Daily Briefing May 11 – Israel under fire: An escalation on multiple fronts (Audio)
Today’s panel comprises military correspondent Judah Ari Gross and US correspondent Jacob Magid, along with host Raoul Wootliff.Amid rocket fire from Gaza toward Israeli cities, today’s show looks at the escalation in the south and other incidents across Israel currently shaking the country.Hundreds of rockets have been fired by Hamas and other terror groups, triggering an Israeli response that has seen multiple targets hit by airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. What is the state of play at the moment? Where are things headed?
Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip fired massive barrages of rockets at southern Israel throughout Tuesday, wounding at least 24 people and drawing deadly retaliatory airstrikes from the Israel Defense Forces.
The Hamas terror group claimed at one stage that it fired 137 rockets in around five minutes in a massive barrage that was an apparent attempt to overwhelm the Iron Dome missile defense system. Four people were injured in the barrage, including one critically and another in serious condition.
With a number of buildings in Ashkelon suffering direct hits over the course of the day, and concerns over the number of residential buildings in the city without bomb shelters, the Israel Defense Forces instructed residents to remain in reinforced areas.
The assaults continued after a night of almost constant rocket fire on Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip and as the IDF conducted strikes on more than 100 targets in the coastal enclave, as part of what it has called “Operation Guardian of the Walls,” the military said. The previous day saw a major outbreak of violence from Gaza, including rare rocket fire on Jerusalem, where Palestinians have been clashing with police for days.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, at least 23 people in the Strip were killed on Monday night and Tuesday, including nine minors. Another 107 Palestinians were injured to varying degrees, the ministry said. The IDF said at least 15 of those killed were members of the Hamas terror group who were launching rockets or anti-tank guided missiles at Israel.
IDF Spokesperson Hidai Zilberman said a number of those killed in Gaza, including at least three children, were hit by errant rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists, not by Israeli airstrikes.
Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups reported that several high-ranking commanders were killed in Israeli raids on Tuesday, including two top PIJ leaders in a drone strike on a building in the upscale Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, one of whom was the brother of another top PIJ commander, Baha Abu al-Ata, who was killed in an Israeli strike in November 2019, kicking off a major round of fighting in the Strip.
IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi on Tuesday afternoon gave the military a green light to keep targeting Hamas and PIJ members operating in the Strip and bombing sites connected to the terror groups’ rocket production and storage efforts.
“We have an intense day ahead of us,” Zilberman told reporters on Tuesday morning, adding, “We have a goal and we will not stop until we’ve reached it.”
Soldiers from the IDF’s Golani Infantry Brigade and 7th Armored Brigade were sent to the Gaza border as reinforcements and additional troops were called in to aerial defense, intelligence and air force units, the military said.
“The chief of staff said the IDF will continue to act determinedly in order to return security to residents of the south, and all headquarters should prepare for a wider conflict, which has no time limit,” the IDF said.
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