The IDF bombed a couple of rocket labs in Gaza.
Israeli aircraft conducted two nighttime air strikes against terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip for the first time in six months, this following rocket fire on the western Negev region.
The raids, conducted during the early hours of Thursday morning, targeted a weapons cache in the north Gaza town of Jabaliya and a metal workshop used to manufacture rockets and mortars in Khan Younis, located in the southern part of the Hamas-controlled enclave.
The strikes caused extensive material damage but no injuries, witnesses and medical sources said.
Unfortunately, no terrorists were harmed during the bombing of their workshops.
Yesterday, the rocket launchers nearly got very lucky.
Three people were wounded Wednesday during a tough day in southern Israel that saw more than 20 rockets fired at Negev communities.
[…] One rocket exploded in the parking lot of a large commercial center in the southern town of Sderot. Two people sustained light wounds in the attack after being hit by shrapnel, while another man suffered damage to his ears. Magen David Adom ambulance service teams treated the wounded, who were later taken to hospital in Ashkelon. Medical teams also treated numerous anxiety victims at the scene.
By the way, the attack on Israeli civilians wasn’t important enough to merit more than a paragraph buried deep in the middle of the current AP piece on how Gaza “militants” are “ready for end of truce with Israel.” Yes, that’s AP’s words. In the headline.
At least 20 rockets were fired at Israel on Wednesday, the military said. One exploded in the border town of Sderot, wounding two people and damaging a restaurant, police said.
Paragraph nine. Here’s the lead:
Under the truce, Gaza militants were to halt rocket fire on Israeli border communities. Israel was to end raids on Gaza and allow more goods and people through its border crossings, sealed after Hamas overran the territory in June 2007.
While the Egyptian-brokered truce has brought a drop in violence, neither side is entirely happy. Israel notes the rocket fire hasn’t ended, while Palestinians complain the truce didn’t benefit Gaza, mainly because the crossings haven’t been opened, leading to widespread shortages of basic goods.
Note how the AP compares shortages of, say, cooking oil with rockets landing in Sderot shopping center parking lots. Like they’re interchangeable.
The situation is intolerable. But the IDF still isn’t going into Gaza in strength. It’s going to take a change of leadership to see that happen.
Addressing the rocket strikes Wednesday evening, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that the IDF will embark on a Gaza operation once the situation requires such move.
“‘We are not deterred by a broad operation in Gaza, but we do not wish to rush into such operation,” he said. “We will act when the time is right; we will decide what the right time and place are.”
Please hold onto your hats for the response from the Prime Minister of Israel to the rocket fire on Israeli towns.
“The fire just stresses what we have been saying all along, which is that we cannot consent to a situation where there is a supposed lull, but reality is completely different. Of course this requires our attention, and there will be a response,” he said.
That’s telling ’em, Ehud. Wow. That’ll stop those terrorists from trying to lob rockets at Israel.
Lucky for us, Israel’s elections are only a few weeks away.