beersheva, IDF responds
'Palestinian' terrorists fired Grad rockets from Gaza at Beersheva on Monday night. The rockets fell in empty fields outside the city. The IDF responded during the night, killing one 'Palestinian' terrorist and seriously wounding five others who were about to fire rockets at Israel. This is from the first link.
No injuries or damages were reported.
Beersheba is located approximately 40 kilometers away from the Gaza Strip.
Last week [I think "Last week" is an editor's mistake. CiJ], Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired three mortar shells at the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council in the south overnight on Sunday.
The first shell exploded near a fence surrounding a kibbutz, damaging the structure. Two additional mortars exploded near a kibbutz. A rocket alert system was activated, sending residents fleeing for cover.
Due to the escalation in rocket fire from the Gaza Strip earlier in the month, Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided at the time to deploy an Iron Dome anti-rocket defense battery outside the southern city of Ashkelon.
Barak’s decision came after close to 30 rockets were fired into Israel since the beginning of July.
What they're not saying explicitly here - but which Israel Radio explicitly reported - is that there is no Iron Dome battery deployed around Beersheva. So much for our great protection.
The 'color red' alarms sounded in Beersheva, and in Omer and Meitar, the latter two being located east of Beersheva.
This is from the second link.
Israeli air strikes launched on Tuesday killed one gunman and wounded five other people, Hamas medical sources said.
They added that three gunmen involved in firing rockets at Israel were hit in the first air strike, east of Gaza City, in a pre-dawn attack. One of the gunmen later died of his injuries, they said.
Three Palestinian civilians, among them a boy, were injured, the sources said, in a separate air strike that targeted a tunnel beneath Gaza's border with Egypt of a type Israel says is used to smuggle in weapons.
Why is a 'boy' in or around a weapons smuggling tunnel? Hello? Geneva?
The IDF Spokesman's Office confirmed that IAF struck four targets in the Gaza Strip. The statement added that the precision strikes were identified as hitting their targets.
It added that prior to the strikes, several terrorists were seen attempting to fire a rocket at Israel but were thwarted by the air force.
This kind of tit-for-tat game benefits the terrorists and not us. They can be sure that the IDF will only shoot at military targets (and yes, a smuggling tunnel is a military target even if a 'boy' is being used as a human shield to protect it - a fact presumably not known by the IDF before they fired). Our civilians, on the other hand, cannot go about their normal daily lives because they never know when the next rocket will hit. Even rockets that fall 'harmlessly' into fields disrupt daily life (would you want to live that way?).
Beersheva and Ashkelon aren't 'occupied territory' unless one counts all territory on which Jews live as 'occupied,' which means that the 'Palestinians' don't accept the 'two-state solution.' Gee, you mean that the 'Palestinians' don't accept it? No kidding....
Eventually, the IDF will have to 'mow the grass' again - as was done in Operation Cast Lead - but since we left Hamas to fight another day the last time, the IDF will confront greater quantities and quality of weaponry this time.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
