Evening Update: Iron Dome Intercepts Rocket Bound For Eilat. Muslim Brotherhood Sets Up Command Structure In Gaza

Iron Dome Intercepts Rocket Bound For Eilat

The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted a Grad rocket bound for the southern Israeli city of Eilat overnight Monday. It was Iron Dome’s first successful interception since the battery’s recent deployment in the area.

Warning sirens blared and residents reported hearing two explosions shortly after midnight in the Israeli Red Sea resort town. Three people were treated for shock by Magen David Adom. There were no immediate reports of damage.

Palestinian sources reported early morning Tuesday that a Muslim terrorist group operating in the Sinai Peninsula was responsible for the attack. Ansar Bait al-Maqdis is the same al-Qaeda-linked group that was targeted on Friday by what was reported to be an Israeli drone.

Friday’s alleged drone strike, which killed four and destroyed a rocket launcher, came on the heels of a warning from Egyptian security officials, who reportedly conveyed to Israel that jihadists in the Sinai were planning imminent attacks against Israeli targets.

Iron Dome Intercepts Rocket Fired At Eilat

It is unknown at this stage whether additional rockets fell in open areas outside of the city.

Residents reported hearing the siren and a number of blasts.

On Thursday evening, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz ordered Eilat Airport closed to flights for two hours.

On Friday, Ma’an quoted an Egyptian security source as saying the IDF’s decision to close the airport was a precautionary measure based on Egyptian intelligence that terrorists in Sinai were plotting a rocket strike.

The IDF instructed the Israel Airports Authority to close the airport in the southern city due to a “security assessment,” but it did not release any further details.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Goes Underground, Hides Command Structure In Gaza

Muslim Brotherhood officials escaped from Egypt after the July 3 overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi in a military coup and smuggled themselves into the Gaza Strip to lead an uprising against the military. The group was headed by Mahmud Izzat Ibrahim, known as the Brotherhood’s “iron man” and fourth in rank in its hierarchy after Supreme Guide Muhammed Badie.

The fugitives set up a command post at the Gaza Beach Hotel for operations against Egyptian military and security targets in collaboration with Hamas and armed Al Qaeda-linked Salafist Bedouin in Sinai. The group planned their revolt to spread quickly out from Sinai to Egypt proper and topple the interim rulers in Cairo.

Western intelligence agencies following the inner workings of the Muslim Brotherhood have since discovered that the Brotherhood’s plans are a good deal more high-powered than first thought.

Mahmoud Izzat Ibrahim, who is firmly at the helm and running the show both in Sinai and Cairo from the Gaza Beach Hotel, under the auspices of the Palestinian Hamas rulers.
He plans to confront with violence every action ordered against the Brotherhood by Defense Minister, Gen. Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

Ibrahim's goal is to lead his movement into a bloody confrontation with the military.

Destruction Of Israel Guaranteed, Ayatollah Says

Iran’s supreme leader promises in a newly released audiotape the destruction of Israel and Palestinians’ return to that land.

The ayatollah promises a restructuring of the Middle East: “Palestine will be free, have no doubt in this. … Palestinians will return there and there will be a Palestinian government … and that is based on the truth revealed by God. A new Middle East will be … an Islamic Middle East.”

In promising the annihilation of Israel, the supreme leader also says, “There is no doubt that victory awaits the Palestinian people in the future, and the myth of Zionist power over this region will completely vanish, Allah willing.”

On Friday Khamenei called the current peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority “futile” and said, “The U.S.-brokered talks … are aimed at undermining the Palestinians’ resistance.”

He assailed the U.S. for reviving the peace talks between the two.

Khamenei’s audiotape comes on the back of a statement by Hassan Nassrallah, the secretary-general of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.

“Some think that the fall and destruction of Israel is only good for Palestinians,” Nassrallah said recently. “However, [such an event] will be good for all the countries of the region, and one cannot separate this threat [Israel] from Jordon, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. For this reason, the annihilation of Israel is in the national interest of Jordon, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon.”

Nassrallah, quoted by Amar news, an Iranian media outlet, recalled a statement by the founder of the Islamic Republic: “Imam [Ruhollah] Khomeini provided a clear and precise definition for Israel when he called this regime [Israel] a cancerous tumor. … And the only way to cure it is not to give it time, not give in to it and eradicate its roots.”

The clerics ruling Iran believe that Khamenei is the one named in a centuries-old hadith who will prepare for the coming of the Islamic last messiah, the Shiites’ 12th Imam, Mahdi. According to the hadith, Israel is to be destroyed before Mahdi’s re-appearance.