Rockets fired from Gaza as tensions escalate with Israel

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Rockets fired from Gaza as tensions escalate with Israel

Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 June 2012 06.42 BST

About a dozen rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel in the early hours of Wednesday morning, bringing the total to more than 60 following a militant attack on the Egyptian-Israeli border on Monday that sparked the current spiral of attacks and counter-attacks.

Four Israeli border guards were taken to hospital after being injured.

A two-year-old Palestinian girl was killed in an explosion in Gaza on Tuesday evening, and her brother was injured. The Israeli military denied it had launched an air strike in the area. According to the Palestinian news agency, Ma'an, witnesses said the child died when militants launched a rocket nearby.

Six Palestinians have been killed in targeted air strikes carried out by the Israeli air force since Monday afternoon. At least seven targets were struck by Israeli missiles on Tuesday night and early on Wednesday.

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Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/20/rockets-gaza-israel-border

[hack89]

1. Looks like Hamas is getting desperate

If the Egyptian army quashes the Muslim Brotherhood and Iranian influence in the region continues to weaken as they lose ground in Syria then Hamas will find themselves very isolated. They desperately need a larger regional war involving Israel.

[Swede]

2. Gaza rockets continue: Grad hits near Beersheba

Palestinian terror groups fired a Grad rocket into Israeli territory that exploded in the Bnei Shimon region near Beersheba Wednesday morning. The rocket exploded in an open area, causing no injuries or damage. Shortly after, three Kassam rockets exploded in open areas in the Eshkol region.

Late Tuesday night, four border policemen in the Ashkelon Coast area were injured by shrapnel, one moderately, when a Kassam rocket directly struck a building, after nearly 50 rockets and mortar shells pounded southern Israel.

Israel was expected to escalate its response to the attacks and Defense Minister Ehud Barak held security consultations late Tuesday night to review various options, following one of the worst days of violence in months.



http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=274527

[Scurrilous]

3. Israel kills 2 Gazans as fighting enters third day

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"Israeli air strikes killed a Palestinian militant and a 14-year-old boy on Wednesday as fighting across the border of the Gaza Strip entered a third day, despite Egyptian calls for a truce.

A member of one of Gaza's fringe Islamist Salafi networks died and a comrade was wounded in an air strike on their motorcycle in southern Rafah, near Gaza's border with the Egyptian Sinai, medical officials said.

A second air strike, in Gaza City, killed a 14-year-old boy and wounded his father, also a civilian, the officials said. The Israeli military confirmed the air strikes happened but gave no details on the second attack.

Palestinians fired around 20 rockets into Israel on Wednesday, causing no casualties, the Israeli military said."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-palestinians-israel-violencebre85j0sz-20120620,0,6661626.story

[holdencaufield]

6. Sounds like ...

... someone needs to get better armed or get out of the fight.

To paraphrase Sean Connery in "The Untouchables" -- "... brings a Katusha rocket to an AGM-114 Hellfire fight"

[Eugene]

4. Hamas 'ready for truce' following fighting with Israel

Source: BBC

20 June 2012 Last updated at 21:45 GMT

Hamas 'ready for truce' following fighting with Israel

Hamas is ready to agree to an Egyptian-brokered truce with Israel, its military wing has said.

Hamas is committed to halt three days of fighting, "as long as the occupation (Israel) stops this aggression", the al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.

Eight Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes in Gaza since Monday. Several Israelis have been hurt in a hail of rocket fire from Gaza.

It is the worst flare-up of violence between the two sides for months.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18528756

[oberliner]

5. Do the al-Qassam Brigades not use the name Israel?

Interesting how the BBC chose to put Israel in parenthesis when the statement said "the occupation" according to the quote.

[kayecy]

7. So who started this latest round of blood-letting?......

So who started this latest round of blood-letting?......

DEBKA, not exactly a pro-Palestinian outfit, writes as follows:

At a particularly sensitive moment in Israeli-Egyptian relations, Israel’s military leaders were caught napping by the June 18 terrorist attack from Sinai on the southern Route 10, in which an Israeli fence team worker was killed. Because they were too slow to catch on to the identity of the perpetrators, those military chiefs misdirected their reprisals at the wrong quarters and so sparked a three-day missile-for-air strike cycle in Gaza

http://www.debka.com/article/22100/Tardy-IDF-intelligence-slow-responses-aggravated-Gaza-clash-Egypt-cuts-military-contact

[azurnoir]

8. well would you really expect today's Israel to bomb folks that

you know actually have an air force it's not like its 1967 or something

[Fozzledick]

9. If that air force attacked them, certainly.

But you seem a bit confused about who launched the attack. Maybe you should RTFA.

At the same time, the IDF and the various intelligence bodies, including the Shin Bet, finally put two and two together and correctly assigned the Route 10 attack to al Qaeda in Sinai. Wednesday, a targeted air strike over Rafah killed Ghaleb Ramlath and injured Muhammad Rashwan, two al Qaeda operatives in Gaza and Sinai, who were involved in that attack.

[azurnoir]

10. I read the orignal thread about this perhaps you remember as you replied to my comment

about what Israel's reaction would be

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1134&pid=12163

[Dick Dastardly]

11. Do you mean like operation Opera when Israel's air force took out the Iraqi nuke reactor in Osiraq

Do you mean in the Lebanon war when in a couple days Israel took out 86 Syrian planes and did not lose a single one.
How about Operation Orchard in 2007 when Israel's air force used new state of the art technology to completely neutralize the very capable Syrian air defense network and bomb the Syrian nuke reactor site. Israel has not had to take on many countries with an Air Force as much as it used to as those countries that are still enemies dont want their Air Force destroyed so they minimize provokations Others who have made peace with Israel dont attack Israel and actively try to prevent militants from attacking so there is no reason for Israel to attack.
As usual facts dont get in the way of bashing Israel.
Also par for the course you are consistant in being against any steps Israel takes to defend itself.

[azurnoir]

12. no both were ummm single strike sneak attacks

so nope that's not what I meant

eta also both were as you pointed out nuclear facilities, Israel did not have treaties with either, the diplomatic situation all around was not quite the same either