Prelude to war? Palestinian terrorists fire hundreds of rockets at Israel from and to civilian areas
This is how war started in 2014, with relentless and massive Palestinian rocket fire into Israeli cities and towns, from locations among civilians in Gaza.
Are we on the verge of another Gaza war?
If so, it will start the same way the last one, in 2014, started — with relentless and massive Palestinian rocket fire into Israeli cities and towns, from locations among civilians in Gaza.
As before, the international media and anti-Israel activists will blame Israel, and will invent false claims of war crimes. Pallywood will be in out in full force, with journalists on location in Gaza threatened and in fear of death if they report the truth.
It’s all too predictable, and it’s playing out as we write.
This round ostensibly started when Palestinian snipers shot two Israeli soldiers on the Israeli side of the border, wounding one seriously. Israel immediately struck a nearby Hamas post, killing two terrorists. The deaths of those two were then used as the justification for Hamas and Islamic Jihad firing several hundred rockets.
But that’s not really what’s going on. Hamas and Islamic Jihad believe they can extract concessions from Israel (primarily allowing large transfers of Qatari cash) without risking a full-scale war because Israel is about to host Eurovision. Avi Issacharoff at the Times of Israel explains, Why the Gaza rocket fire? Because Hamas thinks Israel is vulnerable to extortion:
At some point overnight Friday-Saturday, Hamas evidently decided to launch a controlled escalation of rocket fire into Israel. It began with rocket fire at Israeli communities near the Gaza border, continued north to Ashdod, and seems set to widen further, as of this writing, given that Beersheba has decided to open its municipal bomb shelters.
This escalation of violence is not solely in response to the deaths of two Hamas terrorists on the Gaza border Friday afternoon, following a Gaza sniper’s fire that injured two Israeli soldiers. Rather, it reflects the decision by the terror organization to try to gain from what it recognizes as a situation in which Israel can be pressured into significant concessions, most especially regarding the transfer of Qatari funds into the Gaza Strip.
Hamas is clearly prepared to take the risk of a still wider conflict, gambling that Israel desperately wants a ceasefire at this moment.
The next 10 days are thus going to be extremely complicated for Israel. The Gaza terror group smells blood.
In four days time, the State of Israel will mark Memorial Day and then Independence Day, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not want to be marking those occasions in the midst of a major escalation with Gaza. In 10 days time, the Palestinians will mark Nakba Day, the anniversary of what they consider the catastrophe that befell them with the establishment of the State of Israel, while Israel will be hosting the semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest. Huge numbers of people around the world will be turning their attention to Tel Aviv.
Hamas recognizes that given the imminent Eurovision festivities, it has a real opportunity to create pressure points and obtain significant concessions on the ground. In other words: to blackmail Israel.
We will continue to cover the events as they unfold.
These videos clearly show rockets being launched in the middle of civilian areas of Gaza, near apartment buildings (just like in 2014):
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Pics Hamas published of its rocket launches. They blur the bottom. Why?
1. So we won't know where the launch site is
2. So you won't see that they’re firing from civilian homes in GazaWe have 2 things to say:
1. We know where they’re firing from
2. The blur isn't that good pic.twitter.com/Wt3w9BFICV— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 4, 2019
These videos show Palestinians in Gaza cheering the rockets being fired from city center:
תושבי עזה יוצאים בקריאות שמחה בזמן צפייה בשיגור רקטות הערב @nurityohanan pic.twitter.com/odSmhnSUec
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 4, 2019
Militants launch rockets within residential area in the #Gaza Strip. Spectators whistle and cheer as rockets head towards their target. #Israel pic.twitter.com/TBvsZ4t4e6
— Joe Truzman (@Jtruzmah) May 4, 2019
This shows Iron Dome intercepting a rocket over the Israeli city of Ashdod:
This shows Iron Dome intercepting rockets over the Israeli City of Ashkelon.
