Iron Dome did its job again, but Hamas and its fellow terrorists are shelling Israel on a constant basis. But the war crimes of the terrorists continue:
Meanwhile, the IDF continues to hunt down rocket -aunching cells, which military officials say are operating out of civilian population centers and taking cover in densely crowded areas.
“When Palestinian civilians are killed in these kinds of strikes, the population should only complain to Hamas, which continues to turn its own citizens into a protective vest,” a military official said earlier.
Hamas is claiming it wants a truce. It doesn’t seem to want it that badly, however:
Since Thursday, terror groups in Gaza fired more than 70 rockets, mortar shells and missiles at southern Israel communities. Several rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-rocket system.
Hiding among civilians is their favorite tactic. They’re making triply sure there will be civilian casualties now.
The army said that terrorists in Gaza are making use of public buildings in their attacks and are operating in crowded population centers. A video published by the IDF Spokesman’s Office documented a strike on a rocket launcher hidden in a Gaza cemetery. Several Palestinian civilians were hurt in the attack.
The AP tried for objectivity. Truly, they did. I can tell that they’ve been working harder these days. They even changed their Gaza War boilerplate, which no longer says “at least half civilians” when discussing casualties. The lead of the story is almost objective.
Palestinian militants fired more than a dozen rockets at southern Israel on Saturday and Israeli warplanes killed four militants in the Gaza Strip in the most intense fighting since Israel’s 2008-2009 offensive in the Hamas-ruled territory.
The escalating series of strikes and counterstrikes has killed 18 Gazans since it began on Thursday and the continuing clashes are increasing the probability of a full-scale military confrontation.
Israeli officials said the airstrikes would continue as long as the rocket attacks persist. Hamas officials insisted they were trying to restore quiet, but said they were prepared to fight.
They failed.
The AP story includes three named spokesmen for Hamas, and none for Israel, although it does quote an Israeli analyst on why Israel retaliates for the rocket attacks. Yes, really. Because that’s the kind of reporting that only a professional can do!
The biggest failure, however, is the description of the last two years of attacks by Hamas.
After two years of relative calm, the situation began to escalate last weekend when an airstrike killed three Palestinian militants who Israel said were plotting to carry out a cross-border kidnapping. On Thursday, Hamas militants fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli schoolbus, wounding two people on board, including a teenage boy.
“Relative calm” includes hundreds of rockets fired into Israel, including over 50 rockets on one day last month. The weak response to that is probably part of the reason Hamas thought it could get away with murdering schoolchildren. By the way, in case you were unaware of this, if the attack had taken place a few minutes earlier, thirty children would have been on that bus.
The AP tallies the rocket attacks which will, doubtless, be ignored in next year’s end of the “relative calm” report:
Gaza militants fired 17 Grad-style Katyusha rockets and seven mortar shells into Israel Saturday in what Israeli police said was the biggest single-day bombardment since the Gaza war.
Several missiles fell in uninhabited areas near the southern Israeli cities of Ashkelon and Beersheba, while seven were intercepted by Israel’s new missile shield, Iron Dome. There were no reports of injuries.
Oh, by the way—Hamas is now saying it didn’t mean to target a school bus.