Tag Archives: Rockets

Hamas Breaks Ceasefire

The terrorist group Hamas has once again broken a ceasefire, the eleventh that the group has either rejected or violated.

Rockets from the terrorists rained down on Beersheba during the mid-afternoon local time.  Explosions were also seen near Ashdod and Ashkelon within an hour after the initial attack on Beersheba.

“Today’s rocket attack on Be’er Sheva is a grave and direct violation of the ceasefire to which Hamas committed itself,” Mark Regev, spokesman for Prime Minister Netanyahu, posted on Twitter.  “They shoot rockets into Israel yet demand a more normal relationship?  They must first commit to non-violence.”

The Israeli Defense Forces were organizing a response that was scheduled to begin toward the evening hours on Tuesday.  Initial reports showed movement toward the northern part of Gaza and at vessels in the waters near northern Gaza.

The negotiating team in Cairo has been recalled to Israel because of the attack according to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office.

Hamas Threatens To End Current Truce

Hamas has announced they will not extend the current cease-fire unless they see “real progress” during negotiations in Cairo.

Hamas did not make clear what they would consider “real progress.”

Egypt had presented a revised draft for a long-term cease-fire that would be implemented in two steps by early 2015.  Hamas rejected the deal outright.  It would have called for Israel to open border crossings and withdraw troops from the buffer zone in the Gaza strip.  Deals for prisoners, an airport and seaport would be delayed for a month in negotiations.

The current cease-fire ends at midnight.

Meanwhile, a reporter for the Associated Press was killed along with a translator working for AP when a rocket shot into Israel from the IDF exploded as technicians were disarming it.  Simone Camilli, 35, had been working with AP since 2005.  An AP photographer, Hatem Moussa, was one of four people seriously injured in the blast.

Camilli is the first foreign journalist to die during the current Gaza conflict.

Hamas Breaks Cease-Fire With Rocket Launch Into Israel

Islamic terrorist group Hamas lived up to their threat and broke the 72-hour cease-fire Friday by launching rockets toward residential areas of Israel.

According to sources within the Israeli Defense Forces, Hamas terrorists fired over 45 rockets Friday morning.  The “Iron Dome” defense system only stopped two of the rockets from striking within Israel.

IDF spokesman said that Israel has resumed air strikes at rocket launching sites in response to the Hamas attacks.

“We will continue to strike Hamas, its infrastructure, its operatives, and restore security for the State of Israel,” Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said in a statement.

Egyptian negotiators have called for a resumption of the cease-fire because negotiations are close to reaching a solution.  However, Hamas has refused to agree to stop their assaults because they demand all of their demands be met.

Israel Pulls All Troops From Gaza

A spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces said that all ground troops had been pulled out of Gaza Tuesday morning as part of a 72-hour cease-fire agreement.

The two sides in the conflict have now sent representatives to Cairo where an Egyptian mediator will shuttle between the two sides to try and work out some kind of deal to bring a lasting peace in the conflict.

Israel had said they would not agree to a cease-fire or any deal until all the Hamas tunnels into the country were destroyed.  IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said that the destruction of 32 tunnels was completed late last night.

Lerner also told reporters that at least 3,500 rockets from Hamas had been fired into Israel at the time the cease-fire went into effect.  He said that Israeli troops were able to destroy at least 3,000 rockets being held in storage during the ground incursion into Gaza.

Hamas has said their demands now include international funding for the rebuilding of Gaza.

Iranian Leader: Only Solution Is Israel’s Destruction

Iran’s supreme leader has been reported by Iran’s official news agency as saying the only way to achieve peace in Gaza is to destroy Israel.

The declaration came the same day that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said they have a new missile system that can completely destroy Israel’s Iron Dome system and leave them vulnerable to rocket attacks by Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a group of college students Israel’s existence is the reason for the conflict in Gaza.

“These crimes which are beyond imagination and show the true nature of the wolfish and child killer regime, which the only solution is its destruction,” the ayatollah declared to his audience. “However, until that time, the expansion of the armed resistance of the Palestinians of the West Bank is the only way to confront this wild regime.”

He then attacked the U.S. and England for supporting Israel.

“We believe that the West Bank needs to be armed just like Gaza and those interested in the future of Palestine must become active in this field [guerrilla warfare] so that the suffering of the Palestinian people through their strength and their weakness due to the Zionist regime is reduced,” he said. “Some Western countries including America and filthy England defend with clarity the crimes that no ordinary person would. The President of America in the face of these child killings, destruction, torture and suffering of the people in Gaza, with a comical logic states that Israel has the right to defend itself! Don’t the Palestinians have the right to defend their lives and security?”

Hamas Found Storing Rockets In Second School Building

Terrorist group Hamas has been found storing rockets used to attack Israeli civilians inside a school that has been used by the United Nations to teach Palestinian children.

“Today, in the course of the regular inspection of its premises, UNRWA discovered rockets hidden in a vacant school in the Gaza Strip,” the organization said in a statement issued Tuesday. “As soon as the rockets were discovered, UNRWA staff were withdrawn from the premises, and so we are unable to confirm the precise number of rockets. The school is situated between two other UNRWA schools that currently each accommodate 1,500 internally displaced persons.”

While the second time that the U.N. has found terrorist weapons in their facilities twice, no action is being taken against Hamas.  The U.N. found 20 rockets in a school last Wednesday during a routine inspection of a school.

The U.N. gave the 20 rockets last week back to the local government which is controlled by Hamas.

Israel called out the U.N. for their refusal to stop terrorists from attacking their country.

“Time and again, over the years, UNRWA has been abused by gunmen from different terrorist factions who are using UN facilities to stockpile weapons, to fire rockets from, to steal UNRWA humanitarian equipment and to cause damage and fire in UNRWA’s hangars,” a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official told The Times of Israel.

“Against all evidence, UNRWA refuses to acknowledge reality and pathetically attempts to ingratiate itself with Hamas, pretending that nothing serious has happened,” the senior official said. “This is a classic case of beaten-wife syndrome, which we have been witnessing for years from UNRWA. The people of Gaza, and indeed taxpayers from countries who contribute to UNRWA’s budget — including Israel — deserve better.”

Israel Strikes Back After Hamas Rejects Peace Proposal

Air strikes against Hamas rocket launching positions resumed after Hamas flatly rejected a peace proposal from Egypt that would end the fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Israel had approved the peace deal and had de-escalated their forces as per the outline set up by Egypt; however Hamas completely rejected the deal and immediately fired up to 50 rockets into Israel.  Israeli officials then announced they would resume their offensive against Hamas because of the terrorist’s ongoing rocket campaign.

Israeli officials say that no one was hurt during the six-hour window that the IDF had scaled back and Hamas fired rockets into Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would likely intensify their campaign against Hamas because of their rejection of the cease-fire.

“If Hamas rejects the Egyptian proposal and the rocket fire from Gaza does not cease, and that appears to be the case, we are prepared to continue and intensify our operation,” he said in a statement.

While President Obama told a group of Muslim leaders that Israel had the right to defend itself from Hamas’ attacks, Secretary of State John Kerry announced he would skip visiting the region on his way home from talks with Iran in Geneva.