The IDF took out some major terrorists, including some that were released in the prisoner swap for Gilad Shalit. The result?
Southern Israel under heavy fire: Four people were wounded after a rocket exploded in southern Israel’s Eshkol region Friday night.
One victim was said to be in serious condition; a second man suffered moderate wounds and two other men were lightly wounded.
Earlier, the Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system shot down at least two Grad rockets fired at the southern Israel communities of Ashdod and Gan Yavne, as Gaza terrorists continued to pound southern Israel Friday night.
And why the barrage?
The latest round of fighting in the Gaza region began Friday afternoon, after the IDF targeted a vehicle traveling in Gaza City, killing Popular Resistance Committees’ Secretary General Zuhir al-Qaisi and another senior group figure recently freed in the Gilad Shalit swap.
The army said al-Qaisi was in final stages of planning a major terror attack at Israeli targets on the Egypt border.
The AP, of course, blames Israel. Note the cause-and-effect:
An Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Friday killed the commander of the militant group behind the abduction of Gilad Schalit, an Israeli soldier who was held captive for more than five years and freed in a prisoner swap for more than 1,000 Palestinians.
The midday attack marked the highest profile Israeli strike against the coastal strip in several months and immediately sparked retaliatory rocket attacks toward Israel — raising the specter of a violent escalation after a period of relative calm.
Just the narrative. It’s Israel’s fault. Terrorists about to attack Israel getting killed? Well, that might cause the terrorists to attack Israel. It’s lose-lose all the time in Israeli Double Standard Time.
“Relative calm” is a nice locution. It means Hamas isn’t lobbing as many rockets at Israel as it did, ergo any Israeli response breaks that relative calm.