Residents and local leaders in Israel’s south slammed a Thursday ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group in Gaza for failing to deliver a decisive victory after two days of rocket barrages that crippled life in southern communities.
Criticism was also heard over the government’s premature all-clear for residents, which came shortly before a fresh volley of rockets hit the region.
The Israel Defense Forces said five rockets were fired at Israel Thursday morning, several hours after the military confirmed that a ceasefire had gone into effect with the terror group. Early Thursday evening, sirens again rang out in some Israeli communities as a rocket was downed by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.
Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad began exchanging fire Tuesday morning, when Israel killed a top Islamic Jihad commander, Baha Abu al-Ata, who Israeli officials said was the “prime instigator” of rocket fire and other terror attacks emanating from Gaza over the past year.
Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed terrorist group sworn to Israel’s destruction, responded by launching hundreds of rockets toward Israel, some reaching as far as Tel Aviv, prompting Israel to carry out scores of airstrikes.
There were no reports of damage or injuries in Thursday morning’s bombardment, which targeted the town of Netivot and nearby communities, though part of one rocket landed in a children’s daycare center.
Despite the sporadic rocket fire, the fragile ceasefire appeared to mostly stick Thursday.
Labor-Gesher party head Amir Peretz, a former defense minister and Sderot native, dismissed the drizzle as the work of “troublemakers.” “These things happen,” he told Channel 13 news.
Arel Hajaj, whose son was at the daycare center in Netivot, described to Channel 12 television the confusion and alarm caused by the late rocket strike.
“There was panic and parents left work and returned to pick up their children,” Hajaj said, noting that by the time he arrived at the daycare his son was one of the last ones left.
“There is a lot of anger at the government that isn’t protecting us and entered into a ceasefire agreement while they are still shooting at us,” he said. “There is anger also at the [army’s] Home Front Command and the municipality that didn’t take into account the danger and opened schools at 9 a.m. in the morning.”
Hajaj called the situation “a disgrace,” adding, “After two days of fighting, the government says, ‘Go back to routine,’ and look, two hours later, once again the routine of our daily lives is destroyed.”
Community leaders also complained about what they described as lackluster results from the fighting, with some calling instead for a broad military campaign meant to bring the rocket attacks to a decisive end.
Alon Davidi, mayor of Sderot, a town bordering Gaza which has been targeted by rocket fire from Gaza for the past 18 years, said he had spoken Wednesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the situation.
“I asked that the [military] operation continue for as long as necessary, the important thing being that there is quiet,” he told the Kan public broadcaster.
Davidi said he had urged Netanyahu to make targeted killings the “standard” response “for anyone who shoots at us,” and assured the premier the government would have the full backing of local residents, who are prepared to sit in bomb shelters for two or three months if necessary, for a decisive military campaign that would bring them a few years of quiet.
Long-term quiet would only be achieved through a major military operation on the scale of the 2014 Operation Protective Edge, Davidi said Thursday. In that war, IDF forces battled Hamas and other terror groups for 50 days deep inside Gaza.
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