Army says 30 projectiles fired at Israel Friday night; sirens blare once more on Saturday morning; Iron Dome intercepts 10 rockets, the rest cause no damage
By TOI STAFF and JACOB MAGID
An image released by the Israeli military on October 27, 2018, shows the aftermath of an airstrike on a Hamas facility in the Gaza Strip. (Israel Defense Forces)
Smoke rises from an explosion caused by an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City, on October 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
Palestinians gather by the rubble of a building in Gaza City destroyed by an Israeli airstrike on October 27, 2018. (Mahmud Hams/AFP)
The Israeli military carried out extensive air strikes in the Gaza Strip Friday night, striking around 80 terror targets in the enclave, after a night in which around 30 rockets were launched across the border, sending thousands of Israelis into shelters.
The rocket barrages were launched between approximately 10 p.m. and 3 a.m., leading warning sirens to sound throughout Israeli communities multiple times throughout the night. There followed about 3 hours of quiet until 6 a.m., when sirens were once again activated by an apparent launch.
In response, air force jets and helicopters bombarded various Hamas targets in the Strip, including two weapons-production facilities, five military sites, a training facility, a tunnel shaft and an observation post.
The Israel Defense Forces later said aircraft also struck a four-story building in Gaza City’s Daraj neighborhood used as the headquarters of Hamas’ General Security Services.
It said the building’s tenants received several warnings ahead of the strike to clear the premises.
Gaza’s health ministry said a hospital in northern Gaza known as the Indonesian Hospital was damaged by one of the strikes overnight, though photos of the damage did not appear to indicate a direct hit on the building. There were no reports of casualties.
The IDF said in a statement Saturday morning it “views with great severity the rocket attack tonight against Israeli communities.” It blamed Hamas for creating “a terror-enabling atmosphere…near the border fence which led terror groups in the Strip to carry out tonight’s attack.”
US Special Representative for International Negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, tweeted support for Israel overnight, saying: “More rockets from Gaza into Israel. Another night where parents are ushering terrified children to cover.”
Early Saturday, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group claimed responsibility for the overnight barrages. The terror organization stated that the assault was a response to deaths during Friday’s border protests, after five Palestinians were killed during riots, one by his own hand grenade.
Palestinian sources speaking to the Ynet news website claimed the attacks were carried out against the objections of the Hamas terror group that rules Gaza, though this had no official confirmation.
Israel views Hamas as ultimately responsible for any attacks emanating from the territory it controls, regardless of the source.
Meanwhile IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot held a security assessment at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv with senior officials from the military and the Shin Bet internal security agency.
A spokesman for the city of Sderot said at least eight rockets were fired at his city, with the Iron Dome intercepting six of them, while two others fell in an open area.
Residents reported the sounds of several explosions after the sirens went off and video showed interceptors streaming into the air to take down multiple rockets with huge explosions.
In response to the rocket barrages, the IDF’s Home Front Command overnight issued instructions restricting gatherings in the Gaza periphery: up to 100 people in open areas and 500 people in closed spaces.
The rocket fire comes amid a deadly flareup in violence in the Gaza Strip. Earlier on Friday, thousands of Palestinians gathered at five locations along the border, burning tires and throwing rocks and firebombs at Israeli troops who responded with tear gas and occasional live fire.
Five protesters were killed and another 170 were injured in the clashes with IDF troops, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said.
In a statement following the launching of rockets at Israel Friday night, the PIJ said: “The resistance can not stand idly by in the face of the continued killing of innocent people in cold blood by the occupation…and the continued shedding of the blood of peaceful civilians.”
It would be the first time Gaza terror groups have explicitly used rocket attacks in response to deaths at the border since regular violent protests began in March, Hadashot news reported.
Earlier this week, a rocket was launched at southern Israel from Gaza, triggering sirens in a number of communities in the Eshkol region, ending a week-long stretch of relative calm in the coastal enclave. In response to that attack, the IDF said it hit eight Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, including training bases and a weapons production facility.
The ramped up tensions are likely to complicate the mission of Egyptian mediators, who have intensified their shuttle diplomacy to achieve calm and prevent a full-blown conflict between Gaza’s Hamas rulers and Israel.
Weekly large-scale riots by Gazans, and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers, have become a mainstay along the Strip’s security fence since March 30, as part of a Hamas-led effort known as the “March of Return.”
These demonstrations take place each Friday, regularly sending massive amounts of thick smoke into the Israeli communities nearby, as Palestinians burn tires along the border and send incendiary devices affixed to balloons into Israel to spark fires.
The period since March 30 has also included a number of significant flareups and extended clashes. Another rocket launched from the Gaza Strip last week struck a home in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, causing significant damage, but no injuries as the family inside had reached their bomb shelter in time.
In recent weeks, the situation along the border has grown more precarious, as indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas — with the Egyptian military and United Nations acting as intermediaries — have reached a critical turning point.
Israel has called for a cessation to all violence, including both the clashes on the border and the daily arson attacks that have burned large swaths of land in the south, in exchange for certain economic incentives and an easing of the blockade around the coastal enclave, which is imposed by Israel to prevent Hamas importing weapons.
We need to reconsider every response to rocket fire. Rocket fire is like the V2 rockets on London in WWII; it was a question of fire and forget, with no real sense of a particular target. Each rocket the IJ or Hamas fire into Israel can potentially kill a large number of people. It is not just luck that prevents them from winning at this game. However, the fact that Israel cares enough about its residents that it builds protective shelters (by law, every home has a bomb-proof shelter) and invents Iron domes is not an excuse. This is like asking somebody to shoot you when you have a Kevlar vest. Sooner or later, you will be hurt, most likely immediately and badly.
Israel needs to prosecute every missile as a case of at least attempted murder and respond appropriately. If the residents of Gaza like their government, they’re welcome to keep it, but it is time Israel stops warning them every time an attack is under way.
The most important thing i get from this report is…as follows. There are 3 reports from different sources The complete report says that….
30 rockets were fired of which the Iron Dome shot down 10. An involved LT.Col said that to date 14 rockets had been fired of which Iron Dome shot down 10…….and The spokesman from Sderot said that so far 8 rockets had been fired of which Iron Dome shot down 6.
This is a worrying progressive group of reports, because is shows conclusively that Hamas has improved the accuracy of it’s rockets exponentially. And this is now a real strategic threat to the State. a 33% accuracy … a 70% accuracy and an 80% accuracy. This is VERY BAD NEWS. And the IDF is still warning people to get out before they bombard Hamas buildings…….