תיעוד: יירוטים בשמי אשקלון@Itsik_zuarets (צילום: דורון חסן) pic.twitter.com/Mc86180tjM
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 4, 2019
Not all the rockets were intercepted:
In the middle of a LIVE broadcast from a home hit by a rocket, this Israeli journalist runs for shelter as 4 more rockets are fired towards where he is reporting. Watch as the Iron Dome intercepts them LIVE on air. pic.twitter.com/t7iWL95Zfe
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 4, 2019
This home was hit by a rocket fired from #Gaza. As you read this, more rockets are being launched from Gaza targeting more Israeli homes like this one. pic.twitter.com/g1K9o74jEj
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 4, 2019
Israel has retaliated against (empty) Hamas and Islamic Jihad military installations. Israel uses the “roof tap” method to alert people in the building to evacuate, and also sends messages to the cell phones.
Massive explosion after IDF target al-Khazindar building in #Gaza. #Israel pic.twitter.com/F4R24lYfPJ
— Joe Truzman (@Jtruzmah) May 4, 2019
Israel destroyed an Islamic Jihad attack tunnel built under the border in southern Gaza:
Video shared across Israeli media shows the moment the IDF destroyed a tunnel crossing from Gaza into Israel pic.twitter.com/72rwdfw3qq
— Ezra Taylor (@nezrataylor) May 4, 2019
As usual, Palestinians and their media are blaming Israel for deaths caused by failed rocket fire.
The Israeli military denied Palestinian claims that a 14-month-old baby and her pregnant mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, instead blaming a terror group’s failed rocket launch for their deaths….
On Saturday evening, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry reported that a 14-month-old Palestinian child, Saba Mahmoud Hamdan Abu Arar, had been killed and her mother, Falastin Saleh Abu Arar, when an Israeli airstrikes hit their house in Gaza City. Several hours later, the ministry said that Falastin had succumbed to her wounds.
On Twitter, the Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic-language spokesman said the mother and child did not appear to have been killed in an Israeli attack.
Adraee indicated that the deaths may have been caused by a failed rocket attack against Israel, noting that many of the projectiles fired at Israel were launched from within populated areas.
“There are more and more indications reaching us from the Gaza Strip that put serious doubt on the truth of the statement from Hamas’s healthy ministry about the death of the baby Saba Mahmoud Hamdan Abu Arar and her mother Falastin Saleh Abu Arar,” Maj. Avichay Adraee wrote in a tweet.
“According to these indications, the death was caused by terrorist activities by Palestinian militants and not by an Israeli strike,” he said.
We will continue to update as needed.
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Ron Coleman
Comments
Prelude to war? I suppose when the barbarians crossed the Danube it could be called a, “prelude to invasion”. As in the invasion was on going, had never really stopped and simply ebbed and flowed. Same here this war will never end during our lifetime maybe never, as both sides want it badly. Sure, one side is more risk adverse but that’s it. Politicians need it. Both sides hate each other at this point and demographics are thrusting them together like an avalanche. If course, since the walls haven’t helped they will be tearing them down now, right?
If Palestinian Terrorists are firing rockets from civilian areas.. then the civilians should have left the area..If they stay then its not a civil area and Israel should turn the area into a parking lot….
Do you realize you make parking lots sound like gas chambers?
RasMoyag
Synonym for Jew Hater, murderer, terrorist sympathizer.
If the Jews had been attacking Germany and actively trying to wipe the Germans out or subjugate them to Jewish rule then the Germans would have been completely right to fight back and do the minimum damage necessary to prevent this.
Part of the horror of the Holocaust was that the Germans had absolutely no reason to want to harm the Jews. Before WW2 Jews thought well of Germans, based on their very civilized behavior during WW1. If Hitler hadn’t had his insane hatred of the Jews he could easily have had their support.
Perhaps it’s time to evacuate Gaza to Lebanon or Syria. For their own safety, of course.
Israel will need to sweep for un-exploded ordinance. By bulldozing everything to the sea. Just make sure a child doesn’t trip on it and blow themselves up. I mean, if it saves even one child, it’s worth it, right?
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