Gaza Rockets Target Beersheba; Ashdod Under Fire

The missile barrage from Gaza continues as Iran has been exposed as precipitating this episode. The current escalating situation leads one to wonder if the first series of "proxy wars" has begun:

Gaza Rocket Salvos Target Beersheba, Ashdod

Terrorists in the Gaza Strip continued to target southern Israel on Monday morning with rocket salvos directed at two major cities, Beersheba and Ashdod.

A total of seventeen rockets were fired at southern Israel on Monday, at least seven of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome rocket defense system.

Five rockets fired toward Ashdod were intercepted by the Iron Dome rocket defense system later on Monday. An additional rocket exploded in southern Gan Yavne, east of Ashdod, police said.

The Home Front Command, along with the heads of a number of local authorities in southern Israel, decided Sunday night to cancel school in all towns and cities located between 7 km to 40 km from the Gaza Strip for the second straight day. The decision applied to the cities of Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beersheba, Netivot, Sderot, Kiryat Malachi, Gadera, Rahat, Yavneh, Lakiyeh, and the Gan Yavneh Regional Council.

The IDF continued to respond to the attacks with at eight airstrikes launched against terror targets in Gaza overnight Sunday and on Monday morning.

Earlier, Palestinian Islamic Jihad said that two armed terrorists belonging to the organization were killed in earlier IAF strikes, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed since hostilities began Friday to 20. More than 170 rockets have been fire toward southern Israel from Gaza in the same period.

The IAF strikes carried out early Monday morning targeted a weapons-storage site and four rocket-launch sites in the northern Gaza Strip and one rocket-launch site in the southern Gaza strip. The IDF confirmed hits on its targets, and stated that the attack was a response to rocket fire.

Ashdod Under Attack "Like Never Before"

Over the past three days, Gaza terrorists have launched over 150 attacks on southern Israel. The city of Ashdod has been targeted more often than it was even at the height of the Cast Lead campaign, residents say.

As the situation in southern Israel escalated and dozens of rockets were fired from Gaza, Arutz Sheva visited the city of Ashdod, one of many cities in the area hit by a barrage of rockets.

Ashdod resident Raz Shmueli told Arutz Sheva that this round of attacks is different from what came before for two reasons. “On the one hand, the frequency of attacks has tripled. On the other hand, the Iron Dome system response has been perfect. As of now, there have been no casualties in Ashdod, not even property damage,” she said.

Gaza Truce Delayed - Tehran Fuels Violence

The combined Egyptian-Israeli-Hamas effort to negotiate an early ceasefire in the current round of Palestinian-Israeli violence struck several major obstacles Monday, March 12: DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report a Cairo demand for any truce deal to embody a Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami commitment to withdraw their forces from Sinai and stop using the peninsula for terrorist operations against Israel. Egypt’s military rulers are resolved to use this opportunity to chase the terrorists out and restore their control over Sinai.

Four days into the Gaza violence, this impasse has brought the mediation effort to a close.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that acceding to Cairo’s demand would oblige the Palestinian terrorist organizations to dismantle the logistic, operational and military infrastructure they have built in Sinai. Hamas has even transferred all its weapons manufacturing, including missiles, from the Gaza Strip where it was vulnerable to Israeli attack to safe locations in northern Sinai, along with its training facilities.

Hamas has even transferred all its weapons manufacturing, including missiles, from the Gaza Strip where it was vulnerable to Israeli attack to safe locations in northern Sinai, along with its training facilities.

This tactic has worked: Most of Hamas’ military facilities were out of reach of Israeli Air Force bombings in the current round of violence because none remained in the Gaza Strip, except for a forward position.

The breakdown of negotiations, such as they were, has led Israel to escalate its military pressure on Gaza and intensify its air strikes, in the hope of forcing Jihad Islami to stop the missile assaults on its cities.

Also see:

Ashdod Under Fire

10 Rockets In 1 Hour; No Ceasefire

Barak: Those Who Attack Our Civilians Will Be Punished

Gaza: Chinese Missiles Aimed At Israel

And in other news around the world:

U.S. "seriously" Considers Strike On Syria

The Obama administration and its allies and international partners have begun “serious discussions” about possible military action in Syria, the Washington Post reported today.

U.S. and other countries have been arming the rebels for weeks.

Egyptian security officials outlined to WND what they said was large scale international backing for the rebels attacking the embattled regime of Assad – including arms and training from the U.S., Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Several knowledgeable Egyptian and Arab security officials claimed the U.S., Turkey and Jordan were running a training base for the Syrian rebels in the Jordanian town of Safawi in the country’s northern desert region.

Meanwhile, according to the Middle Eastern diplomatic and security officials speaking to WND, the international community is considering launching NATO air strikes on Assad’s forces as soon as this month if the opposition does not make major strides toward ending Assad’s regime.

Any deployment would most likely come under the banner of the same “Responsibility to Protect” global doctrine used to justify the U.S.-NATO airstrikes in Libya.

Responsibility to Protect, or Responsibility to Act, as cited by President Obama, is a set of principles, now backed by the United Nations, based on the idea that sovereignty is not a privilege, but a responsibility that can be revoked if a country is accused of “war crimes,” “genocide,” “crimes against humanity” or “ethnic cleansing.”

U.S. "Should Be Ashamed" Of Gaza Rhetoric

The U.S. should be “ashamed” of issuing an official statement on the current violence in Gaza that called on “both sides” – Israel and Hamas – to restore calm, declared a Knesset member from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party today.

“I think that every American should be ashamed of such a statement coming from the administration,” said Likud Knesset Member Danny Danon.

“We know that we are dealing with a terrorist organization,” he said. “And I want to remind you and I need to remind Secretary Clinton and President Obama there are no Jewish settlements in Gaza anymore. So what is the reason for hostility? Why are they sending rockets to Ashdod and Ashkelon?… I would expect a different declaration from the U.S. administration.”

UN Is Fleecing U.S. and the EU Carbon Tax

The United Nations is pushing for a global deal through its International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). It does not matter that global warming has been debunked, the EU and UN coffers must be replenished by hapless developed world citizens and the wealth must be spread to developing nations in the name of “social justice.”

The most relied upon source of information on the topic is the climate report produced by the United Nations, more specifically the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). The report, produced by civil servants and not researchers, is full of misinformation and doubts. Yet countries around the world are basing their policies and fundamental changes of their citizens’ lives on a bogus report produced by bureaucrats.

Politicians in America and the current administration are fleecing the American public with their Green Environmentalist Agenda 21 driven by the United Nations and its bureaucrats. Do we want to become subservient to the laws of the European Union and United Nations or follow the supreme law of the land, the U.S. Constitution?

British Christians Fight For Right To Wear A Cross At Work

Two Christian British women have taken their case over religious liberty to the highest level, now set to square off against the Government of the United Kingdom at the European Court of Human Rights over their right to wear a cross or crucifix at work . In opposition to the women, the government will have to state publicly whether it backs the right of Christians to wear the symbol at work. The Telegraph reports that government ministers will argue that because displaying the cross is not a “requirement” of the Christian faith, employers can ban the wearing of the cross and fire workers who insist on doing so:

The Christian women bringing the case, Nadia Eweida and Shirley Chaplin, claim that they were discriminated against when their employers barred them from wearing the symbols.

They want the European Court to rule that this breached their human right to manifest their religion.”

“Nadia Ewedia is a British Airways employee, who was asked to cover her cross while at work, and was placed on unpaid leave when she refused to do so. Shirley Chaplin is a nurse moved to a desk position after she refused to remove a crucifix.

The women claim they were discriminated against when their employers barred them from wearing a cross and crucifix respectively.