ON MILLION ISRAELIS UNDER GAZA ROCKET THREAT
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=802
A million Israelis under Gaza rocket threat
Over 100 rockets fired at south since Thursday • 2 Israelis killed, dozens wounded • Grad rocket hits empty school in Beersheba while kids on summer break • IAF bombs targets in Gaza • Military Intelligence: Rockets smuggled into Gaza from Libya.
Southern Israel continued to absorb rocket fire from the Gaza Strip over the weekend, in the heaviest bombardment the country has seen since Operation Cast Lead in early 2009. By Sunday afternoon, over 100 rockets had been fired at Israeli communities since Thursday. More than a million Israelis within rocket range of Gaza have been warned to heed the instructions of the Homefront Command and remain alert.
Israel has retaliated for the rocket bombardment with aerial bombings in Gaza, as violence ignited by Thursday’s Palestinian cross-border terrorist attacks near Eilat continues to escalate. Several Palestinians were reported wounded in an IAF raid early Sunday afternoon in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip while attempting to launch a rocket.
Eight Israelis were killed in Thursday’s attacks near Eilat, and some 40 were wounded. Two Israelis were killed in subsequent rocket attacks, and several dozen wounded. At least 15 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in Israeli raids, including the leadership of the Popular Resistance Committees, the group behind Thursday’s attacks.
At least nine rockets fired toward Ashkelon and Beersheba were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system, the IDF said on Sunday. The system has been deployed in southern Israel since late March, and reports on Sunday indicated the army might be receiving another battery in the coming months.
Also Sunday, a Grad rocket hit a school gymnasium in Beersheva. No one was injured as children are on their summer break but the school was badly damaged.
IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai told Army Radio on Sunday that the army does not believe the current attacks are related to the Palestinians’ upcoming bid for statehood at the U.N. in September. He added that the IDF holds Hamas responsible for the attacks. Some 100 rockets have been launched into Israel since Thursday, he confirmed.
IDF action against Hamas was not limited to Gaza on Sunday, as troops arrested over 120 Hamas operatives in the West Bank, the Israel Radio reported.
Meanwhile, Egyptian television reported Sunday that several rockets fired from Gaza landed in Egyptian territory.
“Several rockets from the Gaza Strip landed this morning in Egyptian territory in the region west of the Rafah terminal, without causing casualties,” the television reported, according to AFP.
A security official confirmed that rockets had landed in Egypt, but said they could have been fired by mistake.
“It seems they were directed at Israel,” the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
A barrage of several dozens rockets hit Israel on Saturday night, leaving one person dead and several dozen wounded.
Thirty-eight-year-old Yossi Ben Shoshan was killed when a Grad rocket hit a house in Beersheba. Six others were wounded, two of them seriously.
One hour earlier, a Grad rocket hit a business establishment in the Beersheba suburb of Ofakim, wounding three. Three other rockets landed in open areas nearby. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack on Ofakim.
Earlier in the day, three Palestinians residing illegally in Israel were injured when a rocket fell on a hut they were sleeping in, located in a fruit tree orchard southeast of the city of Ashdod. Another rocket fell not far from a beach. None were injured.
Saturday morning, Beersheba resident Alex Markin was lightly wounded when a rocket fell near the city’s western entrance, where he was riding his bike.
Additional rockets landed in open areas in southern Israel. One also hit an empty industrial building, igniting a fire.
A senior military source told Israel Hayom on Saturday that a Gaza-based terrorist organization known as the Popular Resistance Committees was responsible for the rocket fire on Beersheba and Ofakim, along with global jihad groups associated with al-Qaida. The source added that Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, was attempting to prevent missile fire in order to prevent continued escalation.
According to a senior IDF intelligence officer, all of the long-range rockets fired into Israel on Saturday were smuggled into Gaza from Libya.
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