A look back at the day so far

...If there was no rocket fire from this non-disputed enclave, there would be no Israeli response, and nobody would be dying. The sorry fact is that both before and after Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, terrorists in the coastal enclave have been firing rockets indiscriminately into Israel, gloating when they maim Israelis and crying foul to the international community when Israel hits back and, inadvertently, hurts the Gaza civilians whom the terror groups have placed in harm’s way.

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
08 July '14..

Israel's formal counter to the missile war waged against us by the terrorists of Hamas now has a name as of midnight this past night: Operation Tzuk Eitan [Hebrew: מִבְצָע צוּק אֵיתָן] which the IDF is translating as Protective Edge.

It's been a violent and dangerous day, and there's no reason to think the acts of terror from Hamas and the other jihad-minded grouplets in its domain are about to taper off. Quite the contrary.

This evening, there's an indication of how dangerous this can be, with the report an hour ago of a failed infiltration by Palestinian Arab terrorists in the vicinity of Kibbutz Zikim (main outputs: mangos, avocados. dairy products, polyurethane) on the Mediterranean sea shore a few kilometers north of the northwestern end of the Gaza Strip. Israel Radio's news report says they came by sea and were met with fire from an IDF force: an IDF soldier was lightly injured in the exchange. Police, according to Times of Israel

have been deployed in great numbers to the area to prevent additional infiltration attempts from the Gaza Strip into Israel. [Times of Israel tonight]

At Israel National News, they say four infiltrators were killed but the authorities are taking no chances that there might be others as yet undetected. So the roads to and around Zikim are now closed.

Tzeva Adom incoming rocket warning sirens were heard throughout Israel's central metropolis earlier this evening: Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Kfar Shmaryahu, Rishon Letzion, Nes Tziona, Beit Shemesh, Rehovot, Gadera, the Gezer region, Yavne and other communities. Israel National News says there was a barrage of "several rockets", and that the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system made one or more mid-flight hits. No damage has yet been reported. That report says these were M75 rockets, "a domestic creation produced by Hamas in Gaza which features a long range", launched from Beit Hanoun in Gaza. At Times of Israel, they say Palestinian Islamic Jihad

has taken responsibility for the rocket fire on Tel Aviv. The rocket was most likely an M-75, which is made in Gaza and based on the Iranian Fajr rocket.

(Continue)

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