Rocket alarms rang out across southern Israel as dawn broke Tuesday and into the morning, ending a brief overnight lull, as intense fighting between Gaza terrorist groups and Israel entered its second day.
Rocket were launched from Gaza at Ashkelon and towns closer to the Gaza border, including Sderot. Two houses in the Eshkol region were hit by rockets. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
The fresh barrage came after several hours of relative quiet in Israel following an unprecedented and deadly bombardment from Hamas-run Gaza on Israeli towns near the border that forced most Israelis in the area to spend the night in bomb shelters and brought the sides back to the brink of war.
The Israel Defense Forces said before the fresh barrage Tuesday that about 370 rockets and mortar rounds had been shot at Israel since Monday, including 70 rockets fired at Israeli towns since midnight, in what was being called the largest-ever barrage on southern Israel. The rockets fired Tuesday morning pushed that figure beyond 400.
The Israeli military deployed additional troops and tanks to the Gaza Strip border on Monday following the largest barrage of rockets and mortar shells fired at Israel from the coastal enclave in a single day.
The army was reportedly given a green light from policymakers to pummel terror groups in the Strip if they continued with the barrages, as the terror organizations in the Strip vowed to do.
“The resistance factions’ joint command center is holding a serious conversation about expanding its range of fire. Ashkelon is just the beginning. Approximately one million Zionists will be within the range of our missiles if the Zionist enemy’s decision is to continue its aggression,” said Abu Obeida, a spokesperson for Hamas’s military wing.
The IDF said dozens of incoming projectiles from Gaza were shot down by the Iron Dome air defense system. Most of the rest landed in open fields outside Israeli communities, but a number struck homes and buildings in cities and towns across the south.
A home and an apartment building were hit in the city of Ashkelon. In the rocket attack on the apartment building, shortly after midnight Monday, seven people were injured, including a woman in her 60s who was found unconscious and seriously wounded.
She was found unresponsive in one of the apartments, suffering from injuries throughout her body caused by shrapnel from the rocket, medics said.
A 40-year-old man was also moderately wounded by shrapnel; two women in their 20s were lightly injured by glass shards; and two men in their 40s and a women in her 90s were treated for smoke inhalation after a fire broke out at the scene, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service.
Strikes on buildings in Netivot and Sderot caused significant damage and minor injuries to the occupants, and sparked fires in the surrounding area.
Israel has suspended contacts by international mediators -- Egypt and the United Nations -- to broker a ceasefire in the south, according to an Israeli official.
The comments came amid an unprecedented barrage of some 400 rockets from Gaza into Israel in 16 hours, and as the security cabinet was meeting to decide on Israel’s response to the escalation. This was contradicted, however, by a Western diplomat who reportedly said that these efforts are continuing.
The comments came amid an unprecedented barrage of some 400 rockets from Gaza into Israel in 16 hours, and as the security cabinet was meeting to decide on Israel’s response to the escalation. This was contradicted, however, by a Western diplomat who reportedly said that these efforts are continuing.
The IDF has reinforced it’s Armored Corps and infantry to the Gaza Strip vicinity to beef up troops and prevent possible infiltrations into Israel border communities as close to 400 rockets were fired from the coastal enclave.
"We are in the midst of a wide-scale process of accumulating more infantry, armored and other forces to the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip, and we are mobilizing reserves for Iron Dome operations and the Home Front Command," IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis said, adding that the evacuation of communities along the Gaza border is not yet necessary.
"We are in the midst of a wide-scale process of accumulating more infantry, armored and other forces to the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip, and we are mobilizing reserves for Iron Dome operations and the Home Front Command," IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis said, adding that the evacuation of communities along the Gaza border is not yet necessary.
According to reports “operational decisions were made” by policymakers, and the IDF was given the green light Monday night to continue striking targets in the Gaza Strip.
In a statement the military said it has struck over 150 Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets across the Strip, including an attack tunnel and four military compounds in Gaza City, Beit Hanun, Jabaliya and Khan Yunis, as well as a Hamas launch site in Khan Yunis.
The IDF also confirmed destroying the al-Aqsa TV station affiliated with Hamas in Gaza City, as well as the former al-Amal hotel that the IDF said Hamas used as an internal security office.
In a statement the military said it has struck over 150 Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets across the Strip, including an attack tunnel and four military compounds in Gaza City, Beit Hanun, Jabaliya and Khan Yunis, as well as a Hamas launch site in Khan Yunis.
The IDF also confirmed destroying the al-Aqsa TV station affiliated with Hamas in Gaza City, as well as the former al-Amal hotel that the IDF said Hamas used as an internal security office.
1 comment:
hi there.I have a solution to all Israel's problems: It is called NUKES. Use them and your problems are over.Just the same way the Americans have used nukes to change the course of the WW2.
It seems that Israel is being distracted from whats happening in the north. So, don't worry.God is in control.
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